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2012 Ten Speed Press eBook Edition Copyright © 2007, 2012 by James Peterson Photographs copyright copyri ght © 2007 by James Peterson A ll right All r ightss reserved. reser ved. Published Publ ished in the United States by Ten Ten Speed Press, an imprint i mprint of the Crown Publish P ublishing ing Group, a division of Random Ra ndom House, House, Inc., Inc., New York. York. ww w w w.crow .crownpubl npublish ishin ing.com g.com ww w w w.tenspeed.com Ten Speed Press and a nd the Ten Speed Speed Press colop colophon hon are registered reg istered trademarks tr ademarks of Random House, Inc. This work, with a new introduction, is comprised of material from Cooking by James Peterson, originally published in hardcover in the United States by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., Berkeley, in 2007. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Peterson, James. Cookingg / James Peterson. Cookin p.cm. 1. Cookery I. Title TX652.P455 2007 641.5—dc22 2007021065 eISBN 978-1-60774-399-6 Design by Nancy Austin 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 V3.1 V3 .1
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HOW TO CUT UP A RAW CHICKEN FOR SAUTÉING OR FRYING
1. Turn the chicken breast side down and cut through the wing joints, detaching the wings.
2. Cut the wing off at the second joint, so you leave a little still attached to the breast.
3. Pull a thigh forward and cut through the skin that runs along the side of the thigh.
4. Continue cutting until you reach the back, and then slide the knife along the back, under the oyster, the tiny nugget of meat nestled in the back.
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HOW TO CUT UP A RAW CHICKEN FOR SAUTÉING OR FRYING,
continued
5. Continue in this way until you have completely detached the thigh.
6. Rotate the chicken around and repeat on the other side.
7. Cut through the skin that connects the other thigh to the back.
8. Completely remove the second thigh.
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HOW TO CUT UP A RAW CHICKEN FOR SAUTÉING OR FRYING,
continued
9. Turn the chicken so the pointed end of the breasts is facing up. Whack through the bone with a knife to cut through the ribs and separate them from the back.
10. Pull the ribs away from the breasts .
11. Snap off the section w ith the ribs. Cut around the inside of the collarbone to detach the rib section.
12. Pull the skin over the breasts so they are both well covered.
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SAUTÉED CHICKEN The tastiest tast iest way to sauté a whole whole chicken is to cut it up into 2 breasts and 2 thig t highs hs and sauté it in butter but ter or olive oil. Always A lways use a pan just jus t large enough to hold the pieces. If the pan is too big, the juices ru n into the exposed par ts and burn. bur n. Cover any spaces with the chicken giblets and the chicken back. Start the chicken skin side down down so that th at the skin ski n renders renders its fat and turns tu rns crispy cri spy.. A nonstick pan is handy, since chicken skin ski n can stick. s tick. If you don’t don’t have a nonstick pan, move the pan quickly back and forth on the burner during the first few minutes of cooking. If the chicken is sticking stick ing when you try tr y to turn tu rn it, cook it for for a few minutes more. It It will wi ll often of ten come loose when the skin sk in cooks cook s a bit longer.
Chicken Sautéed in Butter The amount of butter in this recipe often puts off cooks and guests, but very little lit tle of it is actually absorbed by the chicken. In fact, if you measure both the fat that goes into the dish and the t he fat that comes out, you will discover more fat comes out. out . That’s That’s because the butter causes ca uses the fat in the skin to render and liquefy. And even though very little butter butter is absor absorbed, bed, the the chicken chicken has an an intensely intensely buttery flavor becaus becausee the proteins in the butter cling to the skin and flavor it. Many guests have declared this simple dish the best chicken they have ever eaten. If you are dead set against the butter, substitute olive oil. MAKES 4 MAIN-COURSE SERVINGS
One 4-pound chicken Salt Pepper 4 tablespoons butter or pure olive oil
Cut up the chicken and chicken and season the pieces on both sides with w ith salt and pepper.
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In a skillet just large enough to hold the chicken, heat the butter over me dium to high heat. Put the th e chicken chicke n pieces, skin side down, in the pan and cook cook for about 12 minutes, minutes, or until the skin sk in is golden brown. Turn the pieces over and cook for about 7 minutes longer, or until the thighs and breasts are firm f irm to the touch. Serve Ser ve immediately. VARIATIONS
Nearly every country countr y in the world has simple sautéed chicken recipes such as this one. European recipes, especially esp ecially French ones, tell you to pour out and discard the f at in the pan, and then put together some kind k ind of sauce or garnish in the pan used to cook the chicken. This makes sense if you have used use d a traditional pan (not nonstick), which will have savory juices clinging cl inging to it. But if you have used a nonstick nonst ick pan, there th ere will w ill be no clinging cl inging juices, juice s, so you can just ju st as easily e asily put p ut together toge ther a sauce s auce or garnish gar nish in another anoth er pan or saucepan s aucepan while w hile the chicken is cooking.
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