Culinary Christmas

This is a special bird indeed—don’t confuse it with the poulet de Bresse or the capon. It is female, young, plumper, doesn’t lay eggs, and like the other poultry (including turkey), is fed strictly on milk and cereals (skimmed, buttermilk, etc.). Bred for only five months, they weigh at least 1.8kg. After you eat this one, there’s no going back; you won’t want to eat another chicken in any restaurant or at home. You are quite literally screwed on that front. What goes perfectly with this? Truffle. Complementary to such a regal queen, this is what she deserves. I started by carefully placing individual slices of black Perigord truffle underneath the skin of the entire bird, from front to back, and encased softened butter inside. I did this a few hours before starting. Before you begin to cook, you must leave the poultry at room temperature for 1–2 hours (don’t attempt to cook directly from the fridge). The skin is magnificent; it has the strength and resilience of a goose, thick, melting into lots of fat in the roasting tin. Season the skin well with salt, use your hands to massage in good olive oil, and have some quality white wine nearby to pour over it at intervals. A tad more olive oil is useful too. Despite what people often say, don’t use a £5 ‘bottle of plonk’ as if it doesn’t matter. Decent white wine matters more than ever for the Poularde, and you don’t want to ruin all your effort thus far. For a 2kg chicken, you’ll be looking at a cooking time of around 1 hour 40 minutes, starting hot at 200°C and reducing to 180°C after the first 35 minutes. Cover the breast with foil for the first 35–40 minutes as well.

To keep the bird nourished and well, you need to baste it. Towards the end, I was basting it a lot—at least every 10 minutes. Trust me, with this key step, it will all be worth it. When it was time to take her out of the oven, I left it to rest for a good hour, so when I began to carve, it was super moist and still hot, with nice crispy skin. I had already made a poularde jus in advance, and I always, always make my own chicken stock. If you want a good sauce, it must be homemade. I used the remaining juices from the cook to add to it and enhance the flavour. Perfect.

Alongside this, we had French heritage carrots, Brussels sprouts with châtaignes au naturel, French baby potatoes, French navet, and of course, more fresh black truffle to serve. You’ll also see that I used loads of it on the Mont d’Or! To end this Christmas celebration, a French cheese plate is the only way. You might be thinking, “Where is the dessert?” Well, I am quite particular—if I can’t make my own, then I’ll leave it. I opted for some chocolate instead. I didn’t have the means this time to make something. Et non, I didn’t fancy buying a bûche de Noël! I missed my Christmas pudding, but this is a small sacrifice for such a feast with sublime produce. Merry Christmas, everyone.