So, EF chefs, I'm faced with a conundrum... My chicken has its feet, quite literally, up its own arse.
Do they stay in or out for roasting? (Since it's already trussed, I'm leaning towards 'in')
So I bought a poulet avec tarses today, not realizing quite what I'd bought. And it turns out that what I bought was a chicken with its feet still attached.
Id vote out, but i never cook chicken trussed as i think opening it all up makes heat circulate more in the cavity for more even cooking.
I'd maybe even remove them to the pan to use to make great gelatinous gravy.
But I'm not trained, so its a guess
I'd definitely undo the chicken and check inside because sometimes there's a plastic bag inside holding the innards and neck.
I also prefer to rinse the chicken with cold water inside and out before seasoning, inside and out.
In.
And always cook trussed, unless you like dry meat.
Tom
Your choice - leave it in and it will cook and be succulent for eating later. Or put in in the roasting pan alongside the chicken and you will end up with crispy feet to chew on. Or, boil it ( along with the giblets etc if they were also inside) and you have a great stock for gravy making.
Below is a link for a recipe for quickly stir frying them - but it does call for brown sugar in the recipe.
Mirfield / Carlos R - don't chickens always come with t'arses?
What's the theory of that, Tom? My experience of that is the opposite and I always put it down to the fact that more hot air circulating in the cavity (because its open) would mean that it would cook more effectively inside and out....so requiring lower cooking time and therefore more moist? It's not scientific though and I'll need to consult McGee tonight to get the scientist view!
I'm guessing you bought in it France. They do like to give you value for money.
I once got dinner at a b&b in France. It was some sort of bird with its head tucked nicely under one wing.
This is indeed a French bird, and a classy one at that. She's a Label Rouge, which means that she's been raised in a responsible way and is higher-quality than the normal chicks I associate with.
Apparently, they leave the feet on to show the quality of the bird. On intensively reared birds these are often ulcerated and diseased (so-called "hock burns"), so leaving these on is a sign of quality of rearing. For Poulet de Bresse, they leave them on so you can be assured that you've got the blue-footed chicken you've paid for.
At least it wasn't tucked up its arse!
Slightly off topic....but those labelled birds in France are a P in the A to clean the label off the skin....who thought of that system??!!
Village Idiot - I laughed out loud when I read your post! Thanks for the humour! Not sure what you should do with the feet though!
Bon appetit!
In the end, laziness won out. The bird went in trussed, and will henceforth be known as Village Idiot's Patented Feet-Up-Its-Butt Chicken .
Mmmmmmmm...
Ew.
Do you eat the genitals, too?
I see you followed the classic Julia Childs recipe of Poulet avec Seahorses ...
It took me a minute to get this joke... but now that I do... LOL!!!
Despite a Google search, I did not find any reference to Poulet avec Seahorses. Explanation please?
A regular occurrence around here
I started with Google as well. But it turns out this is a visual gag. Looks like a seahorse, no?
Thanks for the arrow! I can see the seahorse at last!