Chicken in a Salt Crust

Chicken is hip. Rightly so. Because there’s little that beats a juicy, tender chicken. In my latest book – Handbook for the Perfect Chicken – I explain how to make a superior chicken dish at home. Part 5 in a series: chicken in a salt crust.

The salt crust in which you cook the chicken works like a kind of mini oven. The crust ensures that the flavors and juices are retained optimally. The result is an incredibly tender and juicy chicken. Bonus: when you break the hard crust at the table, the aromas are fully released.

Method

Ask your butcher or poultry specialist for a beautiful free-range chicken.

Preheat the oven to 200 °C. Mix the sea salt and flour. Separate the eggs and add the egg whites and water to the flour-and-salt mixture. Knead everything firmly until you have a smooth dough. You can also make a crust using only salt, but the salt dough becomes nicely pliable when flour is used, making it easier to shape around the chicken.

Fill the chicken cavity with shallots, garlic, lemon, thyme and rosemary. To add the butter filling, loosen the skin from the meat. Do this with your fingers or by sliding a spoon, rounded side up, under the skin. Work carefully so the skin does not tear. Using your fingers (or a piping bag), apply the butter to the chicken and massage it evenly under the skin, including over the legs. Truss the chicken for even cooking in the oven.

Line the roasting tin with a sheet of baking paper. Cover the bottom with a 1 cm-thick layer of salt dough. Place the chicken on top and cover the bird completely with the remaining salt dough. The crust should be equally thick everywhere. Press the dough crust firmly into place; it must seal hermetically to prevent moisture from escaping and flavor from being lost.

Roast the chicken in the oven until cooked through, approximately 90 minutes. Remove the chicken from the oven and let it rest for 15 minutes.

Place the chicken on a platter and serve at the table. Break the crust with a heavy rolling pin. Remove the pieces of crust and brush any remaining salt off the chicken. Carve the chicken and divide the bird into pieces.

tip: you can also包 vegetables with the chicken.

See part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4 of the series here

Image: Sven Benjamins

Handbook for the Perfect Chicken

Marcus Polman
€ 16,95
Fontaine Uitgevers