America's Test Kitchen (2000–…): Season 22, Episode 3 - French Chicken and Potatoes - full transcript
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
-Today
on "America's Test Kitchen,"
Erin shows Julia
how to make poulet au vinaigre,
Dan explains the science
of crispy chicken skin,
and Keith makes Bridget
tourte aux pommes de terre.
It's all coming up right here
on "America's Test Kitchen."
♪♪
-Poulet au vinaigre
or chicken in vinegar
is a classic example
of simple French cooking.
It's from the city of Lyon
and often served in bouchons,
which are casual restaurants
that highlight traditional food.
And today Erin's gonna
show us how to make it.
-I am, Julia.
This is a fabulous,
rustic French dish,
and it consists of chicken,
white wine, red wine vinegar,
and it's finished
with a touch of cream.
-Mmm.
-And it's a snap to make.
Okay, so we're gonna start
with chicken thighs...
-Mm-hmm.
-...because we love
how it braises.
And we're starting
with eight chicken thighs
and each one is about 5
to 7 ounces each
and they're bone-in and skin-on.
I have one more chicken
thigh to trim,
so really want to make sure
that you leave enough skin
to cover the meat.
-Mm-hmm.
-And that's gonna protect
the meat as it cooks.
It's gonna baste as
the fat renders out of the skin.
But we're gonna sear these,
and moisture is not good
when you're searing something.
So no matter
what you're cooking,
you always want it to be
as dry as possible.
So now we're gonna season the
chicken with salt and pepper.
-Mm-hmm.
-So I have 1/4 teaspoons
of salt,
3/4 teaspoon of pepper.
I'm just gonna season
both sides.
Okay, so the chicken's
ready to go.
I'm just gonna go wash my hands
before we go on
to the next step.
Alright.
Okay, so, Julia,
I have 1 tablespoon
of vegetable oil heating up
in a traditional 12-inch
skillet over medium heat.
-Mm-hmm. She's smoking.
-So we're ready
to start cooking our chicken.
When you use
a traditional skillet,
you get more fond,
and we want that fond.
Fond is, like, the key here.
It's really gonna add
a lot of flavor to our sauce.
And if you use
a nonstick skillet,
it doesn't have as much fond.
-That's right, because
the browning sticks to the food,
not the pan.
-Exactly.
Okay, Julia.
So while this is cooking,
I'm gonna come over here
and prep my shallot and garlic.
-Okay.
-This is a shallot.
Lop off the ends,
cut it in half.
There's a little skin
left on there.
-Mm-hmm.
-You want to remove that.
Put your fingers on top
and then just slowly
run your knife through it
in many horizontal cuts.
And then I'm gonna turn it,
and I'm gonna do
perpendicular cuts.
And then you basically
just run your knife through it.
Most important thing here
is that the shallot is stable.
As I'm holding that with a claw,
I'm kind of guiding my knife
with my middle knuckle.
-Mm-hmm.
-And here we go -- a fine mince.
-Nicely done.
-Now I'm gonna move on
to my garlic.
So two peeled garlic cloves.
-Mm-hmm.
-And I'm just
gonna lop off the ends.
And now I'm just gonna slice
this very thinly.
Again, I'm using the claw.
I'm gripping the garlic,
so it's not sliding.
I'm guiding the knife
with my knuckle
and I just run right through it.
Alright.
So it's been about eight
minutes, and as you can see,
the chicken thighs
are shrinking.
I'm just gonna flip these over.
And now we're gonna let these
cook for another three minutes,
and we're gonna get
the other side nice and brown.
Okay, so these have been cooking
for about three minutes,
and we're browning
the second side
and we're just
lightly browning it.
-Beautiful.
-And...and we're gonna transfer
these to a plate.
They're not cooked yet, clearly.
-Mm-hmm.
Look at that fond
in the bottom of the pan.
-It is beautiful, isn't it?
-It is.
And that's gonna add
serious flavor to any sauce.
-Okay, so now I'm gonna pour off
all but 2 tablespoons
of chicken fat.
Now we're building
our braise base.
Okay, so I'm gonna add
our shallots
and our sliced garlic,
and we're just gonna
slowly cook this
for about a minute and a half.
We really want to scrape that up
as the shallots and garlic
soften
because you want to incorporate
that into our braising liquid.
-Mm-hmm.
-Alright.
So you can smell that, right?
-Smells amazing.
-Smells amazing, doesn't it?
Now we're gonna
add our liquid,
so I'm gonna start with
1 cup of chicken broth
and 1 cup of dry white wine.
And if you don't have
white wine on hand,
you can also use vermouth.
-Mm-hmm.
-And then the star of the
dish -- red wine vinegar.
-Mm-hmm.
-We're using 1/3 cup
of red wine vinegar,
as I'm just scraping up
any last fond
that I might have
missed earlier.
Okay.
So we're just bringing this up
to a simmer,
and I'm gonna add the chicken
back to the pan, skin-side up.
If we did it skin-side down,
we would just totally lose
our nice,
crispy, beautiful skin.
Alright.
So we're gonna put this
into a 325-degree oven
on the lower middle rack.
The sweet spot that we want
to keep this chicken cooking at
is between 140, 195.
-Okay.
-And we want it to be in that
range for as long as possible.
So that's why we're putting it
into a fairly low oven
for about 35 to 40 minutes
until the chicken
temps out at 195.
♪♪
-That smells amazing, Erin.
-Thank you.
Alright, so we cooked this
for 35 to 40 minutes.
-Mm-hmm.
-And it cooked
until it reached 195.
-Mm-hmm.
-We didn't want to go beyond 195
or else
it will start to get dry.
-That's right and fall apart.
But you still managed
to keep that crisp crust.
-It's so important, right?
We worked hard for that crust.
Okay, so now
I'm taking the chicken out
so I can finish the sauce.
Tent that loosely
just so it stays warm.
So now to the sauce.
So traditionally the recipe
calls for fresh tomatoes.
-Mm-hmm.
-But we wanted
to add tomato flavor
but from the pantry.
-Nice.
