There are some occasional exceptions, but typically I don’t buy meat from supermarkets. I think meat should be cut or ground fresh to order and few supermarkets willingly offer that. I also tend to feel, justly or not, that meat from a butcher is typically fresher and better raised. So now that we’ve moved, the only two places within quick walking distance in our new neighborhood exclusively stock Halal meats, that is, meats that follow the dietary restrictions of Islamic law, where the flesh of swine is forbidden. This has caused an increase in our chicken consumption.

Sometimes I see boneless, skinless chicken breasts on sale for cheaper than pork chops would have been, so I can’t pass them up. Unfortunately, chicken breasts need all the help they can get in the flavor department, and having them skinned and boned does little to help these matters. Quite simply, skinless chicken breast is the most bland meat available, and to make matters worse, tends to dry out very quickly.

Our go-to meal at the moment for utilizing cheap chicken breasts is to make chicken paillard. Paillard (pronounced pie-yar) is one of those old school French cooking terms simply denoting something pounded thinly and cooked quickly. Use it to impress your friends! For example, veal scaloppine would be the veal equivalent of chicken paillard. Though the chicken need not be battered, it often is, and it not only helps with textural contrast but keeps the outside of the chicken from drying out as well.

Making paillard is excellent because it is fun pounding on pieces of meat to take out your aggressions, and the process not only makes the meat cook faster, but tenderizes it as well. Typically you’ll find chicken prepared this way served with a tomato sauce (think chicken parmigiana) or piccata style (with lemon and capers) but Shannon loathes capers and would divorce me if I put too many in her food, so I make a sort of hybrid bruschetta to go with it instead. Leftovers tend to get a little soft, but make a decent sandwich served cold with some ham and Swiss.

Chicken Paillard

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, separated and trimmed of excess fat
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 cup bread crumbs
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 ripe Roma tomatoes, diced
• 1 teaspoon capers
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• Handful of basil, chiffonade (rolled up and sliced)
• A few curls of Parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper

1. Take all chicken breast halves and, optionally, slice halfway into the breasts and fold them open (butterfly them). Place the butterflied breasts between two pieces of parchment paper or plastic wrap and lightly pound them using your hand, a meat tenderizer, a rolling pin, a mortar, a large can or the energy of a small child until they achieve a uniform thickness of about 1/4-1/8″, trying not to tear the flesh.
2. Set up a small breading station using three plates or pie tins with the first containing the flour, the second containing the egg and the third containing the bread crumbs. Season all three lightly with salt and pepper.
3. Season the breasts as well with salt and pepper, dip them one by one into the flour to coat, then shake off the excess.
4. Dip a breast into the egg to coat completely, then raise it to drip most of the excess back into the bowl. Press it into the bread crumbs, flip over and try to get the entire surface covered with bread crumbs. Transfer to a plate or tray and repeat with the remaining breasts.
5. Heat a large skillet over medium heat with half the oil and butter. As soon as the butter has melted and ceased foaming, add half of the chicken to the pan, giving it a little shake to prevent sticking.
6. Wait patiently until the chicken appears halfway cooked up the sides, then check to see if a nice brown crust has developed. If so, flip the chicken over and continue cooking for an additional minute or two until they are cooked through. Transfer them to a plate and keep them warm in a low oven while you repeat the process with the remaining chicken breast halves.
7. Combine the tomatoes, capers, olive oil, lemon juice, sugar and basil and season to taste with salt. Unfortunately depending on the acidity/sweetness of the tomatoes you may need more or less sugar and lemon juice, so adjust until it meets your tastes. Serve atop the chicken with curls of Parmesan.

If you’ve ever enjoyed a Thanksgiving dinner, chances are you’re fond of the idea of sitting around a table with a big bird and your family. Food marketers capitalize on this idea constantly with images of families sitting in the comfort of a franchise booth, happily chatting and eating their sauce-slathered chicken with no fewer than two starchy sides and a soda. Swiss Chalet now has a commercial on the TV where the family is thankful that their picnic got rained out so they could eat there instead. I think it’s safe to say that we’re fond of chicken dinners if we prefer them to having a picnic with our family! So I guess the real question is, why should you learn to cook a chicken dinner when you can just go to Swiss Chalet?

Well, there are many reasons, but first I have but one thing to say in defense of chicken franchises that I’ve heard people (OK, not people, vegetarians) criticize. That is, that they inject salt and sugar into the meat, to make it taste better, to make it more addictive, or for whatever purpose it is supposed to serve. I am unaware of whether or not this is actually true, but it would not surprise me if it were. A simple salt-sugar solution, injected or somehow saturated into the meat of a chicken, is called a brine. It’s not really a secret fast food trick, it’s a technique that’s been used for ages for cooking pretty much all Earth-dwelling animals. Your roasted chicken will benefit from a soak in brine as much as a barbecued pork chop will. It helps thoroughly season the meat and retain its juices when it is cooked. Try it some time, just dissolve 1 cup of salt and 1/2 cup of sugar in a gallon of boiling water, let it cool to room temperature and then soak your meat in it for several hours. Remove the meat, discard the brine, rinse it off, pat it dry and cook it however you normally would.

