Cook Poultry Like A Pro

Preparation Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400° F, placing rack in the middle position.
2. Gently season the bird inside and out with a heavy sprinkling of salt. Tuck the wing tips under the bird and tightly tie the legs together. Set aside allowing the bird to come up slightly from fridge temperature.
3. Cut bacon into ½ cm lardons.
4. Cut carrot and celery into similar ½ cm pieces.
5. Clean and quarter mushroom caps.
6. In a heavy bottom Dutch oven, render bacon lardons over medium heat till golden brown.
7. Add vegetables and sweat until you no longer smell the acidity of the onions and the rest of the veggies begin to cook.
8. Add butter and stir till incorporated.
9. Add flour and cook.
10. Once the flour has cooked out, deglaze with red wine and reduce. Season the braising liquid
11. Gently place the chicken into the pot and add chicken stock. You’ll want the liquid to come up to cover half of the bird or up to the base of the breast bone.
12. Bring to a boil with the bird in the liquid and place into the oven.
13. If the temperature of the chicken is close to room temperature when placed in pot and you’ve brought the liquid up to a boil, the actual cooking time should be quite short. We basically need to cook the legs through and roast the breast meat at the same time.

Brine

Ingredients:

Cacciatore Sauce

Ingredients:

Method

Brine:

1. In a small pan toast coriander and cumin until fragrant.
2. Add water, salt, sugar and bay leaf, and bring up to a simmer.
3. Strain brine into a bowl or container, then add ice. Stir.
4. Place chicken thighs in brine and leave in the fridge for 2 hours. Discard brine after chicken is removed.

Cacciatore Sauce:

1. Wash chicken thighs and pat dry.
2. Toast coriander and cumin in pan, remove and set aside.
3. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to a medium hot pan and sear chicken thighs until golden brown, then remove and set aside.
4. Sweat onions and garlic in the same pan until translucent.
5. Deglaze pan with sake, add coriander, cumin and canned and vine ripe tomatoes, and tomato paste. Stir.
6. Add tamari, chicken stock and dashi to pan and bring up to a simmer.
7. Place seared chicken thighs in the pan and cover with tomato sauce. Cover with a lid and slowly bring up to a simmer.
8. In a separate small pan, season pan roast the carrot then place aside. Do the same with all the coloured peppers, then mushrooms (place all aside).

For Stove Top

1. Cover with lid, simmer on low heat (stir occasionally while adding to pan 2-3 cubes of butter every time) for 30-40 minutes, or until the meat is falling off the bone.
2. Add carrots, peppers, mushrooms, and chili flakes in the pan. Allow to simmer for an additional 10 minutes. Remove from the heat.
3. Stir in yuzu, lemon peel, basil, cilantro, green onion, and sun gold tomatoes. Garnish with bonito and breadcrumbs (optional).
4. Ready to serve.

For the Oven

1. Transfer covered pan to oven, preheated to 375°F, and cook for 50 minutes (stir every 10-15 min. adding butter to pan, 2-3 cubes of butter every time).
2. Remove lid and cook for an additional 10-15 minutes, adding carrots, peppers, mushrooms, chili flakes to pan.
3. Make sure the chicken is tender and falling off the bone, then stir in yuzu, lemon peel, basil, cilantro, green onion, and sun gold tomatoes.
4. Garnish with bonito and breadcrumbs (optional).
5. Ready to serve.

Confit Legs Ingredients

1. Preparation Instructions for Confit Legs

1. Mix all the ingredients for the cure and sprinkle ½ of the mix on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
2. Put the goose legs on top and sprinkle with the remaining of the salt and herb cure. Cover and let sit in fridge for 6 to 8 hours.
3. Rinse the duck legs under cold water and pat dry with a clean kitchen towel or paper towel.
4. Preheat the oven at 250 ° F.
5. Melt the duck fat in a pot and place the 2 duck legs in the melted fat. Cover with a cartouche (a circle of parchment paper) and place in the oven.
6. Cook until you achieve easy movement in the knee joint, approximately 2 to 2 ½ hours.
7. Take the legs out of the duck fat and place on a sheet tray lined with parchment, skin side down.
8. While the legs are still warm but cool enough to handle, carefully remove the thigh bone. Gently press the legs by placing another sheet tray over with a small weight, so that the skin stays flat for searing.
9. Place in the refrigerator.

Poached Pear Ingredients

2. Preparation Instructions for Poached Pear

1. Bring water, sugar and thyme to a boil.
2. Add the lemon juice. Place the pear in the syrup and slowly simmer at low heat for approximately 10-12 minutes, depending on the ripeness of the pear.
3. Remove from the syrup and set aside.

Goose Jus Ingredients

3. Preparation Instructions for Goose Jus

1. Preheat the oven at 350° F.
2. Place the goose bones in a roasting pan and lightly drizzle with canola oil.
3. Roast in the oven for 30-40 minutes, stirring every ten minutes, until the bones are caramelized and golden brown.
4. Drain and discard the fat and set the bones aside.
5. In a skillet or heavy bottom medium size pot, sauté the mushrooms, shallots, garlic and thyme with 1 tablespoons of canola oil on medium heat for 5 minutes, until soft and with very little color.
6. Add the roasted goose bones to the pan and deglaze with the red wine and Madeira.
7. Reduce until almost all liquid has evaporated, to a glaze.
8. Add the chicken stock and veal stock and reduce at a slow simmer until the liquid has reduced by 2/3.
9. You should be left with approximately 200 ml of liquid.
10. Strain through a fine mesh sieve and discard the bones and vegetables.
11. Bring the liquid to a boil and whisk in the cold butter, off the heat.
12. Check the seasoning.
13. Cut the poached pear into small dice and add it to the jus.

