“Short of turning chicken on a spit over live wood
embers, I know of no better process for cooking chicken, nor one that delivers
more satisfying or true flavors,” Paul Bertolli wrote of
this technique, which he calls “bottom-up cooking,” in Cooking by Hand.
You don’t sear, and you don’t roast, and you don’t
grill—you don’t do any of the things we’re taught to do to chicken. Instead, you
lay the chicken, skin side down, in a barely hot pan. Then you leave it mostly
alone for about 30 minutes, flipping only once. The skin becomes impossibly
crisp, enough so to satisfy your darkest fried chicken cravings.
Bertolli’s is a worthy technique to play with, but
Melissa Hamilton and Christopher Hirsheimer of Canal
House have streamlined it for us. They use only thighs, which lie flat,
maximizing the crisping area, and jigsaw easily into a round skillet. Unlike
Bertolli, they also allow for a bit of olive oil to get the process
rolling.
The simplest version of the sauce has only a bit
of minced-up preserved lemon stirred into the pan juices at the end, but you can
play with this technique as you like. Hirsheimer and Hamilton suggest two more
seasoning variations—sherry and mushrooms, or bacon and olives. You can deglaze
and make a gravy or a fancy pan sauce. Or just eat all the chicken as fast as
you can.
Serves 4
1 tablespoon olive
oil
8 bone-in, skin-on chicken
thighs
Salt and freshly ground black
pepper
Rind from half a preserved lemon,
finely chopped
Lemon wedges, for
serving
1 Put the olive oil into a large, heavy skillet over
medium heat. Season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper and add them to the
skillet, skin side down. Cook them like this, without moving them, until the fat
has rendered out and the skin is deep golden brown and crisp, 15 to 30 minutes.
Fiddle with the heat, reducing it to medium-low if the skin begins to burn
before it gets evenly golden brown. Turn the thighs over and stir the preserved
lemon rind into the fat in the skillet. Continue cooking the thighs until the
meat closest to the bone is cooked through, about 15 minutes more. Serve the
thighs and lemony pan drippings with the lemon wedges.
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