-So now I'm gonna add
1 tablespoon of tomato paste,
like, a sweet-tart flavor and
also, like, a blast of umami.
-Yeah. Also it helps
to thicken up the sauce
ever so slightly.
-Yeah, it does. Absolutely.
And as you can see, there's more
fond on the edge of the pan.
You want to scrape that in.
-Looking mighty fine there,
Erin.
-Look at that.
So this has been reduced down
to a cup and a quarter.
We are ready to finish it.
I'm gonna add 2 tablespoons
of butter off heat...
-Mm-hmm.
-...and a tablespoon
of minced tarragon.
And look at the consistency.
The sauce already has body.
It's good on seasoning,
but I'm also gonna give it
a splash of vinegar.
So up to a teaspoon of vinegar.
It's just gonna brighten up
the flavors of the dish.
What the heck?
I'm gonna add all of it
because I can taste with my eyes
and I know that it's gonna be
perfect.
-You can taste with your eyes.
-I can taste with my eyes.
-I love that phrase.
-Now I'm just gonna pour
the sauce around the chicken,
and I'm gonna avoid the skin.
And a trick that I can show you
is I also like to tip the plate.
So you can also pour it
on one side and then tip it
so it goes everywhere.
Okay.
Are you hungry?
Would you like to try some?
-I would love to try some.
-Would you like
a thigh or a thigh?
-[ Laughs ]
I'll take a thigh...or two.
-Or two?
-Mm-hmm.
-Alright.
-They look beautiful.
-I saved a little sauce
for our plates.
-Mmm.
-This is the easiest dish
to pull together,
and it's the most gratifying.
-Alright, here we go.
Mmm.
Mmm. That sauce
has so much flavor.
I was worried it was gonna
have sort of a harsh bite,
but it is mellow and smooth
and just has a lovely,
complex flavor.
-And the chicken is absolutely
tender, juicy, supple.
-Mm-hmm.
Mmm. [ Chuckling ]
-Is that good?
-That's really good.
-I mean, this sauce tastes like
we literally made, like,
a chicken stock,
and we reduced it twice.
-Yes.
-I mean, it's --
it's so rich in flavor.
-Oh, and that little hit of
vinegar and tarragon at the end.
This, Erin, is lovely.
Thank you.
-Absolutely. Thank you.
-So if you want to make this
simple but flavorful chicken,
brown chicken thighs thoroughly
in a 12-inch skillet.
Use a combination of broth,
white wine, and red wine vinegar
for the braising liquid.
Let the chicken finish
cooking in a moderate oven.
From "America's Test Kitchen,"
a classic Lyonnaise dish --
poulet au vinaigre.
♪♪
This is definitely going
into my weekday rotation.
♪♪
-We've all been there.
You roast a chicken
to a lovely golden brown,
pull it out of the oven,
and it looks perfect like this
with beautiful, taut skin.
You're so excited to eat.
Then after the chicken rests,
it ends up looking like this,
where the skin is all wrinkled.
Well, here's what's happening.
The chicken skin
right out of the oven
is a lot like this balloon.
The skin has stretched
and inflated thanks to steam.
And the resting period
where it cools down
causes it
to wrinkle up like this.
We can bring this balloon
back to its former glory
by removing it
from the liquid nitrogen
and letting it warm up
in the heat of the air.
And the same thing
works for our chicken.
Just place the bird back
in the oven
for a few minutes
to heat the exterior.
You'll have beautiful poultry
like this every time.
♪♪
-Hey, do you like
scalloped potatoes?
Or how about pot pie?
Well, have I got a treat
for you.
Today we are making
a tourte aux pommes de terre.
It's a potato pie from France,
and it might just be the
pinnacle of all comfort foods.
And Keith's here.
He's gonna show us
how to make this
incredible dish at home.
-It's great. It's really,
really decadent.
And like you say, it's comfort
food at its finest.
And what it consists of
are thinly sliced potatoes
and onions
that are tossed with heavy cream
or crème fraîche,
and they're baked in
a double-crust pastry shell.
So we are gonna start
with our crust today.
-Okay.
-I'm going to start
by grating some butter.
I'm gonna grate 4 tablespoons
of this butter.
I've left the paper
on a stick of butter
so I can just kind of measure
4 tablespoons from the end.
And also so I don't grate
my fingers on the grater.
So I just have
a box grater here.
-And that butter is very cold.
-You can't grate warm butter.
It's not fun.
-No.
-So I'm just gonna
put this into a bowl.
I want to make sure
that this is really,
really cold
when it goes into the dough.
So I'm gonna put it
in the freezer,
and I'm gonna leave it there
until it's time to use it later.
-Okay.
-Okay, the butter is safely
in the freezer,
and we can start
to put the dough together.
So I have 1 1/2 cups
of all-purpose flour in here,
and I'm gonna add a teaspoon
of table salt.
And I just want
to pulse this really quickly
to work that salt
into the flour.
-Okay.
-Now I'm gonna take all
of our butter --
16 tablespoons that's been cut
in half-inch pieces.
-And this butter is
very cold as well.
-It is cold. Yeah.
So I'm gonna let this run
for 40 to 50 seconds.
So what we're looking for
is the butter
is gonna fully incorporate
into that flour,
and it's gonna look
kind of like a cookie dough.
-Okay.
-It's been about 45 seconds,
and you can see
that we've worked that butter
into the flour completely.
So I'm just gonna break this
into large chunks --
about 2-inch pieces.
Just redistribute it
around the blade.
Now, for the second part,
I'm gonna add 1 cup
of all-purpose flour to this.
And now, this flour,
when it's mixed with water
later on,
that's gonna provide
the structure for the dough.
So this is gonna be
super tender,
but the flour and the water
mixed together
will create gluten and make
the structure that we need.
Now, I don't want to work
this too far into the dough.
I just want four
or five quick pulses
just to break up
large butter pieces
and get the flour
mixed together.
Okay, great.
So we have
some larger pieces in here
and some smaller pieces,
but that's okay.
We want to make sure that
we leave some flour unmixed.
Take this,
transfer it over to our bowl.
Now, you can kind of look
in here and see.
I have some
larger pieces like this.
