- 12 hours ago
Learn how to make French roast chicken with Chef Alexia Duchêne. This classic poulet rôti recipe is a fundamental of French home cooking, pairing crispy golden chicken with roasted vegetables, garlic confit butter, and a rich white wine sauce. Master essential techniques like trussing a chicken, building flavor with compound butter, roasting for perfectly crisp skin, and creating a restaurant-quality sauce so you can deliver juicy, flavorful results at home.
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00:00Roasted chicken is so special to me because it's something that we would eat every Sunday
00:06growing up.
00:07Every French family.
00:08Poulet roti du dimanche, which means roasted chicken on Sunday.
00:11It just reminds me of going to the market with my dad and just buying everything and
00:15coming home and doing this very simple dish but that is full of flavor.
00:20We're making the ultimate French roasted chicken and we're starting with a compound
00:23butter.
00:24A compound butter is a butter that we flavor.
00:27It could be anything, it could be garlic, it could be parsley, it could be extremely
00:31complicated or very simple.
00:33So the compound butter is super important because this is what's going to really baste
00:36the chicken and give the flavor.
00:39A bit of esplet pepper, which I love, comes from the Basque Country, extremely delicious,
00:45not too spicy, very fragrant.
00:48I just love the color also it brings, it gives this really nice golden color to the chicken,
00:53which is just for me like so beautiful.
00:55We need to add some parsley, chopped.
00:58The idea is to really just pick the leaves, not the stems.
01:01We will use the stems though to put inside the chicken.
01:05So what you want is to roughly chop into the butter.
01:09Right now what we need to add, lemon zest for this very bright acidic taste that's going
01:15to give a nice aroma.
01:17I also am someone that puts lemon juice in my chicken at the end.
01:19I know this is controversial, not every family does that.
01:23My mom would put lemon on everything.
01:25In the meantime, I'm just going to let the butter outside.
01:27It's very important because you want the butter, first of all, to be easily spreadable.
01:33And also everything that you put in the fridge kind of neutralizes taste.
01:37And right now we're living at room temperature.
01:40Everything is developing and you're going to have an amazing aroma at the end.
01:45Okay, garlic, one of the best ingredients in the world.
01:49So confit garlic is cooking garlic in some sort of fat.
01:52It could be anything.
01:53It can work with beef tallow, with butter,
01:56with anything that will encapsulate the moisture and slow cook.
02:01Garlic in a pan, some olive oil or any oil or anything you have in your house.
02:09And the idea is to just cover the garlic.
02:12Also, do not throw the oil after.
02:16It's delicious in vinaigrettes.
02:18And also just reusing to cook a steak, to cook anything that you want, vegetables.
02:23They will just give this amazing garlic aroma without actually using garlic.
02:28Put it on medium, medium-high heat.
02:31This will give us room to cook it quite fast without burning.
02:36The garlic looks amazing.
02:38What you're looking for is just a light color.
02:41You don't want it too dark just because it's going to be bitter.
02:44So this is perfect.
02:46And I'm just going to add probably like three to four cloves to my butter.
02:49And here I'm just going to mush it with my spoon.
02:52Very easy.
02:53So this is what we're looking for in terms of consistency.
02:56Something that is spoonable, that is easy, that is nice and aromatic.
03:03I can smell all the flavors.
03:05Let's put it to the side and get the chicken going.
03:08This chicken has been drying for a few days.
03:11It helps with obviously the moisture of the skin.
03:15Because it's dry, it's going to absorb everything that is wet.
03:18That's going to come on top and it will just be a better vessel for the compound butter.
03:23So this chicken obviously looks extremely different from what you see in grocery stores.
03:28Even butchers to be fair.
03:29Like it's golden chicken from Pennsylvania.
03:31Very fatty.
03:33It's also a chicken that you can see here is quite muscular.
03:36And it will develop the flavor and just give something that is reminiscent to what we get in France.
03:44Obviously, if you can't find this chicken, the best thing you can do is go to a butcher.
