Poulet: more than 50 remarkable meals that exalt the honest chicken

244 Pages·2011·60.938 MB·English

by  LeFavour, Cree

poulet

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More than 5o Remarkable Meals That Exalt
the Honest Chicken
by Cree LeFavour

Photographs by France Ruffenach
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Chicken is one of the world’s main sources of protein. How yo u
treat it matters, for it can make the simplest or most sophis-
ticated of meals.
In Poulet, Cree LeFavour’s ode to this delicious bird, 150 recipe s
breathe new life into the quotidian chicken supper. Globe-
trotting in scope, recipes are organized into chapters by
flavor profile, and, within the chapters, into sets that make
a perfect meal.
American Chicken celebrates the forthright nature of regiona l
cooking in the United States, with Southern-inspired Grilled
Thighs with Blistered BBQ Sauce and satisfying Chicken Pie.
Bistro Chicken celebrates the joie de vivre found in creamy
sauces, lashings of tarragon, and generous application of
shallots and wine. Latin Chicken encompasses tacos, arepas,
enchiladas, a zingy jerk, and a rich authentic posole. Turn
to the East or South Asian chapters when you need an exotic
taste of India, Thailand, Burma, Vietnam, or Nepal. And travel
the sunny cultures of the Mediterranean and Africa with
dishes as diverse as Bedouin Stew, Piri Piri Kuku, or Pre -
served Lemon Chicken with Olives.
Salads, grains, breads, and vegetables round out the meal,
and are elegantly matched to each chicken dish. From Almond
Couscous to Lime-Cilantro Succotash, the sides are as inter-
esting as the main course! And Cree’s amiable, encouraging
introductory notes makes each combination so irresistible,
there will be a new taste of poulet on your plate every week.
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TA B L E

