Sunday night means family meal and as our weather has been mild, almost cool, it seemed time to pull out the old chicken coffin, as I call it, and make one of the most delicious chicken preparations I know.
The clay piece has a lid and it's really called a Diable. I prefer coffin. The results are great. You plop a whole chicken in and aromatics and go to town. I tossed some chopped potatoes, onions, garlic and carrots in olive oil. I stuffed the bird with some leftover cilantro, parsely and hoja santa. I dropped a hand full of chopped, dried xoconostle in. Finally a glass of white wine is added.
The pot has a lid and you place it in a 400F oven for two hours. I've found 1 and a half hours, then removing the lid for 20 minutes, does the best job.
The chicken was perfection and I was happy to use my new serving platter from my friend Geraldine, who found it at an estate sale. Not that I'm a snob or a name dropper, but I was very happy to see that it was a vintage piece from Uriarte in Puebla.
This is the third time I've used the pot and it's almost the best chicken I've ever had. The potatoes that are saturated with wine and chicken juices make me a little weak in the knees.
I did try this with xoconostle before but didn't chop them up and they ended up looking like worms. The chopping did the trick and they are much more appealing and the sourness is so perfect with the white wine and heavy chicken goodness. It's going to be a great dinner.
I would love if someone out there tried this with a Romertopf. I've never used one but I think this would be terrific.
We do this all the time with our chicken brick. It’s not the Romertopf brand (it’s from the UK, I forget which brand) but shaped very similarly to yours. I swore up and down I’d never roast a chicken any way but in the iron skillet, but I am a convert, because it’s tender AND crispy AND you get the veggies cooked AND you get the most amazing liquid for gravy (which my British husband loves). I was worried at first that the chicken skin wouldn’t get crispy but that last little bit with the lid off totally does it.
What I’ve been doing after I take the chicken and the liquid out, while the gravy is going and the chicken resting, is putting the veggies (we do carrot, parsnip, whole garlic cloves, onion) back in the oven in a separate dish to get a little caramelization on top. It doesn’t take that long and they are ready just as the gravy’s done.