One classical French dish we learned in school was Orange Duck. It was a quit complicated recipe, the kind that you wonder why go through all the trouble, but when tasting the result you fully understand.
It made me want to recreate this wonder at home. The opportunity came when we bought two chickens for the weekend. I know it’s not duck. I love duck, but we hardly have it here… not as popular as in France unfortunately. Chicken was the substitute. It was a lot of work but I think it paid off (especially for the eaters)!
Reading the original recipe… Ou-la-la…..so long
It looks awful, I know, but it’s not that bad. Here’s how you do it:
Preparing the bed of veggies for the chicken to “sit on” while roasting in the oven: tomato, carrot and an onion.
Zesting… can be tiring, I finely zested three oranges and two lemons but you can zest it all with a peeler and then slice it to fine juliennes, like I did with one additional orange.
We want to use the oranges fully so after zesting them I filetted two of them to get nice clean orange segments. All the rest I juiced. Including the leftovers from the segmented oranges. Now I have: zest (two ways), segments and juice.
A French principle in doing anything “a l’orange” is to cook a “gastric”. This part is explained poorly in my school’s book in French but it’s a simple idea – Cooking white vinegar with sugar and stock until syrup consistency. Luckily I had my stock ready in the freezer. Also – orange liquor can be added to enhance the orange flavor.
My gastric is cooking, first the vinegar (apple vinegar or white wine vinegar is great) with sugar and when it’s syrup consistency I added stock and orange liquor. Then when it’s reduced again I mixed in some of the orange juice and left on the side for now. Careful not to burn the gastric at that point (or any other point)
Two huge chickens, I tried to roast them on top of the stove in the roasting pan before going to the oven. The problem was that the pan wasn’t thick enough and the skin stuck to the bottom… I need a serious roasting pan!
After the chickens are caramelized I removed them to the side and poured excess fat (not all of it) then slightly fried the veggies with the rest of the fat
Put the chicken back on top of the vegetables (breast side down!) and poured veal stock so it won’t dry or burn (not a lot is needed). To the oven 200 degrees, covered leaving a small crack uncovered. Last 10 minutes uncovered to get some color. Should be between 40-55 minutes depends on the size of the chicken
To check if a roasted chicken is ready this is what we learned to do: hold a simple white plate with one hand and with the other lift the chicken and tilt it (with a roasting fork) so that some liquids will drop in the plate. If they are lucid it’s done, if they are bloody it’s still too rare.
Again I removed the chickens aside, reheated the gastric and strained the juiced with the vegetables in the roasting pan straight into the gastric pot. Adding the rest of the orange juice and zest and reduce until sauce consistency.
In the meantime, the vegetables after straining were great as a side dish.
Arranging the orange segments on the serving dish
Dinner time! (Call your family now)
Pour the sauce on top with the zest juliennes
Cut your way with the chicken scissors
15 minutes later…
Good thing there’s another chicken for tomorrow.
זה היה עוף מדהים