I can make sure
I break those up.
We do want to make sure that
we leave enough unmixed flour
in there to create structure.
-Okay.
-So I'm gonna go
get our grated butter,
and we'll mix that in next.
-Sounds good.
-Okay, so I'll just
toss this around,
making sure to separate
those pieces of flour,
breaking up any really large
chunks of that flour dough.
We're gonna add 1/2 cup
of ice water in total,
but I'm gonna do it
in two batches to make sure
that we get that water really
well-incorporated in there.
So I'm gonna start with 1/4 cup.
Thank you.
-You bet.
-I'm just gonna
mix this around,
kind of push it
against the side.
Make sure that I'm getting
all that dry flour
off the bottom there.
-You're just looking
for even hydration
after the second batch, right?
-Exactly.
Yeah, we want that flour
that's not coated with fat
to absorb all of this liquid.
This is our second 1/4 cup.
I'm just gonna add this
to the dough.
This is our final
addition of water.
You can start to see
that it looks really wet.
It looks like you've made
a mistake at this point.
-Yes.
-But trust the process.
It really will work.
Fold it over, smear it, fold.
This looks great.
It looks wet right now,
but it will dry as it sits.
So I'm just gonna divide this
in half with my spatula.
And if I can ask you to bring a
piece of plastic wrap over here,
I'm gonna put
half of it here.
Now, there's some ways
to shape this
to create no fissures
around the side.
Really want to bring the sides
of the plastic wrap up
and kind of smoosh it down
as you're bringing it up
tightly.
-And you're wanting to get it
nice and compact
because later on,
when you roll it out,
if there's a small crack
or fissure in there,
it turns into a big fault line.
-And you can't come back
from that.
So we want to make sure
that we have a fissure-free
exterior right now.
I'm just gonna finish
pulling up the edges here,
making sure
that we don't have any fissures.
Tuck that in,
press this down
into a 5-inch circle.
and you can feel
this dough right now
is quite soft,
but it will hydrate as it sits.
So I'm gonna shape
the rest of our dough
into another 5-inch circle,
and I'm gonna put those
in the refrigerator after that
for at least two hours
and up to two days.
-Okay.
♪♪
-On to the filling.
Now, when we tried this,
we found some problems
with the filling.
Most recipes are putting
raw potatoes and onions
into the crust and baking it,
and then you finish it
with a little bit of cream
towards the end of baking.
Well, we found that
to be really inconsistent.
Sometimes the potatoes
didn't soften,
the onions didn't soften
or you had too much cream
or too little cream.
So I have a couple of tricks
that we're gonna use
to get the perfect texture
of this filling.
-Okay.
-The first thing we're gonna do
is we're gonna
take one onion,
take the root end out.
We're gonna slice this up.
I'm gonna take these onions,
put it into a bowl.
I'm gonna take 1 1/2 teaspoons
of table salt.
I'm gonna toss that
with the onions.
The salt is gonna take
the moisture out of these onions
and soften them.
And so, by the time
we put them in the filling,
they'll already be pre-softened.
You get this really sweet,
subtle onion flavor
in the background
rather than
kind of a cooked-onion flavor.
-Gotcha.
-It's really nice.
So really toss these well.
I'm just gonna let these
soften over here
while I prepare our potatoes.
-Okay.
-Now, I have 2 pounds
of Yukon gold potatoes
cut into 8-inch slices.
We really like Yukon gold
potatoes here.
They're creamy, they're buttery.
They make a really nice filling.
Now, we're gonna cook
our potatoes just a little bit
before they go into the filling.
That way, we can ensure
that they're properly cooked
when they come out.
So I have 4 quarts of water
that are boiling over there.
I'm just gonna slide these
into the water,
and I'm gonna also add
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda.
Stir that in.
Now, that baking soda is gonna
start to break down the exterior
of those slices of potatoes
so they release their starches.
And you can see when we mix it
with a cream,
those starches will come out
and thicken it
and make this nice,
creamy, cohesive sauce
that will coat those potatoes.
So we're gonna bring that up
to a boil
and cook it for one minute.
We're really not looking to cook
the potatoes too, too much.
We just want to give them a
little bit of a head start.
Okay.
Potatoes have been boiling
for a minute.
It's time to drain.
Put the potatoes
back into the pot,
and now I'm going to
add our cream.
So I have 1 1/4 cups of cream.
-There's the cream.
-There's the cream.
I have three cloves
of minced garlic,
1/2 teaspoon of pepper,
1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg.
-Hmm.
-And now we're gonna add our
softened onions and the juices.
We want to make sure that
we capture all of these juices
because that is where
the salt is.
So I'm gonna bring this up
to a simmer over high heat.
Stir this and cook this
for about five minutes,
and you can see
that the starches
are gonna come out
of those potatoes
and thicken that cream...
-Mm.
-...and it's gonna have
this nice, glossy coating
on those potatoes.
It's gonna look fantastic.
Okay, it's been five minutes.
You can see that
the cream is thickened.
Those starches have
come out of the potato
and have coated these potatoes
super nicely.
-Gorgeous. Mm, mm, mm.
-It will continue
to cook and reduce
and thicken
when it gets into the pie.
So I'm just gonna
shut this off,
and we're gonna let that sit
for at least
30 minutes and cool.
We don't want to put that
into a pie crust right now
because that would melt it
and make a mess.
So at least 30 minutes
and up to 2 hours.
And while that is happening,
we can roll out our pie dough.
Okay, it's been two hours,
and all that flour has hydrated,
and now it's time
to roll out the dough.
So I've already floured
the counter really well.
This is a fairly moist dough,
and it's okay to flour
the counter really well.
I'll just flour the top of it.
So I've had these out
for about 10 minutes,
softening, to make it
a little easier to work with.
-Okay.
-I like to start
getting this initial 5 inch
down to 9 inches,
pressing from the center out,
kind of turn it
so that I'm only really rolling
in one direction.
Once it rolls out
to a larger circle,
it's a little bit
more difficult to roll,
but in initial stages,
I like to keep turning it.
-What's nice, you can see
those pockets of butter
in the dough itself.
