The original recipe says lemon zest, not strips (ie zesting not peeling). Anyone have any thoughts about if there's a difference in the end produc...

...t? Also i'm seeing a lot of people syaing it's better if covered for half the time at least. Has anyone experimented with covering/partially covering ?thanks

CanadaDan
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Jamie Oliver's Chicken in Milk
Recipe question for: Jamie Oliver's Chicken in Milk

10 Comments

Michele
Michele February 9, 2017
I made this after hearing so much about it. Unlike what I normally do I followed it to the letter. For us it was seriously underwhelming. Bland and blah, very disappointing. Maybe it was the mild flavor with the soft texture, but it was disappointing.
 
Katheleen
Katheleen February 9, 2017
I covered it for 40 minutes and cooked it uncovered for just 30 more... It was excellent and very moist
 
Susan W.
Susan W. October 24, 2015
Daniel, I have to say, when I tried to play around and increase the sauce because I wanted more, it was a fail. It sounds to me like you are in the camp of wanting an intense sauce rather than a greater amount of not so intense sauce.

I think lactose free milk should still cuddle. A friend of mine makes paneer and ricotta with lactose free milk. I think the problem was in using too much milk. Browning the chicken and devaluing the pan adds to the flavor of the sauce.

As far as your overcooked chicken, I'm not sure what happened there. Although, in general, it's not easy to cook a perfect whole chicken. I actually tried the recipe with chicken parts..I don't remember that being a big success. It's no fun when recipes don't work out.

Just because I love this somewhat odd recipe, you might have fun with it in case you don't want to attempt the chicken in milk again right away.

http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017152-feta-brined-roast-chicken
 
Susan W.
Susan W. October 24, 2015
I just remembered one more thing. My chicken at that weight was fully cooked at just under an hour. I removed it, but left the pot in the oven for the full 90 minutes. I carved the chicken and put it back in the pot for the last 15 minutes or so and it became fall apart tender.
 
CanadaDan
CanadaDan October 27, 2015
i like this idea...i'm determined to make this work so i'll try again eventually. a friend happened to make the same thing this weekend and it was better than mine but still missing something. i'm going to tinker with this...
 
Susan W.
Susan W. October 22, 2015
I've made this probably 4 times now. I cut the peel into long, wide strips being very careful not to include the white pith. Lemon zest doesn't describe the method, but the product. Outer peel with no pith. I think Jamie uses wide strips that are removed at the end in the original. I don't know if using microplaned zest would break the sauce. I wouldn't want to chance it. The broken sauce is what makes the recipe so delicious. As far as the lid goes, I found if you want more sauce, partially cover it. If you want a more intensely flavored sauce, don't cover it. I partially cover it and then remove the lid completely for the last bit. That is a matter of personal preference. Some people want a greater amount of sauce and some want the sauce to be stronger and more broken by letting it reduce. I fall in the middle. It's not the prettiest chicken dish you'll ever make, but it's absolutely delicious.
 
CanadaDan
CanadaDan October 22, 2015
thanks very much, strips it is
 
Susan W.
Susan W. October 22, 2015
Do report back and let us know how you liked it.
 
CanadaDan
CanadaDan October 22, 2015
will do...tomorrow night
 
CanadaDan
CanadaDan October 24, 2015
gotta say i (and my gf) was very disappointed with this considering how much i've heard about it. i'll caveat this by saying i made a few small changes...i used 3 cups of lactose-free whole milk instead of the 535 mls called for because i used a big oval le creuset. and per thekitchn's instructions i cooked it covered half the time and uncovered the rest.
as good as it smelled the sauce came out too thin...potentially because i used too much milk and covered it for half the time. it also didn't curdle at all (maybe because of the lactose free milk? i'm no chemist...). i also took the chicken out after 1h 15 min and it was just slightly overdone (at leas the breast was). It was around 170-175 degrees even though it was a 1.6 kg chicken and my over generally runs a little cold. the dark meat was still very juicy.

so i don't know...maybe my slight changes messed up the recipe. i'm determined to try again, next time without covering the pot and using less milk, and not the lactose free kind.

any other thoughts about what may have gone wrong?
 
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