Roasted Fall Vegetables Ingredients

4. Preparation Instructions for Roasted Fall Vegetables

1. Preheat the oven at 400° F.
2. Place all the vegetables on a baking sheet lined with parchment and drizzle with olive oil. Season with salt and red chili flakes.
3. Roast in the oven for approximately 20 minutes, stirring from time to time to get an even color or all sides. Cook until tender.
4. Once the vegetables come out of the oven, lightly drizzle with Banyuls vinegar.

5. Preparation Instructions for 1+2+3+4

1. Season the goose breasts with salt on both sides.
2. Place the goose breasts in a large hot non-stick pan, skin side down and reduce the heat to medium/low.
3. Cook for 6-8 minutes, rotating from time to time, ensuring an even coloring and crisping of the skin, while continuously draining off the rendered fat.
4. Flip over and cook for 2 minutes on the meat side. Remove the breasts from the pan and let rest for 5 minutes, loosely covered with a piece of foil.
5. Separate the thigh from the drumstick at the joint. Using the same nonstick pan on medium to high heat, sear the confit goose thighs, skin side down, just enough to reheat and get the skin crispy.
6. Cut both goose thighs in half and slice the goose breasts in ¼ inch slices.
7. Season with Maldon sea salt.
8. Reheat the pear jus. Lay slices of goose on warm plate and serve with a piece of leg, roasted fall vegetables and pear jus.

Main Dishes Ingredients

Preparation Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 250°F , or 225°F if using convection oven.
2. Take your whole duck and wash the outside well, pat dry and season with salt and pepper.
3. Mix honey and sherry vinegar.
4. Place the duck in the oven for approximately 3 hours.
5. After 3 hrs of cooking, start brushing the duck with the honey and sherry vinegar every 30 minutes.
6. Check the duck after 5 hours. The leg should pull away from the body very easily like a confit. If not ready leave in the oven for 1 more hour.
7. Serve on a platter with your favourite grilled vegetables, and roasted potatoes.

Side Dishes Ingredients:

Preparation Instructions

1. Boil the potatoes in heavily salted water till tender, 20 minutes.
2. Blanch the carrots in boiling water for 3 minutes.
3. Cook the beets from cold water and splash of red wine vinegar for 45 minutes and peel.
4. Toss all the vegetables and potatoes in oil and season well with salt.
5. In the last hour of cooking duck, place all vegetables around duck to finish roasting.
6. Remove from oven and let cool for 30 minutes, brush vegetables and duck with the honey and sherry mixture.
7. Serve family style with a fork to shred the meat.

Roasted Squab Ingredients

Preparation Instructions for Roasted Squab

1. Preheat oven to 450°F.
2. Season squabs with salt and pepper.
3. Tie herbs and citrus peels together to form a bouquet garni.
4. Stuff the inside cavity of the squabs with crushed garlic and the bouquet garni. In a large skillet, heat the vegetable oil until shimmering.
5. Add the squabs to the skillet, breast side down, and cook over moderately high heat, turning a few times, until richly browned all over, about 5 minutes.
6. Turn the heat to low and add in the butter and chestnuts. Baste the squabs several times with the melted butter.
7. Put the pan in the oven and cook for 6-8 minutes, or until the breasts are med-rare.
8. Remove the pan from the oven and allow the squabs to rest for 5 minutes before carving.

Treviso is a variety type of Radicchio. You can find this lettuce at your market during the Fall and Winter months. The nature of its flavour can be bitter, so I like to braise it with wine, cream, and balance the bitterness with honey. If you are unable to find Treviso at your local market, this recipe can be replaced with regular radicchio or swiss chard.

Braised Treviso Ingredients

Preparation Instructions for Braised Treviso

1. Remove the outer layers of the Treviso, save the small inner leaves from the center to use as garnish. Chop the outer layers into small pieces. In a small sauce pot, heat the olive oil and cook the finely chopped shallot for 2 minutes, until soft.
2. Add the Treviso and cook for another 5 minutes until the lettuce has become soft. Pour into the pot, the port wine and the red wine, let the wine reduce until only 1 tablespoon if left.
3. Add in the cream and let reduce by half, whisk in the butter, one cube at a time.
4. To finish the sauce, season with honey, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, and a squeeze of orange juice. Before serving, add in the diced Granny Smith apple.

Baked Beets Ingredients

Preparation Instructions for Baked Beets

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Rinse beets under cold water, in a bowl toss with salt and olive oil.
2. Wrap the beets in tin foil and place on a wire rack.
3. Cook beets in oven for approximately 1 hour, or until fully cooked.
4. Let the beets cool down, then scrub off outer layer.

Apple and Celery Ingredients

Preparation Instructions for Apple and Celery

1. Using a Japanese mandolin, slice the apple into thin slices.
2. Using a peeler, peel long thin strips of the celery and keep in cold water for 10 minutes before using.
3. Dress the lettuce with a lemon vinaigrette or use fresh lemon juice and olive oil.