No. 1830

Chicken with Bacon, Maitre-d'Hotel—Broiled

Poulet Grille au Petit Sale a la Maitre-d'Hotel

Singe a good small chicken, draw and clean it well plucking out all the feathers; leave the pinions on; cut off the legs one inch below the joint and split the chicken down through the back to open it entirely; take out the breast bone and lights, clean the insides properly decreasing the bones of the carcass; beat the chicken in order to flatten it, and pare (Fig. 353), then lay it in a dish and baste with melted butter or oil; season with salt and place it in a double broiler to broil over a slow fire for fifteen to twenty minutes; after the chicken has acquired a fine color and is properly done, dress it on an oval hot dish and cover with some maitre-d'hotel butter (No. 581), surround with slices of bacon and serve.

← No. 1829 Chicken a la Irving—Broiled and Stuffed Chicken No. 1831 Chicken with Tarragon Gravy or Sauce—Broiled →

For the Modern Kitchen

A spatchcocked broiled chicken finished with parsley-lemon butter, from Ranhofer's Delmonico's kitchen. Almost everything here still works; the numbers are what need adjusting.

The hinge: bird size and donenessFifteen to twenty minutes only makes sense for a much smaller bird than we buy today. A supermarket broiler of 3½–4 lb, split and flattened, needs roughly 35–45 minutes over moderate heat, and the thickest part of the thigh should read 165F.
Singe, draw, lightsSingeing burns off residual pinfeather down over a flame — unnecessary on a modern processed bird. "Lights" are the lungs, the spongy pink tissue tucked along the ribs; scrape them out with a fingernail or spoon if they remain.
PinionsThe pinion is the outermost wing joint. Ranhofer leaves it on; it will char before the breast is cooked, so tuck it under or wrap it in foil.
"Decreasing the bones of the carcass"Best read as reducing the bones, i.e. trimming out the rib and carcass bones so the bird lies flat. Remove the keel and ribs, keep the leg, thigh and wing bones.
Double broilerNot a bain-marie. It is a hinged wire grill that clamps the bird between two grids so it can be turned in one motion over coals. A grill basket, or two racks wired together, does the same job; failing that, weight the bird under a foil-wrapped brick in a heavy pan.
"A slow fire"Coals burned down past their flaming stage, grey and even — moderate rather than fierce heat. Skin-side dripping fat over a hot fire will flare and blacken before the thigh is done.
Petit saléThe title says bacon, but petit salé is salt pork — belly cured in salt, not smoked. Blanch it briefly to draw off salt, then brown the slices; unsmoked pancetta is the closest common substitute, and streaky bacon is acceptable.
Maître d'hôtel butterRanhofer's No. 581 is butter creamed with chopped parsley, lemon juice, salt and pepper, then chilled. Something on the order of two ounces of butter to a tablespoon of parsley and a teaspoon of juice; lay it on cold so it melts into the hot bird at the table.
YieldThe recipe gives no yield; a small bird of this kind is one or two portions. A modern 4 lb chicken split this way feeds three or four.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894) set down thirty years of Delmonico's cooking in New York, and its chicken chapter runs to dozens of near-identical broiled birds distinguished only by their garnish — tarragon gravy, deviled crumbs, stuffed à la Irving, and here salt pork with parsley butter. The technique of splitting a bird down the back and flattening it for the grill is old and pan-European; the English word for it, spatchcock, is generally traced to eighteenth-century Ireland, while the French kitchen called it à la crapaudine when the bird was shaped to resemble a toad. Maître d'hôtel butter — the name refers to the master of the household, or head steward — could make a plain broiled chop or chicken look composed the moment it left the fire.