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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?".

516K 128 4.2

Last modified on: January 27^th 2012

Keywords for this recipe:

For 1 poultry, you will need:

1 1 whole bird (chicken, duck etc.)
2 1 bunch herbs of your choice
3 1 Bouquet garni (optional)
4 2 cloves garlic (optional)
5 salt
6 pepper
Total weight: 1,810 grams

Change these quantities to make: 1 poultry 2 poultrys 3 poultrys

Change measures: Metric

Metric weight Metric volumes

How long does it take?

Time required for this recipe:

Preparation	Cooking	Start to finish
12 min.	5 hours	5 hours 12 min.

At what time:

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Step by step recipe

Stage 1 - 1 min.

This works with all kinds of poultry: chicken of course, but also duck, guinea fowl, turkey, etc.

Salt and pepper the outside...

Stage 2

... and inside of the bird.

Stage 3 - 1 min.

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.

You can also put in half an onion or a whole shallot.

Stage 5 - 4 min.

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

Put in the oven at 150°C ou 302°F and forget about it for 3 hours.

Stage 7 - 5 min.

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

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

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!

Nutritional information

Whole recipe
Energetic value	Proteins	Carbohydrates	Fats
2,687 Kcal or 11,250 Kj	380 gr	8 gr	126 gr
134 %	146 %	1 %	19 %

Per 100 g
Energetic value	Proteins	Carbohydrates	Fats
148 Kcal or 620 Kj	21 gr	< 1 gr	7 gr
7 %	8 %	<1 %	1 %

Per poultry
Energetic value	Proteins	Carbohydrates	Fats
2,687 Kcal or 11,250 Kj	380 gr	8 gr	126 gr
134 %	146 %	1 %	19 %

% are calculated relative to a Recommended Dietary Intake or RDI of 2000 k-calories or 8400 k-joules by day for a woman (change to a man).

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.

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Source

Home made, after an exciting lecture by Hervé THIS.

This recipe uses (among others)

	Whole bird (chicken, duck etc.) : You can check-out other recipes which use it, like for example: Hay-baked poultry, ... All
	Herbs of your choice: You can check-out other recipes which use it, like for example: Greek salad, Rice and peas, Lemony chicken and radish salad, French bean salad with vinaigrette , Chicken and avocado bagels, ... All
	Salt: You can get more informations, or check-out other recipes which use it, for example: Langoustine gratin, Chinese Soup, Rabbit with mustard, Smooth mixed vegetable soup, Salmon and leek fondue tart, ... All
	Pepper: You can get more informations, or check-out other recipes which use it, for example: Eggs in tomato shells, Firied fillet of sea bream with polenta, Risotto-style celeriac, Rice and peas, French-style peas, ... All

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