And as the dough bakes
and it melts,
the little pockets of butter
are going to melt, puff up,
release some steam,
and you get a nice, flaky crust.
-Okay, now that I have it
at this point,
I really don't want to mess
with it too, too much.
So I'm just kind of taking it
from the center,
rolling out, backwards,
this way.
Looking for a 12-inch circle.
I think that is good.
Now, I just want
to do one last turn.
I want to make sure that I get
any heavy pockets of flour
off the back side here.
I have a 9-inch pie plate
and just roll out like that.
That's okay.
Not a big deal.
That's a great thing
about this pie dough.
If you don't get it
perfectly centered,
you can pick it up,
work it right in there.
Just like that.
-Gorgeous.
-So I'm just gonna take this
and lift it up
and kind of push it
into the corners.
Make sure that it's well
worked into the corners there.
Okay, so I'm gonna roll out
the second dough
to a 12-inch circle
just like this one.
But I'm gonna put that
on a parchment-lined,
rimmed baking sheet.
They're both gonna go in the
refrigerator for half an hour.
-Okay.
♪♪
-It's time to put this together.
So we have our cooled
potato mixture over here.
I'm gonna add
2 tablespoons of parsley.
-Mmm!
-Okay, that looks great.
I'm just gonna put this
into our pie crust.
Scrape out
all that creamy goodness.
Just gonna flatten this out,
make sure that we don't have
any air pockets in here.
Okay, now for our top crust,
I'm gonna take
a little pastry tip here.
You can use a paring knife.
I'm just gonna put
a 1/2-inch circle in there,
and that's gonna allow
any steam to come out.
-Very clever.
-Like that.
And I just want to go around
and check to make sure
that I don't have
too much excess dough
around the edges here.
I'm pinching the bottom
to the top.
Now, if I feel like
if I have a little bit
more than a finger's width,
I'll take a little bit
of that off
because if you have too much
dough on the edges,
it's hard to cook through and
you have this big, doughy mass.
Okay, so now I'm gonna take it.
I'm gonna fold it underneath
itself to create that nice lip,
and I just fold it back
until I can start to see
the lip of the pie plate.
-Right.
-Just like that.
You want to tuck it down
into it to kind of seal it,
because if you don't,
then you'll have potato juices
coming out the edges.
-And cream.
-Okay, so now for the crimping,
so I usually do this
in three passes.
I make kind of a rough crimp
around the edges
and then I come back
and clean it up a little bit.
Now, if your fingers
start to stick
and that dough heats up
a little bit,
you can take a little flour,
sprinkle it on your fingers
and continue to go.
Now, two more passes --
one on the outside,
one on the inside.
-I'm actually really digging
the amount of detail
that you're putting into it.
Pies are a gift.
It's wrapped.
It should look beautiful.
-Again, always going back
to the flour
so your fingers don't stick.
Okay, now for
the outside part here.
-Wow. That's when it's all
coming together.
-Okay. Beautifully crimped.
One last thing before
we bake it.
I just have an egg wash here,
and this is gonna help it brown
and it's gonna have
a nice sheen.
-And what do you use
for your egg wash?
-Eggs.
-Nice.
-I'm just gonna get into
the crimps here with this brush.
Get the outside portion
of the crimps.
That looks perfect.
Now it's time to bake.
So we're gonna start
at a high temperature here.
We want to get all those insides
up to temperature quickly.
So we're gonna start at 450
for 18 to 20 minutes.
And what we're looking for
is the top will just start
to get golden brown.
-Okay.
♪♪
-It's great.
So this has been
about 18 minutes,
and you can start to see
it's getting
some golden-brown color in here,
so I'm gonna push it back in.
Now, we want to reduce
the oven temperature.
We've gotten that filling warm.
We just want
to finish baking it.
I'm gonna reduce it down
to 325.
We're gonna let this finish
baking 30 to 40 minutes
until it's deep golden brown.
Now, if we find that
it's getting too dark,
especially along the crimps,
we can go in there and add
a foil shield to protect that.
♪♪
You remember how I talked about
the foil shield around here?
I did go in -- because I found
it was getting
a little bit too dark --
just to put this foil on
to make sure that
our crust didn't over-brown.
One last thing, I just want
to take a paring knife.
Make sure the potatoes are
completely tender and they are.
It looks great, doesn't it?
-It looks outstanding.
-Okay, so we're gonna
let this cool.
If we slice this right now,
the potatoes are gonna go
all over the place,
so we're gonna let this sit
for at least 30 minutes
before we cut into it.
-Okay.
-It has been 30 minutes,
and it's now time
to cut this masterpiece.
Use the tip of the knife.
And I like to score
through the crust first
rather than trying to go
all the way down
through the whole thing.
The beauty of this pie is that
you can cool it down fully
and eat it chilled,
warm, room temperature.
It can be eaten many ways.
A small offset spatula
works really well here.
-Look at that top pie crust.
It's flaking almost
as if it was puff pastry,
but it's so much sturdier.
Oh! [ Gasps ]
-Beautiful.
-It is a gift.
-Mm-hmm.
-See?
-That looks lovely, doesn't it?
-This is everything
in a pie shell --
potatoes, onions.
You can smell it all.
-And you notice that all that
cream is held in place
by the starch from the potatoes.
It's not all running out.
-That's dirty.
That's what that is.
-It is so good.
The potatoes are creamy,
the cream is creamy,
the onions are perfectly soft.
-And the pastry --
it's perfect.
It's holding up
to the fillings within,
but it's buttery, it's flaky.
This is potato heaven.
-It is potato heaven.
-Yeah. [ Sighs ]
As if I couldn't
love potatoes any more,
and you baked them in a pie.
-[ Laughs ]
-Thanks, Keith.
And if you want to make this
stupendous potato dish at home,
make a sturdy but flaky
all-butter pastry,
pre-cook the potatoes
with a little baking soda,
and pour in the cream
before assembling the torte.
So from "America's
Test Kitchen,"
the decadent
and supremely satisfying
tourte aux pommes de terre.
