The chicken experiment

Today during our longish walk along the bay I contemplated what to make for supper. Flavors of the memorable chicken I had at the NoMad in NYC came to mind. They flavor the chicken with a mixture of foie gras, truffles, and brioche, an equivalent to flavor nitroglycerine. If you are in NYC and do not mind spending $80 on a chicken for two, I highly recommend the experience.

So here I am, salivating over the memories of the chicken and going over what was in our fridge and pantry. Somewhat not surprisingly, we had no foie gras, no truffles, and no brioche. Ah, the disappointments of the first world.

However, the NoMad experience got my brain going. We did have some chicken drumsticks, which are pretty much my favorite part of the chicken. What can I use to make tasty seasoning for the chicken? There is not much skin on the drumsticks, so how can I get the flavorings in?

The plan formed. We did have some truffle oil. Note that we do keep truffle oil in the pantry, even though some famous chefs claim everyone should avoid it. I claim that it has its place and laugh at the snobbery. Next, tasty fat was needed: Butter will do! Mixing softened butter, some truffle oil, and some salt would give the chicken the flavor.

Without a copious amount of chicken skin, making a favoring paste with brioche crumbs made no sense. This meant that roasting the chicken drumstick made no sense, the flavoring would simply run off. Sous vide, however, allows one to baste the meet continuously in the pouch. That was it, the supper plan was formed.

Not bad at all for the first try. Next time, I will use the torch. Brush the chicken with some butter if you wish.

Here is what I did:

• Set sous-vide circulator to 149F and turn it on.
• If you are using chicken breasts, set it to 147F.
• Prepare a sous vide pouch.
• Mix 1/2 stick of softened butter with a tablespoon or two of truffle oil.
• Using chopped garlic and some herbs like thyme, rosemary, or sage would lead to spectacular results.
• Season six or so chicken drumsticks liberally with salt an pepper.

  

  Chicken really needs seasoning

• You can use chicken breast if thighs if you so desire. I suggest to stick to dark meat only, or white meat only, because they cook at different temperatures.
• Smear the chicken with the butter-oil mixture and place the chicken in the pouch.
• Add any leftover butter-oil mixture to the pouch.
• Seal the pouch. I use the settings for wet food, gentle vacuum, and I use pulse vacuum so that no liquid is sucked out of the bag, clogging and contaminating my vacuum sealer.
• When the sous-vide bath comes to the set temperature, submerge the chicken and cook it for 90 minutes to 2 hours. I went with almost 2 hours.

  

  Chicken sealed in a pouch

• When done, take the chicken pieces out of the bag and set them on a broiler pan and broil at high for 3-5 minutes.
• Alternatively, you can crisp the chicken with your trusty torch and you get to play with fire.
• Server with a nice salad. Or whatever else your heart desires. We had some quinoa pilaf and some lentils, so that was what we used, along with a salad from shaved fennel and apples.

I think the look of the chicken would have been improved if I used the torch. The flavor, however, was spot on, rich and deep, yet not overpowering.

While we are at it, until this point, my favorite way of making chicken drumstick was to simply BBQ them on a medium heat for about 15 minutes, turning by 90 degrees every 4 minutes. It is important to seasons the chicken sufficiently, only salt and pepper are needed, and it helps to toss the chicken in some high-smoking point oil such as avocado oil. The result is on par with a great steak, at least I think so. Of course, having good quality chicken helps - make sure you get at least free-range bird that did its share of roaming around if getting pasture-raised chicken is a challenge. Which it tends to be.