Poularde à la Portugaise

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •5 to 6 quart heavy cocotte or Dutch oven with lid
• •8 to 10 inch shallow baking dish
• •Wide frying pan
• •Medium saucepan
• •Fine-mesh sieve
• •Instant-read thermometer
• •Kitchen twine

Instructions

1. 1

   Cook the rice

   Put the rinsed rice in a small saucepan with the chicken stock and ¼ teaspoon of the salt. Bring it to a boil, stir once, then cover and lower the heat until the liquid barely trembles. Cook for 14 minutes, remove it from the heat, and leave it covered for 5 minutes. Fluff the grains onto a wide tray so they stop cooking and shed their surface moisture.

2. 2

   Dry the concassé

   Melt the butter for the rice in a wide frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the concassé, meaning the peeled, seeded, roughly chopped fresh tomatoes, with a pinch of salt and cook briskly for 8 to 12 minutes. Stir often until the tomato becomes dark, concentrated, and nearly dry, and a spoon leaves a clean trail across the pan. Fold in the rice and cook for another minute. If liquid gathers beneath the grains, spread everything thinly and cook it two minutes longer. Ça se rattrape. Transfer the rice to the tray and cool it before stuffing the bird.

   The tomato is ready when it smells sweet and savoury rather than raw. Colour is welcome; scorched black specks are not.
3. 3

   Stuff and truss

   Heat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Slice a lid from each of the four garnish tomatoes, scoop out the seeds and watery centre, season the cavities lightly, and stand them cut-side down for 20 minutes. Dry the poularde inside and out, then season it generously with the remaining salt and pepper. Spoon about 1¼ cups (300 ml / roughly 250 g) of cooled tomato rice loosely into the cavity, leaving room for heat to circulate. Reserve the rest for the tomatoes. Truss the legs without cinching the bird into a parcel.

4. 4

   Poêle the poularde

   Spread the sliced matignon of onion, carrot, and celery in a snug 5 to 6 quart cocotte and add the bouquet garni. Set the stuffed bird breast-side up on the vegetables and pour over the melted butter. Following Poëlings (No. 250), cover the cocotte and roast gently for 50 to 55 minutes, basting twice with the butter from the bottom. Add no stock while the bird cooks; moisture here would turn poëling into a pale braise. Uncover and roast for another 30 to 40 minutes, basting once, until the skin is burnished and both the thickest thigh and the centre of the stuffing register 165°F (74°C). If the skin colours before the centre is safe, cover the breast loosely with foil and continue cooking.

   Use a cocotte only slightly larger than the bird. Too much empty metal lets the butter and matignon burn before they can perfume the poularde.
5. 5

   Bake the tomatoes

   Blot the drained tomatoes and set them upright in a buttered shallow baking dish. Fill them without packing with the reserved tomato rice, replace their lids, and dot them with the butter. Put them in the oven when the poularde is uncovered and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, moving them to the upper shelf for the final 5 minutes so the edges colour as they would beneath a salamander. They should soften while still holding their walls. If one splits, nudge it together with two spoons and serve it proudly.

6. 6

   Build sauce Portugaise

   While the poularde roasts, melt the sauce butter in a wide saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the chopped onion and cook for 8 minutes without browning, then add the garlic for 30 seconds. Stir in the canned tomatoes and simmer uncovered for 20 to 25 minutes, stirring more often as they thicken, until the sauce is dense and no watery ring forms around a spoonful. If it catches, transfer the unburned sauce to a clean pan without scraping the bottom. Cooking well is not cooking fancy; it is paying attention at the right moment.

7. 7

   Recover the poëling liquor

   Lift the cooked poularde to a warm platter, cover it loosely, and rest it for 20 minutes. Put the cocotte over medium heat and pour 1 cup (240 ml / 240 g) of the brown stock directly onto the matignon and butter left by Poëlings (No. 250). Scrape up the fond and simmer gently for a full 10 minutes before removing any fat; that contact returns the bird and vegetables' aroma to the liquor. Strain through a fine sieve, pressing lightly, then skim the surface. Stir the strained liquor into sauce Portugaise and reduce until the sauce coats the back of a spoon. If it tightens too far, loosen it with the reserved stock. If it looks greasy, skim first, then whisk in one spoonful of hot stock. Ça se rattrape.

8. 8

   Coat and serve

   Taste the sauce for salt and pepper, then spoon enough over the rested poularde to coat it generously while leaving some burnished skin visible. Arrange the four stuffed tomatoes around the bird and finish the sauce with the coarsely chopped parsley. Pour the remainder into a warm sauceboat and carve the poularde at the table, giving each plate stuffing, tomato, and plenty of sauce. À table!

Chef Tips

• •A poularde is a plump young hen prized for tender, well-marbled flesh. If your butcher doesn't carry one, use the best large roasting chicken you comfortably can; the poêling matters more than the pedigree.
• •Use ripe plum tomatoes for the concassé because their flesh is dense and their seed cavities are small. For the sauce, good canned peeled tomatoes are the honest answer when fresh tomatoes are pale and watery.
• •The stock is doing the work once handled by a constantly tended stockpot. Choose an unsalted brown chicken or veal stock with body, then let it spend the full ten minutes with the buttery matignon before you strain it.
• •Never pack warm rice into the bird and leave it waiting. Cool the mixture promptly, stuff the poularde just before roasting, and verify the centre of the stuffing reaches 165°F (74°C).
• •Pour a supple Beaujolais or a dry Loire rosé. Tomato wants brightness, while the butter-poêlé poultry asks for enough fruit to stay present beside the sauce.

Advance Preparation

• •The tomato base for sauce Portugaise can be cooked up to two days ahead and chilled. Reheat it gently, then add the fresh poëling liquor only after the bird has roasted.
• •The tomato rice can be prepared earlier the same day. Spread it on a tray, chill it promptly, and keep it covered until needed; stuff the poularde only immediately before it enters the oven.
• •The garnish tomatoes may be hollowed and drained up to four hours ahead. Keep them chilled, then blot, fill, and bake them while the poularde colours.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 600g)