During the Christmas season, sales of Coca-Cola drop by as much as 75% in Sweden. Considering the reverse trend the drink enjoys elsewhere across the world, this strikes as quite odd. But that's because, unlike Sweden, the rest of the world doesn't have Julmust. Julmust is not unlike coke in style but it's available only at Christmas and Easter (at which time it's called påskmust). The Swedes love it.
But much like coriander, salty liquorice and food blogs that waffle endlessly before getting to the recipe, Julmust is a deeply acquired taste. My first impression of it was of drinking a Captain Morgan's and coke left out overnight. It has a pungent chorus of spice flavourings that I can't really put my finger on. More malty than coke and complex than root beer. Now I’m in Finland, and don’t see Julmust on the shelves anymore, I’ve really come to miss it. Seeing the drink's gaudy red-topped bottles on the shelves in the early days of December was a reminder my favourite time of year had arrived. Chrsitmas.
This time of the year is when I really enjoy cooking with cinnamon, star anise and cloves. The musky, deep, even haunting aromas are the perfect equivalent to the fresh, vibrancy of summer's distant herbs. Such spices are never better than when braised slowly with a healthy slab of chuck steak. But for something a little lighter, as is so often needed at this time of year, a chicken, preferably an older, tougher specimen if available from your butcher, is perfect as well.
This turns us to the second aspect of the recipe we have in question: the cooking of a perfect chicken. On a trip back to England recently, I had the most wonderful lunch with a group of friends. It's always a pleasure to be cooked for by people simply passionate about food and I know of few people as passionate about food as this friend in question. The food was lovely of course, but the topic of cooking poultry perfectly did come up.
The method for cooking this very Christmassy, spiced pot-roast chicken, for me at least, creates the most perfect roast chicken you will ever eat.
Spiced pot-roast chicken
Ingredients
1 chicken
2 carrots
1 onion
2 star anise
1 large piece of cinnamon
2 bay leaves
A thumb size piece of fresh ginger
500ml light chicken stock
Cooking meat is a matter of simple science. You can baste the bird as much as you like. You can stuff a pound of herbed butter under the skin. You can turn it over onto the breast during cooking. None of these techniques change the fact that past around 65 degrees C the breast will start to dry out. Unfortunately, the leg meat will still be tough unless you take it to around 75 degrees. I'll plant my flag in the ground here and say you need to cook the legs and breast (the crown) separately or one of the two meat types will suffer.
The first thing to do is remove the legs. Remove the skin from these and place in the bottom of a lidded casserole. Add the stock and spices. Slice the carrots and add them too. Place the crown of chicken on top of the legs. The legs act as a trivet keeping the breast above the liquid. Put the casserole, covered with a lid, into an 80 degree C oven. Leave this in for 2 hours. Ideally you will have a temperature probe to check the meat as well. Once the breast is at 55 degrees (around 2 hours) the crown can be removed and kept covered to one side.
Turn the oven up to 180 and return the casserole with the legs for a further hour or until the meat is tender and coming easily from the bone. Remove the casserole from the oven and turn the temperature up high to 220 degrees C. Return the crown back to the casserole and, without the lid, place back in the oven until the skin is golden and the meat inside is 65 degrees C. This should take around 20 minutes.
Set the chicken to one side. Julienne the ginger and add to the strained cooking liquid. Slowly simmer this and reduce to taste. Strain out the ginger and thicken if necessary with cornflour.
You will be left with a chicken breast of singular moistness. Meanwhile the slow cooking of the breast and high end heat will give you a truly light and crispy skin. The legs will be fully tender and deeply perfumed with the spice broth. This goes beautifully with buttery mashed potatoes and chargrilled broccoli. Anything simple enough for the subtle spices to cut through.
Perfect with a red burgundy or a floral Alsatian white.