You can get this recipe and all
the recipes from this season,
along with product reviews
and select episodes
Alright, I'm back.
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
-Today
on "America's Test Kitchen,"
Erin shows Julia
how to make poulet au vinaigre,
Dan explains the science
of crispy chicken skin,
and Keith makes Bridget
tourte aux pommes de terre.
It's all coming up right here
on "America's Test Kitchen."
♪♪
-Poulet au vinaigre
or chicken in vinegar
is a classic example
of simple French cooking.
It's from the city of Lyon
and often served in bouchons,
which are casual restaurants
that highlight traditional food.
And today Erin's gonna
show us how to make it.
-I am, Julia.
This is a fabulous,
rustic French dish,
and it consists of chicken,
white wine, red wine vinegar,
and it's finished
with a touch of cream.
-Mmm.
-And it's a snap to make.
Okay, so we're gonna start
with chicken thighs...
-Mm-hmm.
-...because we love
how it braises.
And we're starting
with eight chicken thighs
and each one is about 5
to 7 ounces each
and they're bone-in and skin-on.
I have one more chicken
thigh to trim,
so really want to make sure
that you leave enough skin
to cover the meat.
-Mm-hmm.
-And that's gonna protect
the meat as it cooks.
It's gonna baste as
the fat renders out of the skin.
But we're gonna sear these,
and moisture is not good
when you're searing something.
So no matter
what you're cooking,
you always want it to be
as dry as possible.
So now we're gonna season the
chicken with salt and pepper.
-Mm-hmm.
-So I have 1/4 teaspoons
of salt,
3/4 teaspoon of pepper.
I'm just gonna season
both sides.
Okay, so the chicken's
ready to go.
I'm just gonna go wash my hands
before we go on
to the next step.
Alright.
Okay, so, Julia,
I have 1 tablespoon
of vegetable oil heating up
in a traditional 12-inch
skillet over medium heat.
-Mm-hmm. She's smoking.
-So we're ready
to start cooking our chicken.
When you use
a traditional skillet,
you get more fond,
and we want that fond.
Fond is, like, the key here.
It's really gonna add
a lot of flavor to our sauce.
And if you use
a nonstick skillet,
it doesn't have as much fond.
-That's right, because
the browning sticks to the food,
not the pan.
-Exactly.
Okay, Julia.
So while this is cooking,
I'm gonna come over here
and prep my shallot and garlic.
-Okay.
-This is a shallot.
Lop off the ends,
cut it in half.
There's a little skin
left on there.
-Mm-hmm.
-You want to remove that.
Put your fingers on top
and then just slowly
run your knife through it
in many horizontal cuts.
And then I'm gonna turn it,
and I'm gonna do
perpendicular cuts.
And then you basically
just run your knife through it.
Most important thing here
is that the shallot is stable.
As I'm holding that with a claw,
I'm kind of guiding my knife
with my middle knuckle.
-Mm-hmm.
-And here we go -- a fine mince.
-Nicely done.
-Now I'm gonna move on
to my garlic.
So two peeled garlic cloves.
-Mm-hmm.
-And I'm just
gonna lop off the ends.
And now I'm just gonna slice
this very thinly.
Again, I'm using the claw.
I'm gripping the garlic,
so it's not sliding.
I'm guiding the knife
with my knuckle
and I just run right through it.
Alright.
So it's been about eight
minutes, and as you can see,
the chicken thighs
are shrinking.
I'm just gonna flip these over.
And now we're gonna let these
cook for another three minutes,
and we're gonna get
the other side nice and brown.
Okay, so these have been cooking
for about three minutes,
and we're browning
the second side
and we're just
lightly browning it.
-Beautiful.
-And...and we're gonna transfer
these to a plate.
They're not cooked yet, clearly.
-Mm-hmm.
Look at that fond
in the bottom of the pan.
-It is beautiful, isn't it?
-It is.
And that's gonna add
serious flavor to any sauce.
-Okay, so now I'm gonna pour off
all but 2 tablespoons
of chicken fat.
Now we're building
our braise base.
Okay, so I'm gonna add
our shallots
and our sliced garlic,
and we're just gonna
slowly cook this
for about a minute and a half.
We really want to scrape that up
as the shallots and garlic
soften
because you want to incorporate
that into our braising liquid.
-Mm-hmm.
-Alright.
So you can smell that, right?
-Smells amazing.
-Smells amazing, doesn't it?
Now we're gonna
add our liquid,
so I'm gonna start with
1 cup of chicken broth
and 1 cup of dry white wine.
And if you don't have
white wine on hand,
you can also use vermouth.
-Mm-hmm.
-And then the star of the
dish -- red wine vinegar.
-Mm-hmm.
-We're using 1/3 cup
of red wine vinegar,
as I'm just scraping up
any last fond
that I might have
missed earlier.
Okay.
So we're just bringing this up
to a simmer,
and I'm gonna add the chicken
back to the pan, skin-side up.
If we did it skin-side down,
we would just totally lose
our nice,
crispy, beautiful skin.
Alright.
So we're gonna put this
into a 325-degree oven
on the lower middle rack.
The sweet spot that we want
to keep this chicken cooking at
is between 140, 195.
-Okay.
-And we want it to be in that
range for as long as possible.
So that's why we're putting it
into a fairly low oven
for about 35 to 40 minutes
until the chicken
temps out at 195.
♪♪
-That smells amazing, Erin.
-Thank you.
Alright, so we cooked this
for 35 to 40 minutes.
-Mm-hmm.
-And it cooked
until it reached 195.
-Mm-hmm.
-We didn't want to go beyond 195
or else
it will start to get dry.
-That's right and fall apart.
But you still managed
to keep that crisp crust.
-It's so important, right?
We worked hard for that crust.
Okay, so now
I'm taking the chicken out
so I can finish the sauce.
Tent that loosely
just so it stays warm.
So now to the sauce.
So traditionally the recipe
calls for fresh tomatoes.
-Mm-hmm.
-But we wanted
to add tomato flavor
but from the pantry.
-Nice.
-So now I'm gonna add
1 tablespoon of tomato paste,
like, a sweet-tart flavor and
also, like, a blast of umami.
