Shibari Chicken

I am not a copy cat... I got my copy of Bouchon a full month before I read Carol's post on The French Laundry at Home about T. Keller's roasted chicken method. I had my chicken a full 93 minutes before I saw her post... I swear I am not a copy cat. I even "tusked" my chicken differently.

Looks kinda freaky, but it works.

I didn't actually use the recipe that T.K. has closer to the end of the book. I used the one that's in the front of the book, while T.K. is still waxing eloquent about food.
Ingreedaments: (yes I am aware I misspelled ingredients):
1 chicken (you can easily double this recipe by purchasing 2 chickens)
Salt and Pepper
Unsalted butter
Thyme

I can't really say that I grew this thyme, but I did buy, transplant and manage not to kill it, before I was able to use it.

Set oven to 450°... wait... wait... 'tick" the little light goes out... set kitchen timer for 20 minutes... go fritter around at the computer. The 20 minute wait is so that the oven can "charge". I want my big unglazed tile to suck up some heat so when I crack the door, the shitty little bugger recovers faster. ( I hate my stove/oven. The only thing consistent about it is that it runs 50° hotter than the nob shows. That, kiddies, is the best argument for a $5 oven thermometer)

Once the oven was cranked up, I seasoned the bird. Salt and pepper inside and out. My initial enthusiasm for trussing has since been tempered with the cold hard reality of my hand being too big to fit inside a trussed bird to make sure it is seasoned evenly. 

Into the oven for 45 minutes for my smallish bird.

Tick tock...

45 minutes later, at the sound of the alarm, I attended the bird. It was running clear juice when pierced with an instant read thermometer, which read 169°-172° depending were I poked it. I turned off the oven and started a deviation from the original recipe, which involves adding the thyme to the pan and then pasting the chicken with the pan juices.
I added 1 tsp of butter to a 1 quart saucier. Once the butter had bubbled up I added the thyme. I let it sauté for like 1 minute. Until the thyme was fragrant. Now here is the kicker. I added the juice of a single orange to the saucier. It hissed, bubbled, and boiled for a couple minutes reducing just a mite. I poured it over the bird making sure to get good coverage.

While the chicken rested for a few, I did a quick Lemon Asparagus side dish . Little butter, some asparagus, a lemon or the juice of a lemon. Sauté the asparagus until it starts to take on some color, then squeeze or splash on the citrus. Toss while the lemon reduces to a nice glaze.

I used a little bacon drippings in this post to do the same prep. I don't think I will ever boil asparagus ever again.

My final image is purely to tease you.

It's a really stellar prep for chicken. I am not a big fan of white meat but the pieces in the picture had a little of the run off orange thyme glaze dribbled over them and I had a hard time not over indulging.

To intentionally imitate Carol for a second.
Bird and Produce procured a Whole Foods
Orange for glaze provided in a swag bag from the Microsoft SQL 2008 event in Nashville today. It might be the single coolest thing I got there today.
Music to cook to: I wasn't really paying attention.

To everyone I met at Iron Fork last night: it was great to meet you all. I look forward to more, less awkward, social interactions.

Cheers

Chris