Five hours poultry


Five hours poultry
Perhaps simplest recipe on this site, but what a result! The idea is to cook the bird, without fat, at low temperature, covered, and for a long time. In this way, the poultry cooks so as to be almost like a "confit": soft and very tasty. The effect is more spectacular with duck because it is a rather firm meat, tough even, but with this method it can be cut with a fork like a confit.
This recipe is applicable to big poultry too, it's also a response to questions like "How to cook a turkey?" or "how to cook a capon?".
557 K 4.2/5 (129 reviews)
Grade this recipe:
Keywords:
Last modified on: January 27th 2012
For this recipe: Comment Send to a friend Ask me a question Follow Printable Diaporama
For 1 poultry, you will need:

Change these quantities to make:
Change measures:
Times for this recipe
Preparation: 15 min.
Cooking: 5 hours
All in all: 5 hours 15 min.
When should you start or finish this recipe?
If you start now, at , you will finish around : ?.Change start time
To finish around 7pm, you'll need to have started before: .Change end time

Step by step recipe


Stage 1 - ⌛ 1 min.
Five hours poultry : Stage 1
This works with all kinds of poultry: chicken of course, but also duck, guinea fowl, turkey, etc.

Salt and pepper the outside...

Stage 2
Five hours poultry : Stage 2
... and inside of the bird.

Stage 3 - ⌛ 1 min.
Five hours poultry : Stage 3
Tie herbs firmly in a small bunch, or use a bouquet garni and put inside the bird with 2 cloves garlic.

Stage 4 - ⌛ 1 min.
Five hours poultry : Stage 4
You can also put in half an onion or a whole shallot.

Stage 5 - ⌛ 4 min.
Five hours poultry : Stage 5
Put bird in a cooking bag then in a dish, or cover dish with oven plastic film (see this page for more informations on papers and bags).

Stage 6 - ⌛ 3 hours
Five hours poultry : Stage 6
Put in the oven at 150°C ou 302°F and forget about it for 3 hours.

Stage 7 - ⌛ 5 min.
Five hours poultry : Stage 7
After 3 hours, remove the lid, or remove from the cooking bag, arrange vegetables around the bird, and baste with its juices.

For the last 2 hours, leave uncovered, and baste with juices every 15 minutes (or thereabouts).

Stage 8 - ⌛ 2 hours
Five hours poultry : Stage 8
After the five hours, you can cut it up (but is it the right word when you do that with a fork?) and serve.

Tip: during the last 15 minutes it's a good idea to turn the oven up to 220°C or 428°F to really heat the meat, otherwise it gets cold very quickly at your guests' table. Do remember to heat the plates as well.

Stage 9
Five hours poultry : Stage 9
Note: This works too with roasting meats. For a joint of pork, for example, surround the meat with some sage leaves, which go very well with pork or white meats.
Remarks
This recipe is warmly dedicated to Frances Maguire, from Dublin, who kindly taught me everything about cooking in a bag.

How can such a low cooking temperature produce such soft meat? To understand that you need some molecular gastronomy. Please note that you can apply this slow cooking to many other foods.

If you have a really big bird, like a capon or turkey, you can easily go beyond 6 hours.

Vegetables cooked long and slow in the poultry juices, become deliciously moist and flavoursome ...

If your bird is so big that you have left-overs, you can make an "Express Parmentier" with it by covering a layer of meat with mashed potato and grated cheese (10 minutes under the grill), and it's very good!
Source: Home made, after an exciting lecture by Hervé THIS.
Nutritional information
Proteins (gr)Carbohydrates (gr)Fats (gr)Energy value (in k-calories)Energy value (in k-joules)
Whole recipe380 RDI=150 %7 RDI=1 %130 RDI=20 %2,680 RDI=130 %11,220 RDI: 130 %
Per 100 g20 RDI=8 %06 RDI=1 %150 RDI=7 %620 RDI: 7 %
The % figures are calculated in relation to the Recommended Dietary Intake , or RDI of 2,000 k-calories (or 8,400 k-joules) per day for a woman
Possible allergens in this recipe: Celery
How much will it cost?
  • For 1 poultry : 8.60 €

Change currency:

Note: Be careful, these prices are only an estimate, you can consult the table of prices by ingredients used for this estimate.
Some other recipes using this recipeSee them all 17
Beans with tomatoes
Beans with tomatoes

Fresh white haricot beans and leftover chicken cooked with stewed tomatoes, a sprig of parsley and it's ready.
214 K4.1 1 hour 55 min.
Valay salad
Valay salad

This salad combines ratte potatoes, lettuce, radishes and chicken with a herb dressing.
108 K3.9 1 hour 3 min.
Baked eggs with chicken and spinach
Baked eggs with chicken and spinach

A classic recipe for baked eggs (œufs cocotte), cooked in ramekins with a base layer of spinach and diced chicken.
51 K4 30 min.
Quick chicken curry
Quick chicken curry

This curry is quick to make if you have left over cooked chicken, and is always delicious.
285 K5 35 min.
Lemony chicken and radish salad
Lemony chicken and radish salad

This salad combines the crunch of finely sliced radishes with tender cubes of chicken. The tang which lifts the flavour comes from fresh herbs and the dressing of lemon mayonnaise.
49 K5 25 min.
This recipe uses (among others)
Other recipes you may also like
How to cook Morteau sausage well
How to cook Morteau sausage well
This is, in my opinion, the best smoked sausage. You can cook it in a number of ways, here are three of the best known.
November 15th 20182.83 M 23.4 40 min.
Turmeric risotto
Turmeric risotto
A colourful and tasty risotto made with turmeric, and pumpkin and sunflower seeds.
May 19th 201990 K3.5 60 min.
Small green vegetables in Mornay sauce
Small green vegetables in Mornay sauce
For this very green and vegetal recipe, vegetables are cooked separately, and bound with a Mornay sauce (Béchamel with cheese).
June 13th 202428 K5 60 min.
Brioche dough
Brioche dough
It's a soft and rich dough, with butter and eggs which give a smooth and incredibly tasty brioche. This is the basic recipe for brioche dough, used for all other brioche-based recipes on the site.
September 16th 2020549 K 44.2 14 hours 30 min.
Foie gras cured in salt
Foie gras cured in salt
This a quite different preparation from the terrine of foie gras, this time it does not go in the oven, the liver is salted for 48 hours and it "cooks" (or cures) in this way.
December 23th 2017580 K5 2 days 16 hours 30 min.
News list of cooking-ez.com

Sign up to receive the latest recipes (next batch due to be sent on 2026-01-25)

*Your e-mail Your first name or nickname
I am not a leaving thing
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Post a comment or question
Posted by:
I am not a leaving thing

Follow this recipe (as 41 people already do)
If you are interested in this recipe, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the recipe is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.
I am not a leaving thing
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.

Back to top of page