OF I N T R O D U C T I O N 6

CONTENTS
A M E R I C A N B I S T R O
CHAPTER
2
CHAPTER
1
CHICKEN 23
CHICKEN
6 5
LATIN 105 CHAPTER
3
CHICKEN

E A S T A S I A N 1 3 9 CHAPTER
4
CHICKEN
M I D D L E
S O U T H
CHAPTER
CHA5PTER 6 E A S T E R N
A S I A N
AND
A F R I C A N
CHICKEN 171
CHICKEN
I N D E X 235
203
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— FLAVOR AND STYLE: — years—Rube Goldberg—like steps that make
no sense for the home cook trying to get
dinner on the table or deal out an awesome
MY KITCHEN TO YOURS
meal at a dinner party.
So think of what sounds delicious and cook
I wrote Poulet by cooking chicken the way I it, whether it’s a spicy Thai sandwich or a
like to eat it, with the side dishes I dream Japanese stew or a big pile of fried chicken.
about—lots of vegetables and salads and What I crave is all right here: bright, asser-
starchy profundities like potatoes, rice, tive flavors that come from spices like cori-
and couscous. Anyone who has eaten my cook- ander, cardamom, cumin, and mustard seeds.
ing more than once will see me in these I crave chiles of all kinds—sweet, hot,
recipes. Exotic curries, crazy-spicy soups, and a little of both. I crave butter, fresh
elegant French sauces—I’m there. You’ll herbs, the taste of raw shallots, and the
also recognize me by what’s not in the book, spicy crunch of a radish. I crave perfect
notably, the absence of a lot of tedious lettuce and the sting of green, unfiltered
instructions and fussy, unnecessary steps. olive oil mixed with fresh lemon juice. I
Because dinner is always getting started dream about crispy, salty skin clinging to
later than it should at my house, I need to fatty chicken thighs. You’ll find all these
be efficient. I rely on great ingredients, things in abundance in Poulet. Producing
simple techniques, and surprising combi- big flavors is my ambition in the kitchen.
nations to make my food taste fresh and Make it yours.
vigorous.
I grew up in a restaurant family that did
Think of the no-knead bread revolution a lot of traveling. My father was an accom-
that swept home baking in the past decade. plished chef who taught me—in the kitchen
You can get great flavor, an amazing crust, and at tables around the world—to be a
and a perfect crumb at home, as it turns fearless eater and an equally fearless
out, without the fuss, bother, and time cook. Food was always fun and always worth
required to knead the dough, and without talking about in my family. I hope that ease
even covering it to keep the draft off. and enthusiasm comes across in my recipes,
Bread-making didn’t need to be so hard! inspiring your results in the kitchen to
taste better than you thought possible.
Along the same lines, cooking chicken, rice,
or vegetables often doesn’t need to be as A central part of the idea behind Poulet was
hard as you may have thought, either. A lot to have it be appealing and useful to the
of silliness has crept into recipes over the loyal cooks who put dinner on the table
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ppoouulleett
every night—specifically those countless to achieve, putting them within reach of
devotees of chicken’s versatility and afford- beginners and everyone else who’s pressed
ability as a source of organic protein. With for time. If you can be vigilant about every
chapters organized to reflect how culinary ingredient, your food will show it. A lot of
traditions encompass broad geographic chicken recipes are hurt by less-than-fresh
regions and the flavors that define them, ingredients. Why use dried herbs, canned
I’ve interpreted combinations and appro- tomatoes, or frozen vegetables when you can
prated ingredients, kitchen styles, and do better—and without much more effort.
traditions from Asia, Africa, India, Europe,
Whether it’s summer or winter, a big dinner
the Americas, and the Middle East. Despite the
for eight or a weeknight family meal around
title, the aesthetic that defines Poulet is
the kitchen table, what we choose to eat is a
American—we have a knack for absorbing,
growing part of how we define our place in
churning, and redefining diverse flavors
the world. I see that world, and the wealth of
and styles from around the world. From a
flavors and ingredients in it, as a complex
spicy Sichuan Chicken Hot Pot (page 152) to
reality that can become—with the help of a
the luxurious restraint of Truffled Roast
good recipe, a sharp knife, and an engaged
Chicken (page 95) eaten slowly and washed
mind—the perfect meal. And that is what I
down with an earthy Rhône red wine, Poulet
hope will make Poulet a trusted resource in
has it all for chicken lovers—and that
your kitchen.
means wherever you come from and whatever
you like to eat, you can cook it yourself,
usually in under an hour. — EATING SEASONALLY —
Every recipe in Poulet is rooted in my
belief that anyone can cook—and cook well.
This conviction makes for an ideal marriage,
In rural Idaho in the early 1970s, I lived
in the kitchen and elsewhere, between the
with my family on a dude ranch that we had
practical (what we know we can make) and
transformed into a restaurant. We grew our
the dreamy (what we want to eat but aren’t
own vegetables and herbs; raised chickens,
sure we’re up to cooking). Despite my desire
pigs, and rabbits for slaughter; cured bacon;
for the fresh, the new, and the most deli-
milked cows; made butter; and raised geese,
cious, I’m still very attuned to the prac-
goats, and ducks for their livers, milk, and
tical necessity of getting dinner on the
meat. I slopped the pigs, milked the cow
table quickly amidst the chaos of crazy,
and the goat, plucked the freshly killed
overbooked lives.
chickens, played with the baby rabbits, and
A few words to keep in mind: Don’t be intimi- collected the eggs from our flock of layers.
dated by long lists of ingredients. In most I understand that fresh ingredients aren’t
of the recipes here, everything goes in one a gimmick and that local, sustainable eat-
pot with minimal preparation and a method ing is an ethical choice we make every
that will be familiar to many. I’m unapolo- day. The ingredients we use, when combined
getic about my basic adherence to simple with simple kitchen methods and attention
