My friend and fellow Pastry Chef Jeff or JJ as I refer to him, sent me a link to the most awesome thing ever! Clay that you mold and then bake an entire chicken in, then you have to break it open. I love roasted chicken, but mix in a crafty project and the fun of breaking it after and I'm sold! The kit is available from the Williams-Sonoma website and is $14.99. Totally worth the fun and time and I'm really happy I ordered two kits without having tried it. This is something I want to do again.
Besides the kit you will need a few extra supplies for this project:
Rolling pin
Parchment paper
Sheet pan
1 whole chicken 4-5lbs
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
Zest of 1 lemon
4-5 fresh sage leaves
2 sprigs rosemary
4-5 sprigs of thyme
4 garlic cloves chopped
Good Salt & Pepper TT
Rinse and pat dry the chicken, removing and disposing of any parts sitting inside the cavity. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Finely chop the herbs and garlic, removing the stems. Mix all of the ingredients into the butter. Separate the skin from the meat gently using your hands to create a pocket. Fill the gap with the herbed lemon butter mixture and make sure it is distributed evenly. Cover the chicken with the remaining butter mixture.
On a piece of parchment paper, roll out the clay into a large oval about the thickness of a pie crust. Place the clay still on the parchment paper onto your sheet pan. Roll out the other sheet of clay on another sheet of parchment paper.
Take a large piece of parchment paper and place the chicken in the center, breast side down. Fold the parchment over the chicken and then fold the side up so it is completely covered in a little package. Flip it over and place it seam side down on the clay oval. Top with the other clay oval using the parchment to move and flip over the clay so it is on top of the chicken. Remove the parchment and discard. Crimp the sides of the clay together and decorate as desired. I used a bit of the extra clay and made a quick Jack-O-Lantern. Next time I will make sure I have enough time to make it a bit more elaborate, but the clay is super fun to play with and you can make some really creative designs to entertain your guests. I had to feed two hungry men so mine went into the oven before I could jazz it up to my liking.
Bake the chicken for about an hour and a half. Allow to rest and cool for 15-20 minutes before you fight over who gets to break the clay. We used a hammer but anything will work. Crack open your dinner treasure and then remove the chicken from the parchment package and carve.
This meal was not only delicious but fun for our guest to break the clay. The roasting clay can be used for a fish or basically anything you want to put inside of it. It is a special food safe clay. Just remember to wrap whatever you put inside in a sheet of parchment paper to keep the clay from adhering to your food and keep the juices from turning the clay to mush.
So much fun! The chicken was moist and flavorful. It was not as golden brown as a traditional roasted chicken but very delicious.
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