03:48First of all, see if they have different chickens.
03:50If they do, ask for maybe the one that stayed outside the longest.
03:55The one that has maybe a bit more fat.
03:57The fresher the chicken, the more you're going to be able to dry edge it in your fridge.
04:02I keep the feet in the chicken just because I like the look of it.
04:06I think it's nice.
04:07It looks a bit dramatic.
04:08But also because when it crisps up in the oven, it's so delicious.
04:13First thing though, is to salt the inside of the chicken.
04:16It's kind of like brining your poultry.
04:18I'm not going to salt the exterior part just because I already put a lot of salt in the compound
04:23butter.
04:24We're going to add all the aromatics before trussing the chicken.
04:27So we're going very simple.
04:28A big amount of time.
04:30Two bay leaves.
04:31And then all the parsley stalks that I used.
04:35The idea is to reuse it.
04:36We need to truss it.
04:38This is really what's going to give you a very homogenous cooking.
04:41Because everything is going to be tied together.
04:44And it's going to make sure that the white part is going to cook as much as the thighs.
04:48And not have this very uneven chicken cooking.
04:52You just need some butcher's twine.
04:54So you want something that the twine to go under the two wings.
05:01Basically like that.
05:03You want to feel like it's holding.
05:05And then you're going to do a cross like that.
05:09This cross needs to go in between each legs.
05:15And then you're going to go under here.
05:18Under the legs.
05:20And tie.
05:22Very simple.
05:23This is really the basic trussing technique.
05:27So the idea here is now is to put the butter.
05:31We're focusing on the breast.
05:32It's the part that gets dry the fastest when you're roasting.
05:37And then you want to put a bit on each thigh.
05:41And also like let's not forget that the chicken is going to drip.
05:45It's going to go on the sides.
05:46So it doesn't need to be perfect.
05:48One stick of butter is perfect for one chicken.
05:50If you want to be even more French you can put two.
05:52But I think that's enough.
05:54I like to roast the chicken dry first with the vegetables.
05:57Just because it's going to crisp up the skin.
06:00It's also going to crisp up the potatoes and the onions.
06:02And then I add moisture to kind of like have something that is really nice and cooked through.
06:07We're going to take a roasting tray.
06:10What I like about these trays is this thing.
06:14This will separate the chicken from literally touching the bottom of the pan.
06:19And it's going to ensure that the bottom part because it's not in contact directly with the tray.
06:25It's not going to get soggy.
06:28So you can get a really crispy chicken everywhere.
06:31Okay chicken is done.
06:33It's hanging out behind me.
06:36And now it's time to cut some veg and add it to the pan.
06:39This is really the three basic ingredients that you'll find in most roasted chicken all over France.
06:46The potato really adds this nourishing, you know soaking up all the juices.
06:51The onion when it's like nice and caramelized is just so good and brings the sweetness.
06:56And the carrot.
06:57I love just how carrots get when they're roasted for so long.
07:00Kind of like nearly a bit chewy.
07:02We're going to go very easy on these veg.
07:04The idea is not even to peel them.
07:06I think that the peel in every vegetable is delicious.
07:09It's nutritious.
07:10It's also where you find all the vitamins.
07:13We're going to prep the carrots first.
07:14We're going to take the top off.
07:16I like to keep a bit of the green.
07:18I think visually it's nice.
07:19And I just take the tip off.
07:22Just like that.
07:24And then we're going to rinse them.
07:25The stems can work for a few things.
07:28I like to use them in like a scrap broth.
07:30That's what I call it.
07:31So I would use the outside of the onion.
07:33The stems of the carrots.
07:35You could use pretty much anything.
07:37And it's a great way to kind of utilize all the scraps.
07:40I like to put them all in the freezer.
07:42And at the end of the week, you have the scraps from a whole week.
07:45And then you can start doing something with it.
07:49You want to quickly rinse all your veg.
07:55If you want a quick chicken, you need to cut your veg a bit smaller.
