Long before I brined my first bird, I practiced the act of "Koshering." It's been a while since I koshered a chicken and decided it was time I prepared one that way. Koshering is a practice used to draw all blood out of a piece of meat. The first step is submerge the meat for at least a half hour in water. Next you remove the meat and dry it. It is then set out to drain for at least a half hour. Once it is drained and patted dry again, a liberal coating of Kosher salt is applied to all surfaces. The meat sits like this for at least a half hour. Finally, the salt is washed off and the meat is patted dry again.
After the meat is Koshered, it can be rubbed with oil and seasoned. This is my bird out of the oven. I seasoned it with salt, pepper and paprika. I like to start out at a high roasting temperature of 500 degrees for 20 minutes, then lower it down to 350/325 for the remaining time (for me, that is 350 and my convection oven shifts it down to 325). The result is a bird with a delicious cripsy skin and moist meat. The small potatoes were baked with nothing but a good rinse and a liberal tossing of salt -- no oil. They were crispy good too!
Here's the money shot of the skin. Starting out at a high temp along with the salt on the exterior really firms up the skin. The crispy outer layer holds the juices in. Some juice will seep out onto the pan during baking but a whole lot stays in the meat.
TBG made a delicious batch of teriyaki green beans to go along with my bird and spuds. We have breast meat for another meal and I pulled the other bits off for soup. The carcass will be turned to stock today. I'm thinking I'll make an udon noodle soup for Tuesday.
It's been a while since I koshered a bird and now I think I'm going back to that method over brining. There are a few more steps involved, but the result is yum!
I think I always heard it as "Kashered." Personally, I call it dry brining. It's one of my favorite methods of preparing a whole chicken. It tastes better than the rotisserie style chickens at Costco which people rave about. I've also used this method on Thanksgiving turkeys! Your meal looks delicious!
ReplyDeleteI have heard those terms too. The best part is you don't need any fancy seasoning packets, etc. I also like it better than a rotisserie bird.
DeleteIt looks absolutely delicious.
ReplyDeleteJ x
So many of the kosher principles were due to food safety issues -- and this tastes great too! You can do it with any sort of meat, it doesn't just have to be chicken.
DeleteI have never even heard of that. I hate the blood that comes out of any meat. Blegh! I have a chicken in the crockpot, so it is too late for this one. Besides, it was frozen like a block of ice. Next time.
ReplyDeleteI think Kosher salt in general is better for cooking than regular table salt. You can sort of save the first step if you thaw your chicken by submerging it in water. I do that sometimes.
DeleteI have never done this but I am anxious to try it! Thanks.
ReplyDeleteLooks delicious!
ReplyDelete