Lesson 11 - Introduction to Poultry

Well, mastering the filleting of the fish had me feeling invincible, but it turns out that poultry is a lot harder because it is fatty and full of water.  Here in America, we pack our chickens in water, which makes them very hard to cut.  At some markets, you can find drier chickens, which cost more, but are a lot easier to deal with.

As we discussed the different types of chicken, Chef Bruno put up a slide of a bunch of chickens with no room to walk around and said, 'these are free range chickens'.  We laughed, but that is probably the truth.  They have room, but they are so close together that they cannot go anywhere.

We made two types of chicken.  One was Sauteed chicken, hunter style and the other was roasted chicken, grandmother style.  We quartered one chicken and trussed the other.

Things to keep in mind while sautéing are: 1. make sure the pan is very hot before the food is added, otherwise it will stick 2. The food to be sautéed should be dry 3. Do not crowd food in the pan 4. Do not cover the pan and 5. Do not shake the pan immediately after adding the food.

Sauteed chicken hunter style is one whole chicken, quartered, with an enriched brown stock and carrots, onions, mushrooms, shallots, brandy, white wine, tomato fondue, butter (of course!), chervil, tarragon and a bouquet garni.  The sauce is very rich.

This is the sauteed chicken, hunter style:

Roasted chicken grandmother style is made with a roasting chicken, oil, butter, onions, carrots, potatoes, pearl onions, bacon, mushrooms, salt, pepper, parsley, white wine, and veal stock.   

Amy roasted our chicken, which is first browned on all sides and then baked in the oven.

This is the final dish:

Both chicken dishes were very good.

The school was having an event with Jacques Torres, so we were able to go see him and take a picture with him.  Jacques Torres is known as Mr Chocolate - his website is mrchocolate.com.  This was a sugar sculpture centerpiece made for his visit:

This is us with Chef Bruno:

And all of us with Jacques Torres:

I had the unfortunate luck to have cut both of my thumbs that night, so I was wearing blue bandages and bandage covers.  When I shook Jacques Torres's hand, he noticed and asked me what happened.  I said that I had cut my thumb.  Chef Bruno said 'luckily she only has two thumbs because she cut both of them' and everyone had a good laugh.  ;)

Next lesson: Duck.