07:59Because that's how they're going to be cooked through.
08:01And if you're looking for something like a chicken that's cooked for two and a half hours.
08:04Honestly, I would even leave some like potatoes whole.
08:07Because they're going to roast for so long.
08:09You want to kind of make sure that the vegetable is cooked through.
08:12But not completely disintegrated in the recipe.
08:15Since I'm roasting for roughly like an hour and 20 minutes.
08:18That's what I'm looking for. Roughly this size.
08:22I like the bias just because visually it's also nicer.
08:26I think everything that's not square just encapsulates better.
08:30Like the sauces, it grabs flavor.
08:33Put the veg a bit everywhere.
08:35It's really not important to be precise here.
08:38Here we're going to start salting.
08:45And now we're going to dice some onions.
08:47When you're cooking, especially in a small space, you always try and adapt.
08:51And make sure that you work methodically to make sure that the kitchen is not a mess.
08:56So I like to chop things.
08:57As soon as I don't have space, I put it in the pan.
08:59And then I clean up.
09:01And then I dice again.
09:02Just to make sure it doesn't get overwhelming.
09:04And then you're not left with like a bunch of mess to clean after lunch.
09:07I'm just going to salt again.
09:09A last layer for the onion on top.
09:12The garlic oil is going to give us so much flavor for all the veg.
09:16And it's just like, make sure we don't waste anything.
09:19So we're going to put the chicken in the oven for roughly 45 minutes,
09:22depending again on your oven.
09:24I like to put full fan, start at 350.
09:27And maybe after 30 minutes, bump it up to 380 Fahrenheit for another 10 to 15,
09:33just to make sure we have a nice golden color.
09:35The chicken has been roasting for roughly like 45 minutes.
09:38So we're halfway there.
09:39The idea now is to kind of deglaze the pan,
09:42bring a bit of moisture to make sure that the chicken doesn't dry up.
09:46We can see that the juice, there's some dripping in the bottom.
09:50Some veg are getting caramelized.
09:51What you're looking here is to add moisture.
09:54So we're going to add moisture with a bit of white wine and some chicken stock.
09:57The reason we put white wine in roasted chicken is really to bring acidity,
10:02balance, have a bit of also complexity.
10:05Kind of deglaze the bottom of the pan.
10:08Make sure that everything kind of unsticks to the bottom.
10:12With all the aromatics and the veg that scream more of like a bright recipe,
10:16I feel like white wine makes more sense.
10:18But if I was doing something maybe with sun chokes, with parsnip,
10:21something a bit more wintery, maybe I'd lean towards red wine.
10:24I like to get chicken stock from the butchers.
10:27I feel like it has way more collagen than the one that we find like in the shelf in the
10:32supermarket.
10:32It just brings more depth.
10:34We're going to put it back in.
10:36Okay, it's been an hour and like 25 minutes.
10:40So we're ready to get the chicken out of the oven.
10:43Let's see how it looks.
10:45It looks very nice.
10:48How do we know it's cooked?
10:49Very simple.
10:50We're just going to poke the knife in different areas.
10:53If we get some juice released, it means that it's cooked.
10:57If it's not cooked, you're not going to see any moisture coming out just because,
11:02I mean, it's not cooked.
11:03It's raw.
11:04Here on the thigh here, you see a lot of moisture coming out.
11:07The thigh is the most important because this is also what takes the longest to cook.
11:12So you want to make sure that you're not carving a chicken that it might be cooked on the breast,
11:16but the thighs are not cooked and then you have to re-cook them separately.
11:20In France, we do everything kind of by the feel and this is how I learned how to cook.
11:25So yeah, just poke the chicken.
11:27What you're looking for is to let it rest a bit.
11:29If you cut it right now, it's just going to release so much moisture
11:34that it's just not going to be very enjoyable.
11:36And then we're going to create this sauce to take all the juices that we got from the chicken.
11:43We're going to get all of the veg out and just finish the sauce with a few ingredients.
11:49Put the pan back on the heat.
