A whole chicken, part 4

Our next step on the chicken expedition is the legs. I wanted to get a little fancy with it tonight, though, so I tried out a few new ideas.

See Part 1

See Part 2

See Part 3

My first new idea was removing the meat from the bones. I really didn't want to eat with my hands, so the bones had to go. It took a little longer than I would have liked, mainly because my knife wasn't sharp enough (guess who's sharpening knives this week...). As I've mentioned before, I don't like wasting, so the bones got used for broth (more on that later).

My second idea was to make a roasted veggie sauce. I thinly sliced some onion and carrot, crushed a garlic clove, chopped a kale stem, and tossed on a chicken leg bone. I poured some extra virgin olive oil over it, seasoned with some salt (on everything) and pepper (on the veggies), then threw the pan into the oven at 350 for about 12 minutes or so. The veggies went into the food processor; the bone went into a pot of water, which I heated to a boil then reduced to a simmer while I started cooking the chicken.

I seasoned the meat with salt, pepper, and celery flakes and pan fried it in a tablespoon of butter and a drizzle of olive oil. I started it skin side down and let it cook until that skin got a bit browned and crisped up. I added a clove of slivered garlic, gave the chicken a flip, let it finish cooking, then tossed it onto a plate and covered it with foil to keep it all warm. Simple, how I do.

Once the chicken was removed, I deglazed with some white wine and dumped in some slivered garlic and let that start frying. Once the edges started to turn brown, I added in some chopped radicchio and wood ear mushrooms and let them cook down for a few minutes before I dumped in the kale leaf.

Once the chicken broth had cooked down a bit (I kept tasting it over time until it hit the strength of flavor I was wanting). I had added a bit of salt, too. With broth, I just keep tasting, adjusting, and keeping an eye on it. I promise I'll be doing a broth post soon. Anyway, I added the broth into the food processor with the roasted veggies and blended it all together. I was hoping for a sauce; I got a chicken veggie soup instead: imagine if Campbell's chicken and veggie soup tasted fresh. So, for plating, I put down a bed of the veggie blend, set a (boneless) chicken leg on top, and ladled a bit of soup onto the plate. Eating it all together was a bit of a dream.

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