- A few years ago, I came across a chicken recipe that was so good, so notable, that I considered shoving the rest of the classic chicken dishes I love aside in favor of this poultry paragon. Was I guilty of gushing overstatement? Probably, but humor me for a moment. Four years on, I still think this is pretty much the best chicken recipe of all time.
- Let's take a closer look, shall we? We'll indulge in hyperbole together. This chicken is just that good.
The Recipe
- A few years ago I noticed this rather odd recipe on Jamie Oliver's site. It called for roasting a chicken in a big pot with a pint of milk, a lot of lemon zest, a cinnamon stick, and unpeeled garlic cloves. Milk, cinnamon, and chicken were three things I wouldn't ever think to combine; it sounded like a bad recipe Mad-Lib. And yet its very strangeness enticed me. I was familiar with the Italian method of cooking pork in milk for tenderness and flavor; would this be similar?
To Lid or Not to Lid?
- The first time I ever made this, I had a spacey moment and glibly assumed that since I was cooking a chicken in a pot that that meant the lid should go on. I banged on a lid and put it in the oven.
- An hour later it hit me: was that called for in the recipe? I doublechecked. No. So I ran in and took off the lid for the last half hour of cooking.
Why It's So Good
- While cooking, this chicken smells absolutely divine. The first time I made, my husband groaned when he walked into the house. "What is that?" he asked.
- When I uncovered the pot the chicken was sitting in a pool of creamy pan sauce, the milk having dissolved into small bits of curd and juice. Unlike the curdled milk I was expecting, this looked and tasted more like liquid lemon gold, bathed in chicken juices.
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