Poultry

Do-ahead tips make this rendition of the Spanish classic perfect for entertaining.

My grandmother made a great Friday night dinner in her two-story limestone in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. She might as well have run a restaurant. There was lots and lots and lots of stuff—kreplach, gribenes, gefilte fish, blintzes, homemade noodles, roast chicken, glazed carrots, egg barley with dried Polish mushrooms. In 1918 during an influenza epidemic my grandmother was 20 years old with two children. First her husband died and two days later her mother died. With eight younger siblings and two of her own, she took care of ten kids in the family. Then an aunt caught the flu and died leaving eight or nine children. My grandmother then married her uncle and raised 18 kids. The secret to her roast chicken was to cook it long enough to render the fat from the chicken and make it crispy. —Eddie Schoenfeld, New York restaurateur

(Poulet aux Echalotes de Mme. Lascourrèges) This is an interpretation of a recipe given to me by Denise Lascourrèges, whom our son christened "Madame Châtaigne." It was she who revealed to us the marvelous Gascon woods, which were so full of chestnuts we had to dodge those falling from the trees. Mme. Lascourrèges raises her own chickens and ducks, and the appear frequently on her table. At her house I found ways of preparing chicken that departed from the norm. This recipe, which relies on the sweet heat of shallots and the bite of vinegar, intrigued me most of all, and I've made it often since I returned from her farm. I use the oven most often, though occasionally I cook it on the grill, which is the way Mme. Lascourrèges usually makes it. In general, French farm cooks use a lot of shallots, which here turn dark and caramelized — some turn almost black — but they don’t get bitter. Instead, their flavor intensifies. The vinegar adds a pleasant tartness; the oil smooths all. At the last minute I like to add parsley, which scents the whole dish with its slight anise flavor. Consider it an option — it is my addition to Mme. Lascourrèges’s recipe. Try this with a lightly chilled dry red Bordeaux, or a Chinon. Watch how to cut a whole chicken into parts to use in this recipe.

Gehockte Leber This forspeis is so simple and straightforward that it is underappreciated as the gourmet dish it really is. My general rules for making chopped liver are: 1. Use only chicken liver to make this dish. Do not use beef or calf liver. Their flavors are too strong.
2. Use schmaltz. Do not substitute oil or any other fat. If you are concerned about cholesterol, eat chopped liver less often, but eat the uncompromised version. Anyway, the amount of schmaltz per portion of chopped liver in this recipe is the equivalent of no more than one pat of butter.
3. Chop all the ingredients by hand rather than by machine. Chopped liver should not look like a puree or a pâté. In texture it resembles French pate du campagne or the Quebecois rillets du gran'mère, coarse and rustic.
4. Eat it in small portions — it is very rich — and make it only for special occasions. Then you eat it less often and enjoy it more when you do.

Even though turkeys are rarely stuffed in the South, cooks usually tuck a few flavorful ingredients—like apple and onion—inside the bird before it goes into the oven. In this recipe, the outside of the turkey is rubbed with bacon drippings so that the skin will be golden, crisp and delicious.

Scott Winkelhausen of Rhome, Texas, writes: "The following wrap is great for entertaining. I serve it with my favorite salad or chips and a nice glass of Sauvignon Blanc or a Margarita. The curried aïoli is also good on chicken or roast beef sandwiches."

Daphne serves the <epi:recipeLink id="5452"Rice with Spinach and Feta Cheese</epi:recipeLink> alongside this flavorful chicken dish.

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are excerpted from chef Neil Perry's book Rockpool. Neil also shared some helpful cooking tips exclusively with Epicurious, which we've added at the bottom of the page. For your convenience, we've converted the measures — with as much accuracy as possible — from Australian to American. For those who have metric equipment and wish to follow Neil's recipe to the milliliter, we've included the original measures too. This recipe is an accompaniment for Lobster, Soy Chicken, and Mango Salad . Master Stock Chicken is to me the Chinese equivalent of a beautifully roasted chicken with garlic. I find the best thing to do with the chicken the next day is to fry it.

My Grammie Ethel was best known for her cookies and fudge. But she also made a mean chopped liver. What was remarkable about Grammie Ethel's chopped liver was how mild, light and fluffy it was—it didn't taste too much like liver. (This is important when you're eight years old and a finicky eater.) Her secret was the high proportion of hard-boiled egg whites to liver. And the hand-cranked metal meat grinder my grandmother used her whole life to grind the ingredients into a chunky purée. Low-fat chopped liver might seem like an oxymoron. After all, liver is one of the fattiest and most cholesterol-laden substances known to man. By replacing most of the liver with mushrooms (keeping just enough liver for flavor) and by roasting the ingredients in a hot oven instead of sautéeing them, we create a chopped liver that explodes with flavor and is mercifully light on fat. I'm sure my grandmother would have approved. Note: To be in strict accordance with the kashrut, you would boil, not roast, the chicken liver. (This is considered a more effective way to remove the blood.) Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes

I came across this amusing recipe in an old South African cookbook and could not resist the name. Not only are two kinds of white wine plus some brandy called for, but the drier wine that is used for a marinade is thrown away, testimony to the abundance of wine in the fertile Cape province. The chicken roasts surprisingly fast in less than an hour, turning to an even, glowing brown — indeed, my only caution is to avoid letting it color too much. The pearl barley, prune, and apricot pilaf is an appetizing brown, too, studded with the rich colors of the fruit. If you want to work ahead, the pilaf keeps well for several days in the refrigerator, but the chicken is best freshly roasted just before it is served. Wine for Cooking South Africa's recent political renaissance has prompted the reappearance of its wines in American markets at very attractive prices. For the marinade, any dry white will do but, for authenticity's sake, it would be fun to start with a South African wine, perhaps a Cape riesling. For the sauce, a luscious sweet white is needed and a muscat from the Constantia or Robertson district would be ideal. Wine to Drink Sticking to the South African theme at the table, I would suggest a sauvignon blanc or a chardonnay from Stellenbosch, one with sufficient fruit to match the muscat in the sauce and the prunes and apricots in the pearl barley.

We think all turkeys are improved by brining (soaking in salt water), but it's a cumbersome task that few holiday schedules can accommodate. We find kosher turkeys, which are salted during the koshering process, to be just as flavorful and succulent as brined ones, without all the fuss. However, if you'd like to try brining, stir together 8 quarts water with 2 cups kosher salt in a 5-gallon bucket lined with a large heavy-duty plastic garbage bag and soak your raw turkey, covered and chilled, 10 hours. *Note: The Spinach, Bacon, and Cashew stuffing for this turkey is contained in the Stuffed Onions recipe.

Cooking chicken as described in the recipe below results in really crisp, almost transparent skin (like that on Peking duck) and moist flesh.

This is the basic method for preparing a chicken sauté to which you can add flavoring variations. You may dredge the chicken with flour if you wish. This gives a browner color but unflavored chicken is more delicate.

You can make a foil packet for the wood chips (see instructions), or buy a disposable aluminum pan that fits your grill.

Begin making these a day ahead.

A light, low-calorie one-dish supper.