French kitchen techniques; I like them to detail, make the difference between just
because they work and because that’s how I okay and surprising, memorable results. I
learned to cook. I’ve also worked to devise know; not everyone is lucky enough to have
methods to make complicated flavors easier access to the resources that make these
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introduction
choices possible. There’s not a Whole Foods — SUSTAINABLE EATING: —
on every corner. Do the best you can. Every
little bit helps.
SMALLER, ORGANIC, HUMANE-
I support local farmers as much as pos-
CERTIFIED PORTIONS OF PROTEIN
sible. I go to the farmers’ market, visit
farm stands, and, whenever I can, I buy pork,
chicken, and beef from small farms nearby.
Do I buy bananas? Yep, and where I come Americans eat too much meat. I’m definitely
from they are never in season and never part of the problem—I’ve written not just
local. But I don’t buy berries flown in from this chicken book, but a steak book as well!
South America in the middle of a January I’m not apologetic about being an omnivore.
snowstorm, no matter how tempted I might be. I’d like to think I’m flexible but conscious
Without being a fanatic about it, I believe of the choices I make when it comes to eat-
that food is seasonal. I choose to eat fruit ing meat. I’ve kept a small flock of layers
that grows closer to home in its proper for more than a decade. They live a pretty
season. Satsumas are to January what rasp- happy life. I’ve killed and eaten a few espe-
berries are to August—the perfect fruit. cially aggressive roosters over the years—
the kind that attack little kids right at
These choices we make every day are politi- eye level—because that’s what you do if you
cal ones. They’re driven by the conviction keep livestock. I don’t much like the process
that we shouldn’t be flying berries halfway of slaughtering, bleeding, plucking, and
around the world. In part, these are eco- eviscerating a chicken, but I think it would
nomic decisions; those January berries cost be a good thing if more of us were forced to
twice what they do in July. High-minded rea- look dinner in the eye before we ate it (at
sons aside, I choose not to buy raspberries least once in a while).
that have been shipped halfway around the
world because they often taste more like
— THE CHICKEN —
airplane food than fresh fruit. My reasons,
then, are in turn pragmatic, practical,
aesthetic, political, and purely whimsical. REVOLUTION
Perhaps the simplest answer is that I don’t
buy berries—or most fruits and vegetables—
THAT IS POULET
out of season because I so look forward to
popping the first one of the year into my
mouth. I’d hate to cheat myself out of that
pleasure!
If this book weren’t called Poulet, I might
have titled it, simply, Thighs. The thigh is
dark meat at its most intense, flavorful
best. Novelist Jim Harrison once wondered
what happens to all the glorious thighs in
America. All restaurants seem to serve is
white meat. Do we send them all to Russia?
he asked. “God, what I’d do for a plate of
thighs,” Harrison wrote. “You know, grilled
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poulet
in paillard form with a sauce made of gar- — SHOPPING FOR —
lic that has been roasted with olive oil
and thyme, then puréed and spread on the
CHICKEN
crisp thigh skin.” I think Harrison would
be happy to see all the thighs in this
book—and not a boned breast in sight. Tired
chicken recipes almost invariably call for what the labels really mean
boneless chicken breasts. Ask the chickens—
they’re tipping over from the weight of the
giant breasts they’ve been bred to develop. You want to buy a chicken that has lived
To go with them, we’re drowning in equally its brief life behaving like a chicken—
imbalanced and bland recipes: chicken pic- with plenty of room for scratching, flapping,
cata, chicken cordon bleu, chicken “Parm.” If pecking, grazing, preening, and roosting
I never see another recipe for breast meat, in and outdoors. Chickens raised this way
never mind stuffed breast meat, I will die taste better and are healthier to eat.
happy. Why eat breast meat when you can eat Besides, looking for birds that have lived
a thigh? Why? what I call “a chicken’s life” makes good
ethical sense.
When I’m not asking you to cook thighs, I’ll
be suggesting you cook a whole bird. Despite Short of raising your own or buying your
my dislike of breast-centric chicken reci- chicken from a local farmer at the farmers’
pes, I do love to buy a whole chicken, which market, the best chicken you can buy is
(of course) happens to come with two breasts. both Certified Organic and Humane Certified.
As you might guess, writing a book like It’s also air-dried. Once you read through
the one you’re holding requires eating a what the various terms really mean, you’ll
lot of chicken. To prevent family mutiny, I understand why you don’t, unless you have
needed to accommodate everyone. My daugh- to, want to look the other way and settle for
ter, Hattie, loves breast meat; my son, Penn, a “natural” chicken. If you can’t afford to
likes the Barney Rubble attitude of a leg; buy Certified Organic chicken, spend extra
I confess to a weakness for crispy wings. on an antibiotic-free Humane Certified bird.
(My husband, Dwight, is an equal opportu- It’s a significant step up from “natural.”
nity chicken-part-eater.) A whole bird offers
Here are brief explanations of the various
all these tastes and, as a bonus, provides
claims you’ll see on supermarket and natural-
a carcass for making stock. So when I call
foods market poultry labels, along with tips
for thighs, feel free to cook a whole chicken
on which words to look for if you want to
cut into eight pieces (don’t be daunted; see
find the tastiest, healthiest, most ethically
page 14)—or vice versa. Just please don’t
raised chicken.
use a boneless breast.
FREE-RANGE VS. PASTURED VS. GRASS-FED:
Unfortunately, these terms are defined by
the United States Department of Agricul-
ture (USDA) in a way that makes them fairly
useless to consumers. For example, a “free-
range” chicken must simply be given access
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introduction