[00:00] but I've been making chicken chasseur a&nbsp; lot at home lately — French-style hunter's&nbsp;&nbsp; chicken — and I just think it's an almost&nbsp; ideal fancy home-cooked meal. Here's how I'm&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:13] making it lately. I've got a secret ingredient&nbsp; that might offend the frogs, don't tell them. Traditionally you use skin-on chicken pieces. Buy&nbsp; them already cut up if you can, but I'm just gonna&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:25] cut up this 4 pound, 2 kilo chicken myself.&nbsp; My way is neither quick nor elegant but it's&nbsp;&nbsp; easy. Cut that skin between the leg quarter&nbsp; and the body, and then I dangle the chicken&nbsp;&nbsp; by the drumstick. The tension opens up the hip&nbsp; joint and makes it easy to slice right through.
[00:41] Once it's off, I'll separate the drum from&nbsp; the thigh. Slice behind the knee there and&nbsp;&nbsp; then I pick it up and crack it open —&nbsp; dislocate the joint so you can slice&nbsp;&nbsp; the rest of the way. You could cook the&nbsp; thighs whole but I'm gonna debone them.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:55] Just go down the length of the femur&nbsp; to open everything up, get under the&nbsp;&nbsp; bone with your knife and it doesn't have to&nbsp; be pretty, just get that bone out of there. To make the breasts easier I'll make a&nbsp; couple slits on each side of the wish bone,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:07] reach in there, dig around and just lever&nbsp; the whole thing out like that. Start at&nbsp;&nbsp; the apex and peel the meat off a little at a&nbsp; time, following the rib cage with your knife. When I get down to the shoulder joint&nbsp; I just crack it open so I can get&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:21] through with my knife and there's a&nbsp; breast with wing. Save the carcass. I'll need a heavier knife for this&nbsp; part. Just to fancy up the legs,&nbsp;&nbsp; I'll go straight down to the bone, just below&nbsp; the meaty part, circumnavigate the whole tibia&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:34] there and then scrape down to the ankle which I&nbsp; will finally remove by just popping through the&nbsp;&nbsp; bone — a little smack on the spine of the knife&nbsp; gets you through. Those will cook up real pretty. so I dislocate the elbow and cut&nbsp; through. A boneless skinless breast&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:52] with the drummette attached makes a very pretty&nbsp; presentation. They call it an "airline breast." There's the meat, but you could cut it&nbsp; much more crudely or buy pre-cut pieces.&nbsp;&nbsp; All these scraps I will freeze to make stock&nbsp; later because I am now one of those people.
[02:08] Enough pepper and salt to season both sides — I'm&nbsp; leaving extra on the board for the other side.&nbsp;&nbsp; And this is a good amount of flour — enough&nbsp; to coat the chicken AND thicken the sauce.&nbsp;&nbsp; Toss to coat everything. There we go, they&nbsp; look like little pillows, little clouds,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:22] like the cloud I sleep on — a premium&nbsp; mattress in a box from Helix Sleep,&nbsp;&nbsp; sponsor of this video. Hey, March&nbsp; is National Sleep Awareness Month.
[04:19] Anyway, a good coating of olive oil in my&nbsp; widest pan, or render some bacon in there&nbsp;&nbsp; if you want. I'll lay the chicken skin-side&nbsp; down. My heat is very high because there's a&nbsp;&nbsp; lot of mass here cooling it back down again.&nbsp; Real quick I can slice up some mushrooms.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:34] cooked and I want this extra couple&nbsp; tablespoons of flour for thickening. I'll do a real quick chop on a shallot.&nbsp; That's it. Is the chicken ready to flip?
