Chicken Butchery

Chicken butchery is not difficult, we should all be able to dissemble a bird ready for cooking in portions, but how many of us can actually do it?

Regardless of the answer, I hope to demonstrate here how to butcher an economy chicken through both the pictures and my step-by-step guide in words. Also I will offer a few suggestions as to what to do with the different cuts.

Now the first step with your chicken is check to see if they are any giblets inside your bird, if they are, then remove and place to one side to use later.


Remove the wishbone next, I use an oyster shucker, for it is short and blunt, but yet easy to handle and makes removing the wishbone safe. Just use it like you would a knife and once you have cut around the wishbone, you can easily lift it out by placing the shucker behind the bone and placing your thumb in front and then by pulling. The reason for removing the wishbone is that you can remove the breasts without leaving any meat behind, also if cooked as a whole bird it allows you to carve more efficiently.



I like to take the legs and thighs of next, I cut in between the thigh and the body of the bird and then using my hands I fold back the legs until the hip bone pops out of it’s socket. Here I take my knife and cut right through the flesh and skin passing through where the two bones would have joined.


Separating the thighs from the drumstick is done easily by placing the leg & thigh skin side down, then following the line of fat that runs right across the knee joint, cut straight through with your knife. My favourite bbq chicken meal is drumsticks that have been filled with cheese and wrapped in bacon. I firstly create a cut across the fleshy muscle, then I pack the wound with creamy cheese and finally I bandage the drumstick with streaky bacon. This combination is fantastic cooked on the grill and when you bite through all three flavours, oh boy are you in for a treat!





The thighs are easy to de-bone, so I do exactly that and then I spread some soft cheese on to the chicken and place some sun dried tomatoes in the centre. Finally I roll up the meat in to a nice “galantine de poulet” by using cling film, then poach for 12 - 15 minutes before unwrapping the cling film to brown in a skillet to finish.


Now to the breasts, following either side of the breastbone cut off each breast, place the carcass to one side for later use.


Holding the wing tip, now cut through the second joint (that is in between the middle and the portion nearest the breast), you should now have a wing tip complete with the middle joint and separately you should have a breast complete with the first part of the wing, together they are known as “chicken supreme”.

To further enhance the chicken supreme, place the back edge of your knife in the armpit of the breast and where the blade touches the wing section, cut all around this wing section and scrape off any flesh and skin leaving a clean area of bone. Wrap silver foil around this bone section to avoid burning during cooking, the remaining meat nearest to the armpit will contract during cooking and will sit nice and proud when your breast has been cooked, no wonder they call it “chicken supreme” it looks delightful.


Before you prepare your chicken supreme, you first need to tease the tenderloin away from the breast meat by inserting your thumb and fingers behind this tender piece of meat and gently separate it from the breast. By doing this you have made the remaining breast more even in thickness for better cooking and as a bonus you get to make goujons from the tenderloins. Here you slice the loins in two at an angle or keep whole, then you coat your tenderloins in season flour, then in egg and finally in seasoned breadcrumbs, before deep fat frying until they are golden. The kids love these!




Back to the wing tips now, here I like to make “chicken dollies”. Take a tea towel and hold the wing tip in both hands with the inside of the wing facing upwards. Now snap the joint and at the same time push the two main bones from the middle part of the wing through the skin, just like a compound fracture! Wiggle and pull out the smallest bone, then cut off the wing tip itself and put aside with the carcass for stock or soup along with all the other bits. Back to the dollies, again and still using the tea towel, hold the remaining bone and with your other hand, hold the meat and pull it down the length of the bone, this should turn the skin inside out leaving a nice round ball of meat which can be glazed and then grilled, these are what I call “chicken dollies”.

This chicken as I said earlier was an economy chicken, weighing approximately 2.2kg and costing £6.70, normally I would use free-range chicken and very occasionally I would use organic. I looked at the price of buying all the chicken parts separately and I can tell you they would of cost £12.08 so a total saving of £5.38, not bad for 10 minutes work with a knife.

The thing is, you know you can save money whether you buy economy, free range or organic chicken just by portioning your own chicken. It doesn’t matter whether you are single, a couple or a family the savings are huge, so c’mon guys let’s get butchering our chicken from now on.

Just to remind you, here is the list of what I got from this bird:

2 x Tenderloins (goujons large)
2 x Chicken Supreme
2 x Drumsticks
2 x Chicken Dollies
2 x Thighs (galantine de poulet)
1 x Carcass & Trimmings (soup or stock)

Sous Vide

I have for many years been curing meats by sous vide, as I believe it to be one of the best methods available to achieve success. As time has progressed, more and more of my students have adopted this method and many have returned to acquire the skills and knowledge to then go on and cook using the same method.

In addition to having a sous vide machine (vacuum packer), you also need a bain marie style cooking vessel, one that will cook to exact temperatures. Well ladies and gentlemen, this machine you see here is the latest from Julabo and I can tell you it is the best of it's kind on the market.

I could go on and on telling you all what's great about this machine, however for your best enjoyment, may I suggest you visit their website and checkout for yourself what julabo have managed to achieve.

www.julabo-fusionchef.de

Also for the home user checkout www.sousvidesupreme.com

Just one more thing, remember who told you about them first!! Also if you are looking to attend a cure & cook by sous vide then get in touch for details.

