I’ve been wanting to try this method of cooking a chicken for a long time, but just haven’t wanted to pay the price of a free-range chicken this big.  While marketing the other day I found on marked down so I thought it was finally time to try this out.

The basic recipe is from Cook’s Illustrated (Published January 1, 2008. )  Since this was the first time that I’ve cooked a chicken by this method, I wanted to follow the recipe rather closely before I try  changes, so all that I altered was the herbs and vegetables:  I used shallots instead of onions and garlic, and  sage instead of the rosemary).  The chicken is browned and in the oven now.

♥♦♥

Later, after the chicken is out of the pot…It’s definitely a keeper recipe.  I’m amazed at how well the seasonings penetrated the bird.  With it sealed up in the pot you don’t get to smell it as you would open roasting, but when you open the pot, it’s a real blast of wonderful smells.

We had this with roasted potatoes and haricots verts, and baked figs for dessert…a simple, but delicious meal.  We had this with Paul Lehrner cuvée Claus 2007 which is 85% Zweifelt and 15% Blaufränkisch.  Wonderful!

Next step is to try this with a game hen or petit poussin to adapt this for single-serving cooking.