If the chickens prepared at these establishments are in fact brined, it is my opinion that they are yielding little benefit from it. The chickens are cooked and then kept at a warming temperature for so long sometimes that the texture of the meat completely changes. The natural juices of the chicken leech out, the skin starts to wrinkle. The result is unpleasant, but it is served with gravy or barbecue sauce that adequately disguises it. It is no surprise to me that the Western world has adapted a palette for flavorless white meat when this is the chicken they’ve been taught to love.

I am not opposed to the mechanical rotisserie system. I have eaten my fair share of supermarket rotisserie-style chickens. I say rotisserie-style because it’s a total misnomer if you’ve ever had a spit roasted chicken — true rotisserie. They’re convenient and inexpensive. They’re good for quick picnics. The cold leftovers are perfect for instant sandwiches and salad toppings. When they’re fresh, they make reasonable meals when you’re too busy to actually cook something. When they’re not fresh, they too fall victim to heat lamps and leave behind a shriveling, leathery carcass. You’re better off eating something else from the deli case at that point.

So, you should learn to roast your own chicken because you will always end up with something that you want to eat. It will taste better. It will be fresh when you’re ready to eat it. You’ll know exactly what is and what’s not going into it, which means you can flavor it however you want and and keep preservatives, hydrogenated oils and excess salt and sugar out of your food. Not only will your end result be healthier and more flavorful, but it will be cheaper, too. At the Portuguese market across the street from my loft, where I often do my shopping strictly based on close proximity and value for my money, I can buy a halal chicken for $4.99. I don’t really understand the prevalence of halal products next to the bacon and Portuguese pork sausages in the cooler, but a $4.99 chicken is a good deal. These are broiler-fryer chickens, ranging around the 3 pound mark, which is the perfect size for a chicken. Perfect, that is, for cooking quickly and replacing those over-cooked supermarket rotisserie chickens.

Roasting a chicken is not difficult and it need not be scary. This method of roasting a chicken requires a little bit of prep work, but it cooks faster and produces succulent meat with crispy skin, so it is worth it.

Quick Roasted Chicken

• One 3-4 pound broiler-fryer chicken
• 1/2 cup marinade*
• 2-3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• salt and pepper

1. Adjust your oven rack to the second-highest setting, about 8″ away from your broiler and preheat the broiler to high.
2. Remove any twine the chicken may have been trussed with and any giblets that might be in the cavity. Wash the bird and pat it dry with paper towel.
3. Butterfly the chicken using either of the methods outlined below**.

Gently pry the skin away from the meat with your fingers. You want to be able to season the meat with your marinade and then use the skin to protect it from burning, so try not to completely remove it from the bird or tear it. Make sure you pry the skin away from every part you want to eat, which should be all of it. Some places are hard to reach but the end result will be worth it.

4. Massage the marinade into the meat, making sure to get into the hard to reach places in the legs and all the way to the back. Recover the meat with the skin as well as possible.
5. Rub the skin with vegetable oil and season liberally with salt and pepper. This works best with two people, since one can turn the bird as the other seasons, but do what you can to cover as much of the skin as possible.
6. Put the chicken skin-side up on a high-rimmed baking sheet or a roasting pan and pop it in the oven. A little trick I learned from Alton Brown is to pry the oven door open because some ovens automatically turn the broiler off when it reaches a certain temperature. You want it to stay as hot as possible because we’re trying to cook this thing as quickly as possible and yield crispy skin, which is delicious.

Don’t forget to wash your hands really well with soap and water.

7. Within 10 minutes, you should hear a lot of sizzling. If the skin is starting to crisp up and get brown, grab your trusty oven mitts, take the chicken out and turn it over. If not, wait a couple more minutes, it shouldn’t be long. If there is a lot of fat that has dripped off the bird, discard it to an empty can. You can use this fat to roast potatoes in, which is fantastic, but if you don’t do it the same night as the chicken you’ll probably want to just throw it away.
8. In another 10 minutes, this side should also be browned. Remove the chicken from the oven, flip over so that the skin side is exposed once more, drain the pan again and reduce the oven temperature to 450 degrees.
9. Return the chicken to the lower portion of the oven and roast it until it is done. If you’ve got an oven thermometer, it should register at around 170 degrees in both the thigh and the breast. I would estimate this will take about 30-40 minutes longer. If you notice that the skin is starting to blacken instead of brown, cover it tightly with tinfoil, unless you’re into the Cajun thing, then just ignore the smoke.
10. When the chicken is cooked, remove it from the oven and let it rest. This means don’t poke it any more, don’t try to carve it, don’t even touch it for at least 15 minutes. The house will smell fantastic and you’ll be starving, but it’s crucial to wait. All those juices that run all over your counter when you cut into it too soon could’ve been locked into the meat. This is key! LET THE MEAT REST. THEN carve it and eat it.

