BresseChicken.jpg
You know, the white bird with the blue feet so famed in France as the best in the world. Some thoughts:
Value: I purchased it from the farmer in British Columbia for about--don't choke--$40C which is about $32 American at current exchange rates. Didn't mind for the experience, and the organic chickens I purchase here aren't exactly cheap. It was a 4 lb bird and had a big carcass, looked very large. Where the value really sucked was-- how little meat it yielded. It was all bone, the Twiggy of the the poultry world: small breasts and almost no thighs. The portion you see here was half a bird divided between the two of us, dark meat under the light. I would guess that each portion was only bout 4-5 ounces. Bob would have liked more but I resisted so that I had a full half to make a cold chicken salad lunch out of.
Flavor: Fantastic. But I must confess to stacking the deck--I soaked it in buttermilk (for two days no less) because I had a whole pint leftover from making an 'Old Fashioned Buttermilk Donut Bundt Cake' (OMG) last week and no other use for the remainder.
I included a seasoned salt to get a good thru-flavor. I roasted it spatchcocked for just one hour--I had been forewarned that it was a low fat bird and would overcook easily. In one hour, the first 30 minutes at 400F and the second 30 at 300--it reached 160. The white meat reminded me of pheasant, and it was definitely among the best poultry I've ever had. But the dark meat was disappointing, no thigh to speak of so just two small, preternaturally tough legs. A person who wanted only dark meat would have gone hungry. Skin was thick and leathery, less pleasant to eat than a conventional bird.
Overall a good meal with the splat potato and white vermouth gravy, but would I buy another? Nope. But fun to do it once.
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Re: Roasted my first Bresse Chicken