[04:48] It releases real easy from the bottom of the&nbsp; pan, so probably. Man, look at that beautiful&nbsp;&nbsp; color from the flour, plus it’ll help the&nbsp; chicken kinda merge with the sauce later.&nbsp;&nbsp; Brown the other side. Don't worry about&nbsp; cooking the meat all the way through yet.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:03] Just stop before the stuff at the bottom of the&nbsp; pan starts to burn — that would ruin the sauce. Take the chicken out to a plate or something, and&nbsp; then I'm just gonna put all these veggies in at&nbsp;&nbsp; once, with the flour — it's amazing how well they&nbsp; all cook together, IF you give it some extra olive&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:17] oil or butter or something. The mushrooms and&nbsp; flour will suck up a lot. Just get a little color,&nbsp;&nbsp; look for the mushrooms to shrink by about half&nbsp; and that's all the headstart this stuff needs. Time to deglaze, and lately I'm using dry vermouth&nbsp; for this. You could use normal white wine,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:33] but the fortified wine just has a lot more taste&nbsp; to it, and I think this dish can sometimes be a&nbsp;&nbsp; little bland — it just needs an extra boost&nbsp; the vermouth provides. Even the dry stuff is&nbsp;&nbsp; pretty sweet tasting, which brings a lot to the&nbsp; dish. That’s like a whole glass of vermouth.
[05:48] Once the bottom of the pan is clean&nbsp; I'll throw the chicken back in,&nbsp;&nbsp; and the rest of the liquid is gonna be my&nbsp; secret ingredient — V8 juice, or equivalent.&nbsp;&nbsp; Tomato juice with other vegetable flavors in&nbsp; it. This stuff makes a fantastic sauce base&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:02] and I don't care if anyone thinks it's a cheat.&nbsp; Bring it like 2/3rds of the way up the chicken. but tomato juice has had the fibers&nbsp; strained out and I just love the smooth,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:14] glossy finish that gives you in the final sauce.&nbsp; Plus the flavor of the V8 is a lot more complex. I'ma throw in a few ice cubes of my&nbsp; homemade demi-glace. If I didn't have that,&nbsp;&nbsp; I'd use a concentrated stock&nbsp; product, like twice this much,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:29] but just be aware it’s very salty so you&nbsp; probably won't need any more salt in the sauce. done inside — maybe a half hour, or you&nbsp; could keep going and really soften it.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:42] I like it just a little soft these days,&nbsp; I don't want it falling apart. Flip the&nbsp;&nbsp; chicken a few times OR cover it with a&nbsp; lid to make sure the topside gets cooked. I think I simmered this chicken a little&nbsp; over an hour. When I poke the dark meat&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:59] with my finger I can just start to feel&nbsp; the different muscles pulling apart from&nbsp;&nbsp; each other. That's the right softness for me.&nbsp; We'll still need a fork and knife, but not much. I'll taste the sauce — very intense&nbsp; because I did not use any water and I&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:13] let it reduce the whole time with no&nbsp; lid. Needs a whole bunch of pepper,&nbsp;&nbsp; a little salt. Some butter to finish&nbsp; the sauce — this makes it frenchy. Tear in some parsley leaves or something, maybe&nbsp; a few sage leaves, thyme would be great but the&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:27] big herb for me is tarragon, which tastes&nbsp; like floral liquorice. I really associate&nbsp;&nbsp; tarragon with French bistro cooking, probably&nbsp; because I almost never see it anywhere else. I'll just shake that in, get that butter&nbsp; melting gently to preserve its emulsion.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:42] And right at the end, if you have a lemon&nbsp; around, a squeeze of juice really freshens&nbsp;&nbsp; and brightens the whole dish. That's a classic&nbsp; restaurant trick for a reason. Works great,&nbsp;&nbsp; Noodles on the side, here's a boneless thigh,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:57] and then check how nice that lollypop leg&nbsp; looks. Spoon on a little sauce and that is&nbsp;&nbsp; a knockout of a dish that is just as good at&nbsp; home as it would be at the bistro. Sauce is&nbsp;&nbsp; super rich and complex, not bland at all, which&nbsp; is particularly important for the white meat,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[08:12] which doesn't taste like much. I do like the&nbsp; meaty texture you get from it, though, if you&nbsp;&nbsp; just barely start to soften it through braising,&nbsp; but my favorite part is probably the lolly-leg.