*Marinade

The marinade pictured is simply a Portuguese rub called vinha d’alho that I picked up at the supermarket. It’s a blend of red peppers, garlic, wine, bay leaf and salt. Shannon says it tastes just like the Portuguese grills here, which stands to reason. Piri piri would also be a good option. You’ve got seemingly unlimited options for what to use in its place. Barbecue sauce, herb butter, tomato sauce, pesto, teriyaki sauce, curry paste, leftover tuna salad… basically anything that will supply flavor and moisture to the chicken.

**Butterflying Method #1

Lay the chicken on its back and, with a sharp knife, cut through the skin and flesh on both sides of the breast bone. Remove the breast bone and lay the chicken flat, skin side up.
This is the best way to butterfly the chicken for ease of prying the skin back, making it easier to season the meat. I also find it generally cooks faster and more evenly. The downside is that it does not carve as easily.

**Butterflying Method #2

The second way is basically the same procedure, upside down. Lay the chicken on its breasts and, with a sharp knife or kitchen shears, cut on either side of the back bone. Remove the back bone and lay the chicken flat, skin side up.
This is the best way to butterfly the chicken for ease of carving, since you can simply cut away the legs (thigh and drumstick) and then slice down the center of the breasts to easily portion the whole chicken into four.

When you’re removing the bones, you don’t have to be pretty about it. Just rip that bone out. You’re looking for a quick dinner here. Rustic is fine if you’re cooking for nobody special, like yourself, friends and/or family. If there’s an important guest, roast the chicken whole with pieces of tinfoil strategically placed to make it look like it is wearing a bikini. I have not tried this yet myself, presumably because I’ve never had important company, but perhaps I will make a post about this one day in the future.

I like to continue using the knife or shears to cut around the joint or snip off the wings and remove them entirely. I can then use them for stock or, hey, chicken wings. You’ll have to make quite a few roasted chickens to gather enough chicken wings to make it worthwhile, but that’s why your fridge comes attached to a freezer. You don’t necessarily have to remove them, but they’ll basically just cook so quickly that they’ll burn from being so close to the heat or, at best, get really tough. It’s up to you. I don’t know anyone that tries to fight for the wings when it’s carving time.

Since there is a lot of downtime while the chicken is just roasting away, you have plenty of time to prepare some side dishes for your meal or catch up on syndicated episodes of Seinfeld. What’s the deal with those rotisserie chickens, anyway?

1 teaspoon ginger puree
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
3 tablespoons orange juice
1 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 cooked chicken breast, thinly sliced
3/4 cup bean sprouts
2 cups lettuce
1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped
1 cup pineapple, cubed
salt and pepper

1. Combine the ginger, garlic, cilantro, soy sauce, vinegar, orange juice, lime juice and brown sugar. Season to taste with salt and pepper, adjust seasoning if necessary.
2. Marinate cooked chicken in the dressing in the refrigerator for about an hour.
3. Combine bean sprouts, lettuce, basil and pineapple. Pour chicken and dressing over salad and toss to combine. Serve immediately.

Makes 4 servings

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon ghee
1 medium onion, sliced
2 pounds skinless chicken pieces
6 medium tomatoes, chopped
1/4 cup ground cashews or almonds
1 dried red chili
1 teaspoon garam masala
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 green cardamom pods
1 teaspoon ginger puree
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
2/3 cup plain yogurt
salt and pepper

1. Heat olive oil and ghee in a large pot over medium heat and add the onion, sautéing until tender.
2. Add the chicken and fry until lightly browned on all sides, then add the tomatoes and a generous pinch of salt.
3. Grind together cashews, chili pepper, garam masala, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, garlic and bay leaf. Stir the spices into the yogurt.
4. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until sauce has thickened and chicken is tender, about 45 minutes.
5. Serve over rice and garnish with fresh cilantro, if desired.

Makes 4 servings

1 cup butter, cubed
1 small onion, minced
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon ginger puree
2 teaspoons turmeric
1 black cardamom pod
1 cinnamon stick
1 whole clove
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat, being careful not to brown.
2. Once melted, raise heat to bring the butter to a boil and stir in the onion, garlic, ginger, turmeric, cardamom, cinnamon, clove and nutmeg. Reduce the heat to a simmer and leave uncovered until the milk solids have separated, about 30 minutes.
3. Strain the clarified (clear) part of the butter and discard the milk solids.
4. Heat prepared butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and brown lightly on both sides, then reduce heat to a simmer, cover and cook until chicken is cooked through to center and juices run clear when pierced with a fork. Serve with excess butter from pan.

Makes 4 servings