Cree LeFavour - Poulet: More Than 50 Remarkable Recipes That Exalt the Honest Chicken

This book is for my father and mother, Bruce and Pat LeFavour, and my sister, Nicole. I get so nostalgic about these three when I write about food. Maybe thats because it was with them as a family we revolved around eating purposefully long before it was fashionable to do sothat I came to recognize the power of cooking, eating, and sitting down to meal after meal together. This recognition would be meaningless were it not for the family my husband, Dwight Garner, and I made for ourselves and our two children, Penn and Hattie. I have them to thank for many months of taste-testing the recipes in this book. They were always cheerfuleven when, I suspect, all they really wanted for a change was a big fat steak instead of more poulet.

Many other people have applied their time, intelligence, and talent to the making of this book. Before anyone else, I am indebted to my estimable agent, David McCormick, for his unwavering faith in Poulet. David got the book long before it was a reality, and it was he who found its perfect match in Bill LeBlond at Chronicle Books. I thank Bill for having the vision to turn my manuscript into such a beautiful book. Id also like to thank Sarah Billingsley for so gracefully seeing the manuscript through from its inception, and Carrie Bradley Neves for her meticulous editing. Im also grateful for Sara Schneiders outstanding design and France Ruffenachs gorgeous photography.

Finally, thank you to my friends and family. Theres nothing Id rather do than sit down at the table for a meal with you and drink wine, smear butter on crusty bread, and talk, argue, and gesture until the carcass of a big roast chicken in the middle of the table is picked clean. Vegetarians not excepted, you know who you are.

I wrote Poulet by cooking chicken the way I like to eat it, with the side dishes I dream aboutlots of vegetables and salads and starchy profundities like potatoes, rice, and couscous. Anyone who has eaten my cooking more than once will see me in these recipes. Exotic curries, crazy-spicy soups, elegant French saucesIm there. Youll also recognize me by whats not in the book, notably, the absence of a lot of tedious instructions and fussy, unnecessary steps. Because dinner is always getting started later than it should at my house, I need to be efficient. I rely on great ingredients, simple techniques, and surprising combinations to make my food taste fresh and vigorous.

Think of the no-knead bread revolution that swept home baking in the past decade. You can get great flavor, an amazing crust, and a perfect crumb at home, as it turns out, without the fuss, bother, and time required to knead the dough, and without even covering it to keep the draft off. Bread-making didnt need to be so hard!

Along the same lines, cooking chicken, rice, or vegetables often doesnt need to be as hard as you may have thought, either. A lot of silliness has crept into recipes over the yearsRube Goldberglike steps that make no sense for the home cook trying to get dinner on the table or deal out an awesome meal at a dinner party.

So think of what sounds delicious and cook it, whether its a spicy Thai sandwich or a Japanese stew or a big pile of fried chicken. What I crave is all right here: bright, assertive flavors that come from spices like coriander, cardamom, cumin, and mustard seeds. I crave chiles of all kindssweet, hot, and a little of both. I crave butter, fresh herbs, the taste of raw shallots, and the spicy crunch of a radish. I crave perfect lettuce and the sting of green, unfiltered olive oil mixed with fresh lemon juice. I dream about crispy, salty skin clinging to fatty chicken thighs. Youll find all these things in abundance in Poulet. Producing big flavors is my ambition in the kitchen. Make it yours.

I grew up in a restaurant family that did a lot of traveling. My father was an accomplished chef who taught mein the kitchen and at tables around the worldto be a fearless eater and an equally fearless cook. Food was always fun and always worth talking about in my family. I hope that ease and enthusiasm comes across in my recipes, inspiring your results in the kitchen to taste better than you thought possible.

A central part of the idea behind Poulet was to have it be appealing and useful to the loyal cooks who put dinner on the table ) eaten slowly and washed down with an earthy Rhne red wine, Poulet has it all for chicken loversand that means wherever you come from and whatever you like to eat, you can cook it yourself, usually in under an hour.

Every recipe in Poulet is rooted in my belief that anyone can cookand cook well. This conviction makes for an ideal marriage, in the kitchen and elsewhere, between the practical (what we know we can make) and the dreamy (what we want to eat but arent sure were up to cooking). Despite my desire for the fresh, the new, and the most delicious, Im still very attuned to the practical necessity of getting dinner on the table quickly amidst the chaos of crazy, overbooked lives.

A few words to keep in mind: Dont be intimidated by long lists of ingredients. In most of the recipes here, everything goes in one pot with minimal preparation and a method that will be familiar to many. Im unapologetic about my basic adherence to simple French kitchen techniques; I like them because they work and because thats how I learned to cook. Ive also worked to devise methods to make complicated flavors easier to achieve, putting them within reach of beginners and everyone else whos pressed for time. If you can be vigilant about every ingredient, your food will show it. A lot of chicken recipes are hurt by less-than-fresh ingredients. Why use dried herbs, canned tomatoes, or frozen vegetables when you can do betterand without much more effort.

Whether its summer or winter, a big dinner for eight or a weeknight family meal around the kitchen table, what we choose to eat is a growing part of how we define our place in the world. I see that world, and the wealth of flavors and ingredients in it, as a complex reality that can becomewith the help of a good recipe, a sharp knife, and an engaged mindthe perfect meal. And that is what I hope will make Poulet a trusted resource in your kitchen.

In rural Idaho in the early 1970s, I lived with my family on a dude ranch that we had transformed into a restaurant. We grew our own vegetables and herbs; raised chickens, pigs, and rabbits for slaughter; cured bacon; milked cows; made butter; and raised geese, goats, and ducks for their livers, milk, and meat. I slopped the pigs, milked the cow and the goat, plucked the freshly killed chickens, played with the baby rabbits, and collected the eggs from our flock of layers. I understand that fresh ingredients arent a gimmick and that local, sustainable eating is an ethical choice we make every day. The ingredients we use, when combined with simple kitchen methods and attention to detail, make the difference between just okay and surprising, memorable results. I know; not everyone is lucky enough to have access to the resources that make these choices possible. Theres not a Whole Foods on every corner. Do the best you can. Every little bit helps.

I support local farmers as much as possible. I go to the farmers market, visit farm stands, and, whenever I can, I buy pork, chicken, and beef from small farms nearby. Do I buy bananas? Yep, and where I come from they are never in season and never local. But I dont buy berries flown in from South America in the middle of a January snowstorm, no matter how tempted I might be. Without being a fanatic about it, I believe that food is seasonal. I choose to eat fruit that grows closer to home in its proper season. Satsumas are to January what raspberries are to Augustthe perfect fruit.