-Yeah. Also it helps
to thicken up the sauce
ever so slightly.
-Yeah, it does. Absolutely.
And as you can see, there's more
fond on the edge of the pan.
You want to scrape that in.
-Looking mighty fine there,
Erin.
-Look at that.
So this has been reduced down
to a cup and a quarter.
We are ready to finish it.
I'm gonna add 2 tablespoons
of butter off heat...
-Mm-hmm.
-...and a tablespoon
of minced tarragon.
And look at the consistency.
The sauce already has body.
It's good on seasoning,
but I'm also gonna give it
a splash of vinegar.
So up to a teaspoon of vinegar.
It's just gonna brighten up
the flavors of the dish.
What the heck?
I'm gonna add all of it
because I can taste with my eyes
and I know that it's gonna be
perfect.
-You can taste with your eyes.
-I can taste with my eyes.
-I love that phrase.
-Now I'm just gonna pour
the sauce around the chicken,
and I'm gonna avoid the skin.
And a trick that I can show you
is I also like to tip the plate.
So you can also pour it
on one side and then tip it
so it goes everywhere.
Okay.
Are you hungry?
Would you like to try some?
-I would love to try some.
-Would you like
a thigh or a thigh?
-[ Laughs ]
I'll take a thigh...or two.
-Or two?
-Mm-hmm.
-Alright.
-They look beautiful.
-I saved a little sauce
for our plates.
-Mmm.
-This is the easiest dish
to pull together,
and it's the most gratifying.
-Alright, here we go.
Mmm.
Mmm. That sauce
has so much flavor.
I was worried it was gonna
have sort of a harsh bite,
but it is mellow and smooth
and just has a lovely,
complex flavor.
-And the chicken is absolutely
tender, juicy, supple.
-Mm-hmm.
Mmm. [ Chuckling ]
-Is that good?
-That's really good.
-I mean, this sauce tastes like
we literally made, like,
a chicken stock,
and we reduced it twice.
-Yes.
-I mean, it's --
it's so rich in flavor.
-Oh, and that little hit of
vinegar and tarragon at the end.
This, Erin, is lovely.
Thank you.
-Absolutely. Thank you.
-So if you want to make this
simple but flavorful chicken,
brown chicken thighs thoroughly
in a 12-inch skillet.
Use a combination of broth,
white wine, and red wine vinegar
for the braising liquid.
Let the chicken finish
cooking in a moderate oven.
From "America's Test Kitchen,"
a classic Lyonnaise dish --
poulet au vinaigre.
♪♪
This is definitely going
into my weekday rotation.
♪♪
-We've all been there.
You roast a chicken
to a lovely golden brown,
pull it out of the oven,
and it looks perfect like this
with beautiful, taut skin.
You're so excited to eat.
Then after the chicken rests,
it ends up looking like this,
where the skin is all wrinkled.
Well, here's what's happening.
The chicken skin
right out of the oven
is a lot like this balloon.
The skin has stretched
and inflated thanks to steam.
And the resting period
where it cools down
causes it
to wrinkle up like this.
We can bring this balloon
back to its former glory
by removing it
from the liquid nitrogen
and letting it warm up
in the heat of the air.
And the same thing
works for our chicken.
Just place the bird back
in the oven
for a few minutes
to heat the exterior.
You'll have beautiful poultry
like this every time.
♪♪
-Hey, do you like
scalloped potatoes?
Or how about pot pie?
Well, have I got a treat
for you.
Today we are making
a tourte aux pommes de terre.
It's a potato pie from France,
and it might just be the
pinnacle of all comfort foods.
And Keith's here.
He's gonna show us
how to make this
incredible dish at home.
-It's great. It's really,
really decadent.
And like you say, it's comfort
food at its finest.
And what it consists of
are thinly sliced potatoes
and onions
that are tossed with heavy cream
or crème fraîche,
and they're baked in
a double-crust pastry shell.
So we are gonna start
with our crust today.
-Okay.
-I'm going to start
by grating some butter.
I'm gonna grate 4 tablespoons
of this butter.
I've left the paper
on a stick of butter
so I can just kind of measure
4 tablespoons from the end.
And also so I don't grate
my fingers on the grater.
So I just have
a box grater here.
-And that butter is very cold.
-You can't grate warm butter.
It's not fun.
-No.
-So I'm just gonna
put this into a bowl.
I want to make sure
that this is really,
really cold
when it goes into the dough.
So I'm gonna put it
in the freezer,
and I'm gonna leave it there
until it's time to use it later.
-Okay.
-Okay, the butter is safely
in the freezer,
and we can start
to put the dough together.
So I have 1 1/2 cups
of all-purpose flour in here,
and I'm gonna add a teaspoon
of table salt.
And I just want
to pulse this really quickly
to work that salt
into the flour.
-Okay.
-Now I'm gonna take all
of our butter --
16 tablespoons that's been cut
in half-inch pieces.
-And this butter is
very cold as well.
-It is cold. Yeah.
So I'm gonna let this run
for 40 to 50 seconds.
So what we're looking for
is the butter
is gonna fully incorporate
into that flour,
and it's gonna look
kind of like a cookie dough.
-Okay.
-It's been about 45 seconds,
and you can see
that we've worked that butter
into the flour completely.
So I'm just gonna break this
into large chunks --
about 2-inch pieces.
Just redistribute it
around the blade.
Now, for the second part,
I'm gonna add 1 cup
of all-purpose flour to this.
And now, this flour,
when it's mixed with water
later on,
that's gonna provide
the structure for the dough.
So this is gonna be
super tender,
but the flour and the water
mixed together
will create gluten and make
the structure that we need.
Now, I don't want to work
this too far into the dough.
I just want four
or five quick pulses
just to break up
large butter pieces
and get the flour
mixed together.
Okay, great.
So we have
some larger pieces in here
and some smaller pieces,
but that's okay.
We want to make sure that
we leave some flour unmixed.
Take this,
transfer it over to our bowl.
Now, you can kind of look
in here and see.
I have some
larger pieces like this.
I can make sure
I break those up.
