Culinary Disasters

Cooking this chicken in salt dough creates a visually stunning, tender, and moist chicken by sealing in all the juices while cooking.  The salt dough also does not impart a strong taste of salt to the chicken.   I still do not add any extra salt to this dish even when making the sauce.

There are four simple steps to this recipe.  First thing is to make the dough, then stuff the chicken with aromatics, wrap the chicken on a baking pan in the salt dough, and after the chicken has been cooked make a simple sauce from the juices and vegetables. 

The dough will dry out very quickly so make sure you use it within 15-20 minutes after making it. 

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

For the salt crust you are going to need:

• 8 cups of all-purpose flour
• 2.5 cups of Kosher salt
• 2 TB of black pepper
• Water to bring it all together (I used about 3.5 cups)

Combine the flour, salt, and black pepper in a large bowl or as I did it in the KitchenAid mixer.  Turn the speed to 1 to combine everything.

Slow add in the water 1/2 to 1 cup at a time and once the dough has started to come together turn off the mixer and combine by hand into a ball.

Roll out 1/3 of the mixture onto the bottom of an oven safe pan into about 1/2 inch thickness.

Reserve the other 2/3 of the dough.

For the chicken you are going to need:

• 1 whole chicken
• 1/2 of a white onion medium dice
• 1 stalk of celery medium dice
• 1 carrot medium dice
• 3 cloves of garlic finely diced
• 1 TB of fresh rosemary chopped finely
• 1 TB of fresh thyme leaves
• Couple slices of lemon cut into quarters
• 2 bay leaves

Combine everything and stuff into the cavity of the chicken.

Place the stuffed chicken onto the pan with the bottom layer of the salt crust.  Place a leave in thermometer in the breast of the chicken (remember always go by an internal temperature not a time).  Take the remaining 2/3 of the dough and roll it out to fit over top of the chicken to seal it up.  Make sure to crimp where the bottom and top crust meet to create a good seal.  Brush this with a beaten egg if you would like (this does nothing for the cooking but gives it a nice brown crust).

Place the chicken in the oven till the thermometer reads 155-160 (about 1.5 hours).  Remove from the oven and let it sit for 10-15 minutes.

After 10-15 minutes of resting take a sharp knife and cut around the base of the crust and remove the chicken.

For the simple sauce you are going to need:

• Couple strips of bacon cut into 1 inch sections.
• Stuffing mixture from the chicken with the bay leaves and lemons discarded
• 1/2 cup of dry white wine 
• 1/2 cup of chicken stock
• Liquid that is left in the pan with the salt crust from cooking the chicken
• 1 TB of cornstarch dissolved into 1 TB of water

Over medium heat place the bacon in a skillet and cook till crispy.

Add in the stuffing mixture and cook till softened (about 5 minutes).

Add in the 1/2 cup of wine and bring to a boil.  Once at a boil add in the 1/2 cup of chicken stock along with any liquid left from the cooking pan and let this cook till reduced by 1/3 (about 5 minutes).

Stir in the tb of cornstarch dissolved in water and bring to a boil.  Once at a boil shut off the heat and remove the pan from the heat.

Carve the chicken and serve with the sauce poured over top.

Tags: chicken, pork, All //