Coquelet: Little Rooster: Baby Cockerel

Before
After
Fuzzy after shot due to using the PDA's camera since the batteries on the old digital were dead.

This is the first "real" meal I've cooked in a couple of weeks. It was nice to be back flinging pans around again.

This is a baby rooster, very young, and only weighs a pound. They don't actually have a lot of their own flavour but are quite tender - and cute (dead or alive).

I made four of them and will vacuum bag 3 for freezing and later consumption. I figured since I was making a mess in the kitchen anyway I might as well make it worth my while.

This all happens in one pan - quite easy really

Ingredients

• 4 coquelets, 500 gr [1#], split in half (vertically)
  
• 2 onions, medium, julienned
  
• 100 gr pimientos de padron [3 oz], little spanish green peppers, chopped
  
• ½ carrot, regular sized, chopped
  
• 1 clove garlic, smushed
  
• olive oil, for sautéing the veggies
  
• ½ liter dry white wine [½ quart], box
• salt
• pepper
• 200 ml [1 C] fond blanc de volaille (see notes)
  

Procedure

1. Toss the onions, peppers, garlic and carrots into a pan with some oil and sauté slowly until at least the onions are softened - but not brown. Might take 10 or 15 minutes
   
2. Meanwhile, cut the coquelets in half, vertically
3. I also chop off the wing tips and the end of the leg bones just to bring a little "style"to the presentation
• Make sure any pin feathers are removed from the skin
  
• Sprinkle a little salt on the insides, and a very little bit of pepper
  
• By now the sautéing is done
4. Remove the veggies from the pan, throw in some more oil and brown the coquelet halves a little; nothing too drastic
• I had to do mine in two batches of 4-half birds each; don't crowd the pan
5. Remove the birds from the pan and deglaze with a little of the white wine
• This gets the "good bits" from browning the coquelets loose and into what eventually becomes the sauce
6. Return the veggies to the pan
   
• and the coquelets (now you can crowd them if you like - but just one layer please)
  
• Meaty side down (skin side down)
  
7. Dump in your cup of chicken stock (either home made or gourmet selection)
   
8. Add white wine to half way up the birds
9. Bring to a wild simmer
10. Cover, reduce heat, and tip the lid about a quarter loose
11. Continue to simmer, mediumly, for 30 minutes (the first phase)
12. After 30 minutes, turn them over, sideways, so that the leg is in the broth (we want to make sure the "dark" meat is cooked enough
13. Simmer another 10 minutes
14. Set aside the meat, cover them with a little tinfoil tent to keep some warmth in
15. Strain the sauce (or run through a vegetable mill or use a stick-mixer) to eliminate lumps of anything
• While you did that the coquelets released some natural juices, add this to the sauce
16. Reduce the sauce like crazy (as usual: until it coats the back of a spoon); probably by about a third. It'll go from being "liquidy" to being "saucy". There's one of those magical cooking moments when it "just changes" from one to the other.
    
17. Pick out the two nicest looking bird pieces, plate them and pour a little sauce over - not too much
    

Notes

1. fond blanc de volaille is chicken stock; but very very nice chicken stock. French/Alsatian recipe. I use a canned one (!) from Albert Menes. Reduced and concentrated; and I have to buy it in Paris whenever I'm there. Le Cordon Bleu would be ashamed of me if they knew because we cheffy types are supposed to make our own. So don't tell.
2. pimientos de padron are, as I said, little Spanish green peppers - which I just happened to have lying around; any old green pepper would do just as well