We do want to make sure that
we leave enough unmixed flour
in there to create structure.
-Okay.
-So I'm gonna go
get our grated butter,
and we'll mix that in next.
-Sounds good.
-Okay, so I'll just
toss this around,
making sure to separate
those pieces of flour,
breaking up any really large
chunks of that flour dough.
We're gonna add 1/2 cup
of ice water in total,
but I'm gonna do it
in two batches to make sure
that we get that water really
well-incorporated in there.
So I'm gonna start with 1/4 cup.
Thank you.
-You bet.
-I'm just gonna
mix this around,
kind of push it
against the side.
Make sure that I'm getting
all that dry flour
off the bottom there.
-You're just looking
for even hydration
after the second batch, right?
-Exactly.
Yeah, we want that flour
that's not coated with fat
to absorb all of this liquid.
This is our second 1/4 cup.
I'm just gonna add this
to the dough.
This is our final
addition of water.
You can start to see
that it looks really wet.
It looks like you've made
a mistake at this point.
-Yes.
-But trust the process.
It really will work.
Fold it over, smear it, fold.
This looks great.
It looks wet right now,
but it will dry as it sits.
So I'm just gonna divide this
in half with my spatula.
And if I can ask you to bring a
piece of plastic wrap over here,
I'm gonna put
half of it here.
Now, there's some ways
to shape this
to create no fissures
around the side.
Really want to bring the sides
of the plastic wrap up
and kind of smoosh it down
as you're bringing it up
tightly.
-And you're wanting to get it
nice and compact
because later on,
when you roll it out,
if there's a small crack
or fissure in there,
it turns into a big fault line.
-And you can't come back
from that.
So we want to make sure
that we have a fissure-free
exterior right now.
I'm just gonna finish
pulling up the edges here,
making sure
that we don't have any fissures.
Tuck that in,
press this down
into a 5-inch circle.
and you can feel
this dough right now
is quite soft,
but it will hydrate as it sits.
So I'm gonna shape
the rest of our dough
into another 5-inch circle,
and I'm gonna put those
in the refrigerator after that
for at least two hours
and up to two days.
-Okay.
♪♪
-On to the filling.
Now, when we tried this,
we found some problems
with the filling.
Most recipes are putting
raw potatoes and onions
into the crust and baking it,
and then you finish it
with a little bit of cream
towards the end of baking.
Well, we found that
to be really inconsistent.
Sometimes the potatoes
didn't soften,
the onions didn't soften
or you had too much cream
or too little cream.
So I have a couple of tricks
that we're gonna use
to get the perfect texture
of this filling.
-Okay.
-The first thing we're gonna do
is we're gonna
take one onion,
take the root end out.
We're gonna slice this up.
I'm gonna take these onions,
put it into a bowl.
I'm gonna take 1 1/2 teaspoons
of table salt.
I'm gonna toss that
with the onions.
The salt is gonna take
the moisture out of these onions
and soften them.
And so, by the time
we put them in the filling,
they'll already be pre-softened.
You get this really sweet,
subtle onion flavor
in the background
rather than
kind of a cooked-onion flavor.
-Gotcha.
-It's really nice.
So really toss these well.
I'm just gonna let these
soften over here
while I prepare our potatoes.
-Okay.
-Now, I have 2 pounds
of Yukon gold potatoes
cut into 8-inch slices.
We really like Yukon gold
potatoes here.
They're creamy, they're buttery.
They make a really nice filling.
Now, we're gonna cook
our potatoes just a little bit
before they go into the filling.
That way, we can ensure
that they're properly cooked
when they come out.
So I have 4 quarts of water
that are boiling over there.
I'm just gonna slide these
into the water,
and I'm gonna also add
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda.
Stir that in.
Now, that baking soda is gonna
start to break down the exterior
of those slices of potatoes
so they release their starches.
And you can see when we mix it
with a cream,
those starches will come out
and thicken it
and make this nice,
creamy, cohesive sauce
that will coat those potatoes.
So we're gonna bring that up
to a boil
and cook it for one minute.
We're really not looking to cook
the potatoes too, too much.
We just want to give them a
little bit of a head start.
Okay.
Potatoes have been boiling
for a minute.
It's time to drain.
Put the potatoes
back into the pot,
and now I'm going to
add our cream.
So I have 1 1/4 cups of cream.
-There's the cream.
-There's the cream.
I have three cloves
of minced garlic,
1/2 teaspoon of pepper,
1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg.
-Hmm.
-And now we're gonna add our
softened onions and the juices.
We want to make sure that
we capture all of these juices
because that is where
the salt is.
So I'm gonna bring this up
to a simmer over high heat.
Stir this and cook this
for about five minutes,
and you can see
that the starches
are gonna come out
of those potatoes
and thicken that cream...
-Mm.
-...and it's gonna have
this nice, glossy coating
on those potatoes.
It's gonna look fantastic.
Okay, it's been five minutes.
You can see that
the cream is thickened.
Those starches have
come out of the potato
and have coated these potatoes
super nicely.
-Gorgeous. Mm, mm, mm.
-It will continue
to cook and reduce
and thicken
when it gets into the pie.
So I'm just gonna
shut this off,
and we're gonna let that sit
for at least
30 minutes and cool.
We don't want to put that
into a pie crust right now
because that would melt it
and make a mess.
So at least 30 minutes
and up to 2 hours.
And while that is happening,
we can roll out our pie dough.
Okay, it's been two hours,
and all that flour has hydrated,
and now it's time
to roll out the dough.
So I've already floured
the counter really well.
This is a fairly moist dough,
and it's okay to flour
the counter really well.
I'll just flour the top of it.
So I've had these out
for about 10 minutes,
softening, to make it
a little easier to work with.
-Okay.
-I like to start
getting this initial 5 inch
down to 9 inches,
pressing from the center out,
kind of turn it
so that I'm only really rolling
in one direction.
Once it rolls out
to a larger circle,
it's a little bit
more difficult to roll,
but in initial stages,
I like to keep turning it.
-What's nice, you can see
those pockets of butter
in the dough itself.