Pigs Nose Whisky

Some blogs just don't need any words!


http://www.spencerfieldspirit.com/pigsnose.html

Bacon Rings

I was wondering to myself how can you make bacon and scrambled egg look good on a plate, and then Eureka! Bacon rings was my answer, so easy to make, I now ask myself why have I never thought of this before!

All you need is a chefs ring, now roll the ring along a slice of streaky bacon and allow the bacon to wrap around the ring, you may have to hold it in place with a cocktail stick or use a paper clip.

Bake off in the oven until cooked and allow to stiffen slightly, remove from the ring and it should stand up on it's own, now fill with scrambled egg and garnish just before serving. I think you will agree it looks lovely and the perfect portion size too!

You can serve this at breakfast of coarse, but you can also adapt the idea as a starter dish using smoked bacon and serve with a filling of Kedgeree with quail eggs to match the scale and portion size, perhaps placing some of the smoked haddock and halved or quarted quail eggs around the base. You can with care make a double tower with the bacon rings.

Top Tip: You must use good quality artisan bacon for this dish, for the cheaper water infused bacon shrinks too much and has too little flavour. I used rindless bacon with most of the fat trimmed from a Tamworth pig for this dish.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did when I first made it!

Butchers Twine

Why do we use string?

There are many reasons as to why we use string in butchery, some of those reasons are; we can truss a chicken to bring the thighs into the body, as this will aid in cooking evenly and to keep inside any stuffing placed in the cavity. Boning and rolling joints are kept together by tying string around the meat, this not only allows even cooking, it also helps when we come to carving, allowing for even rounded slices.

String is often used to hang certain meat cuts like coppa, bresaola and salami, the making of Andouillettes are made easier by using string to pull the inners through the outer casing. Also for sewing up a Gallontine de Poulet or a 3 bird roast, whatever else we may use string for, we first have to become proficient with it, so if you are not yet familiar with butchers twine then practise with some old socks or use a tea towel inside a hand towel like I've used in one of the above photos.

Franck Pontais

You know it is rare to find a real friend, I mean a friend who never judges you, a friend who never asks for anything in return for something, a friend who willingly shares with you what he has. One such friend of mine is Franck Pontais, a super talented Traiteur chef, one who has also risen through the ranks of butchery and charcuterie.


Franck is unusual, no I’ll re-phrase that, Franck is unique, for albeit he is French he has a fantastic sense of humour (come on, keep up with me, the French are not exactly known for their sense of humour, are they?), one to match his talent and if you had to measure his talent by humour then think Peter Kay, Ken Dodd and Tommy Cooper rolled into one. Wow !!

Harrods of London had the benefit of having Franck for 10 years, before his talent was spotted by Selfridges, who then head hunted him. Franck by this time had specialised in the art of making Terrines & Verrines on which he has written a must have book. His talent does not end there, in the culinary world he can hold his own and even surpass any Michelin star chef and this he has proven on many occasion through competition and media.

The ladies adore Franck, he tells me it’s his charm, good looks and French accent, what he neglected to say was; these old age pensioners love his custard tarts, well with their dentures and all you begin to understand why. Lol :-)

On a more serious note, when I’m working in Franck’s adopted county of Suffolk, he always insists I stay with him and his family, he may not know this until now, but he does not need to insist, for the opportunity to play catch up with him and to drink from his wine cellar is more appealing than staying in some strange Hotel.

Now that I’ve embarrassed him with this blog, I’ll finish by saying; check out his website and read for yourself what he is currently working on:

www.franckpontais.co.uk

Lorne Sausage

Lorne sausage or the square sausage as it is commonly known, yes, that’s right, you heard me correctly, a square sausage. The origins of this sausage are not clear, some say, it was invented by thrifty farmers in Lancashire(hmmm I thought thrifty farmers were from Yorkshire), well wherever it was invented, for certain it is now claimed as one of Scotland’s finest breakfast sausages. For where ever you are in Scotland you are certain to be given this unique sausage as part of your breakfast (I did not dare describe the breakfast as a “Full English” for the fear of being cut to my jugular by a wee wild red haired visitor dressed in tartan in my sleep!)

You see they don’t like the Sassernach’s having anything they consider to be their invention you know, lol :-)

So back to the Lorne sausage, this has to be one of the simplest forms of charcuterie in our British food heritage (did you notice me being diplomatic there?). Traditionally the sausage was made predominately with beef, however variations with lamb and pork are now available. I prefer a 50 / 50 ratio beef to pork.


Ingredients:
Beef - 500g
Pork – 500g (fatty)
Fine Oats – 1 x mug
Salt – 1 x tsp
White Pepper – 1 x tsp
Coriander - 1 x tsp
Nutmeg – ½ freshly grated
Water – Appx 1 x mug

Method:
Mince your meats and combine together, then blend in oats and your seasoning and mix thoroughly whilst adding water to reach a sticky consistency. Having done that, place your mixture into a bread tin, cover with cling-film and place in your freezer to part freeze, 1-2 hours should be sufficient. Once the meat has partly frozen, take the meat out of the tin and slice into portions before wrapping in cling-film and once again either replace to the freezer for storage or use within 5-7 days if fresh.



I used to make this in France where I lived and you’ll never believe me! In the same village were some German farmers who kept a fold of pedigree Highland Cattle, how fortunate was I to have this available to me when making this product and if that weren’t jammy enough, I had a further German farmer in the next village, he kept Galloway and Belted Galloway cattle.

I have to say, they was some satisfaction in producing and eating square sausage from Scottish breeds of cattle in France.

Bon appetite Jimmy!