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Smothered Chicken
This is one of the most delicious ways of cooking chickens. Clean, take off the neck and split the chicken down the back, wiping it with a damp towel. Season inside and out with salt and pepper, and dredge on all sides with flour. Lay the chicken, with the inside down, in a small baking tin, adding a very little water. The pan should be but little larger than the chicken; otherwise the gravy will be too quickly evaporated. Cook slowly for one hour, basting every ten minutes after the first twenty minutes cooking. Should the chicken be decidedly lacking in fat, add a small tablespoon of butter. There will be plenty of gravy in the pan with which to baste, if the pan is small. When done, place the chicken on a hot platter, and thicken the gravy in the pan with a little flour, after adding another one-half cup of water. Should the chicken be quite fat, remove all but one tablespoon of the oil from the pan before making the gravy. Season with salt and pepper to taste, pour the gravy over the chicken, and serve at once. Any small birds may he dressed in this way, with the most satisfactory results, the secret of success in this kind of roasting lying in very frequent basting and in not having too hot an oven.
A spatchcocked bird roasted slowly in a tight pan, self-basting into its own gravy. Almost everything here still works; the main adjustments are oven temperature, bird size, and doneness.
- The hinge: a small panThe instruction to use a tin "but little larger than the chicken" is the whole technique. In a large pan the rendered fat and juices spread thin and scorch, and there is nothing to baste with. Use a heavy pan or skillet the bird just fits, and top up with a few tablespoons of water if it looks dry.
- "Cook slowly" means 325F"Cook slowly" — The recipe gives no temperature, only "cook slowly" and a warning against "too hot an oven." A modern equivalent is around 325F: the skin browns gradually while the basting liquid holds, whereas at high heat the pan juices reduce to burnt fond long before the thighs are done.
- Split down the backSplit down the back — This is effectively spatchcocking. Cut along the back with shears and press the bird flat, laying it inside down (skin side up) as the recipe directs, so the surface browns. Modern chickens are sold with the neck already off.
- One hour assumes a small birdOne hour assumes a small bird — Birds sold for roasting in this period were generally much smaller than today's, often in the 2 to 3 lb range. A supermarket bird at 3 1/2 to 4 lb needs closer to an hour and fifteen minutes at 325F. Judge by an instant-read thermometer: 165F at the thickest part of the thigh, clear of bone.
- BastingEvery ten minutes after the first twenty is not fussiness; it is what puts colour on a bird cooked below true roasting heat. If you would rather not open the oven that often, baste every fifteen minutes and accept slightly paler skin.
- Flour dredgeThe flour coating browns and then dissolves into the pan liquid, which is why the finished gravy needs only a little more flour. Season the bird well before dredging; the coating blunts surface salt.
- Finishing the gravyPour off all but about a tablespoon of fat, stir in a scant tablespoon of flour, cook it a minute, then add the half cup of water off the heat and whisk smooth. Stock or the giblet liquor gives more depth than plain water.
- "Any small birds"Cornish hens, quail and poussin all suit this treatment; game birds with very little fat need the butter the recipe mentions and benefit from a strip of bacon over the breast.
- YieldA 3 1/2 to 4 lb chicken done this way serves four, with roughly a cup of gravy.
"Smothered" in American cookery of this period is applied to birds and meats cooked close in their own steam and fat, sometimes under a lid or weight, sometimes simply pressed flat in a tight pan as here, and the word attaches to everything from chicken to rabbit to onions. The technique sits between roasting and braising, and it belonged to households where the oven was a wood or coal range whose heat was managed by damper rather than dial, which is why the note about "not having too hot an oven" carries so much weight. A closely related version, floured, browned in a skillet and finished in gravy on top of the stove, became a fixture of Southern and later African American home cooking. The Butterick Company published its cook book as part of the same domestic-advice enterprise that sold dress patterns and The Delineator, aimed at a middle-class housekeeper cooking without staff, which accounts for the practical, explanatory register: the recipe tells her not only what to do but why the pan size matters.