And as the dough bakes
and it melts,
the little pockets of butter
are going to melt, puff up,
release some steam,
and you get a nice, flaky crust.
-Okay, now that I have it
at this point,
I really don't want to mess
with it too, too much.
So I'm just kind of taking it
from the center,
rolling out, backwards,
this way.
Looking for a 12-inch circle.
I think that is good.
Now, I just want
to do one last turn.
I want to make sure that I get
any heavy pockets of flour
off the back side here.
I have a 9-inch pie plate
and just roll out like that.
That's okay.
Not a big deal.
That's a great thing
about this pie dough.
If you don't get it
perfectly centered,
you can pick it up,
work it right in there.
Just like that.
-Gorgeous.
-So I'm just gonna take this
and lift it up
and kind of push it
into the corners.
Make sure that it's well
worked into the corners there.
Okay, so I'm gonna roll out
the second dough
to a 12-inch circle
just like this one.
But I'm gonna put that
on a parchment-lined,
rimmed baking sheet.
They're both gonna go in the
refrigerator for half an hour.
-Okay.
♪♪
-It's time to put this together.
So we have our cooled
potato mixture over here.
I'm gonna add
2 tablespoons of parsley.
-Mmm!
-Okay, that looks great.
I'm just gonna put this
into our pie crust.
Scrape out
all that creamy goodness.
Just gonna flatten this out,
make sure that we don't have
any air pockets in here.
Okay, now for our top crust,
I'm gonna take
a little pastry tip here.
You can use a paring knife.
I'm just gonna put
a 1/2-inch circle in there,
and that's gonna allow
any steam to come out.
-Very clever.
-Like that.
And I just want to go around
and check to make sure
that I don't have
too much excess dough
around the edges here.
I'm pinching the bottom
to the top.
Now, if I feel like
if I have a little bit
more than a finger's width,
I'll take a little bit
of that off
because if you have too much
dough on the edges,
it's hard to cook through and
you have this big, doughy mass.
Okay, so now I'm gonna take it.
I'm gonna fold it underneath
itself to create that nice lip,
and I just fold it back
until I can start to see
the lip of the pie plate.
-Right.
-Just like that.
You want to tuck it down
into it to kind of seal it,
because if you don't,
then you'll have potato juices
coming out the edges.
-And cream.
-Okay, so now for the crimping,
so I usually do this
in three passes.
I make kind of a rough crimp
around the edges
and then I come back
and clean it up a little bit.
Now, if your fingers
start to stick
and that dough heats up
a little bit,
you can take a little flour,
sprinkle it on your fingers
and continue to go.
Now, two more passes --
one on the outside,
one on the inside.
-I'm actually really digging
the amount of detail
that you're putting into it.
Pies are a gift.
It's wrapped.
It should look beautiful.
-Again, always going back
to the flour
so your fingers don't stick.
Okay, now for
the outside part here.
-Wow. That's when it's all
coming together.
-Okay. Beautifully crimped.
One last thing before
we bake it.
I just have an egg wash here,
and this is gonna help it brown
and it's gonna have
a nice sheen.
-And what do you use
for your egg wash?
-Eggs.
-Nice.
-I'm just gonna get into
the crimps here with this brush.
Get the outside portion
of the crimps.
That looks perfect.
Now it's time to bake.
So we're gonna start
at a high temperature here.
We want to get all those insides
up to temperature quickly.
So we're gonna start at 450
for 18 to 20 minutes.
And what we're looking for
is the top will just start
to get golden brown.
-Okay.
♪♪
-It's great.
So this has been
about 18 minutes,
and you can start to see
it's getting
some golden-brown color in here,
so I'm gonna push it back in.
Now, we want to reduce
the oven temperature.
We've gotten that filling warm.
We just want
to finish baking it.
I'm gonna reduce it down
to 325.
We're gonna let this finish
baking 30 to 40 minutes
until it's deep golden brown.
Now, if we find that
it's getting too dark,
especially along the crimps,
we can go in there and add
a foil shield to protect that.
♪♪
You remember how I talked about
the foil shield around here?
I did go in -- because I found
it was getting
a little bit too dark --
just to put this foil on
to make sure that
our crust didn't over-brown.
One last thing, I just want
to take a paring knife.
Make sure the potatoes are
completely tender and they are.
It looks great, doesn't it?
-It looks outstanding.
-Okay, so we're gonna
let this cool.
If we slice this right now,
the potatoes are gonna go
all over the place,
so we're gonna let this sit
for at least 30 minutes
before we cut into it.
-Okay.
-It has been 30 minutes,
and it's now time
to cut this masterpiece.
Use the tip of the knife.
And I like to score
through the crust first
rather than trying to go
all the way down
through the whole thing.
The beauty of this pie is that
you can cool it down fully
and eat it chilled,
warm, room temperature.
It can be eaten many ways.
A small offset spatula
works really well here.
-Look at that top pie crust.
It's flaking almost
as if it was puff pastry,
but it's so much sturdier.
Oh! [ Gasps ]
-Beautiful.
-It is a gift.
-Mm-hmm.
-See?
-That looks lovely, doesn't it?
-This is everything
in a pie shell --
potatoes, onions.
You can smell it all.
-And you notice that all that
cream is held in place
by the starch from the potatoes.
It's not all running out.
-That's dirty.
That's what that is.
-It is so good.
The potatoes are creamy,
the cream is creamy,
the onions are perfectly soft.
-And the pastry --
it's perfect.
It's holding up
to the fillings within,
but it's buttery, it's flaky.
This is potato heaven.
-It is potato heaven.
-Yeah. [ Sighs ]
As if I couldn't
love potatoes any more,
and you baked them in a pie.
-[ Laughs ]
-Thanks, Keith.
And if you want to make this
stupendous potato dish at home,
make a sturdy but flaky
all-butter pastry,
pre-cook the potatoes
with a little baking soda,
and pour in the cream
before assembling the torte.
So from "America's
Test Kitchen,"
the decadent
and supremely satisfying
tourte aux pommes de terre.
You can get this recipe and all
the recipes from this season,
along with product reviews
and select episodes
Alright, I'm back.