11:51High heat.
11:52You really want to go fast on this.
11:54You want to reduce.
11:55You will just want to add maybe a bit of espelette, lemon juice, demi-glace,
11:59and that's pretty much it.
12:01Black pepper.
12:02Demi-glace is basically just a reduction of the chicken bones with red wine and some stock.
12:07And this kind of brings this restaurant quality sauce that is quite hard to replicate at home.
12:14I might want to add just a cube of butter.
12:17Just to make sure it's nice, silky.
12:22Kind of like monter the sauce, which means like incorporating the butter with the whisk.
12:27Without a whisk here.
12:29This is luxury right here.
12:31So good.
12:34Very good.
12:35Happy.
12:37Carving a chicken, everybody has different ways of doing it.
12:40What I like to do is start obviously by the thigh.
12:45In the thigh, you're looking to break a muscle that's roughly here.
12:48So you're going to kind of like pull it towards you.
12:51You know, it's going to slip.
12:53So just use, you know, a clean towel.
12:56You want to make sure you take the oyster, which in France we call it the soliles.
13:01The soliles is known to be like the best part of the chicken.
13:04I think it's also like an old lift, like something that people said years ago and it kind of sticks.
13:10And so everybody's like raving about this part.
13:13I don't necessarily think it's the best part.
13:14I think it's extremely moist and tender.
13:16You can see that it doesn't fall apart because you see it's a chicken that ran.
13:22And there's some muscle that you don't find in other chickens.
13:25We're going to go straight into the breast.
13:27So the idea here is to really separate both.
13:32You just like go for it, you know, you kind of like break it and it'll work.
13:35So here, the breast, you want to make sure you're taking everything.
13:40Because sometimes when it's hot and you're carving, you're kind of like in a rush and
13:44you don't want to take too long and you kind of miss like the half of the breast.
13:47It's like stuck to the, to the bone.
13:49So here I'm taking my time.
13:51I'm a chiropractor.
13:52I already dislocated the whole thing.
13:55I didn't, I barely did any knife work.
13:59And we're just going to let it like this.
14:01And then we're going to kind of like divide it to make sure everybody has a nice piece.
14:04Everything that's on this cutting board, you do not want to throw it away.
14:08You want to kind of like scrape everything and get everything back in your sauce.
14:15And now we're going to kind of like divide to make sure everybody has a nice piece.
14:20So my favorite piece in the chicken is the white part, the breast.
14:24I feel like it's controversial.
14:25People say it's like blend, but I kind of like it.
14:29I'm cutting on the skin side down to make sure you have the weight of the knife.
14:33Because sometimes when you cut like that, especially if your knife is not sharp,
14:38you're going to tear the skin apart before you're even cutting the meat.
14:41It's funny, there was like a touch of pink when I carved it.
14:44And just by the time it rests, it's like perfectly cooked.
14:48Now it's time to plate.
14:49So I like to put some vegetables in the bottom first,
14:52just so it kind of like takes all the juices.
14:56We're going to take each piece of meat and season it from the inside.
15:01Just make sure you have salt everywhere.
15:02If you're cooking on Sundays, usually you're cooking for like family, loved ones.
15:06It's a moment of taking care of people, so make it nice.
15:10It doesn't need to be crazy, crazy in terms of presentation,
15:13but make sure you take your time and put the chicken in a nice way
15:16and make sure that you show that you love the ones you cook for.
15:20Then we're just going to finish with the sauce,
15:23putting all the juices back in the sauce.
15:27Okay, this is poulet rôti du dimanche, which means the roasted chicken on Sunday.
15:31It literally takes me back home.
15:33A lot of memories growing up.
15:37The oyster is as good as ever.
15:38The quality of the chicken really shines.
15:41There's so much chicken flavor that you don't feel like in love roast chicken.
15:45It's exactly what I want to eat on Sunday.
15:49Stop the sweet potato cake and random TV.
15:54Lots of factors behind it, but I'm looking forward to creating this purpose to make sure
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