NUMBER 900!!!! Mustard glazed Poussin (or game hen, or baby chicken)

And here we are, ragazzi.  At post 900 - one hundred short of a rather serious number.  And Annalena has been going at this since November, 2007.  Will she ever stop?  Maybe.  Do you want her to go on?  Tell her. Maybe she'll listen.  In the meanwhile, she'll start thinking about what that miraculous number 1000 might be.   Stay tuned.

Poussin are baby chickens.  Let us be up front about that.  They weigh just about a pound, perhaps a little less.  They are bigger than quail - one poussin is easily a serving, whereas Annalena can eat at least two quail when she sits down to it.  She doesn't cook and serve them too often, but you see, ragazzi, one has to be flexible.

As you may know from the prior posts, Annalena had an oven breakdown last week.  It happened on a Thursday and deo gratiae,  the repairman did his job on Monday.  Now, the astute reader will know that on Mondays, during rehearsal season,  Annalena and the  Guyman eat a roast chicken for dinner.  Well, Annalena had fears of not being able to fit a whole chicken in the small convection oven she had, so she went to plan B, which was... poussin.  She checked, and they did in fact fit in the smaller oven.  Then the repairman came and went, and all was well.  And the poussin were thawed, and ready.   So, rather than a shared, whole bird, time to cook the smaller ones.  Annalena bought hers from Dartagnan, from which this recipe comes.

You cook poussin in a way very similar to their larger relatives, but you need a lower temperature.  What Annalena discovered during this cooking session, is that these birds are actually juicier, and meatier, than chicken. Given their size, while you may blanch at the price, they are perfect for a single person.  Hence, if you are cooking for one, and want to treat yourself, there is little that you can do (in the food category) that is better than make yourself one of these.  As you read through the recipe, Annalena is sure that you will see how to scale it up if, for example, you want to have a party where, as the old commercial talked about, everyone gets "his own individual chicken on his own individual plate."

As with all poultry, if you can, salt the bird the morning of, or the night before, you plan to make dinner.  Wash them first, and dry them.  You may have to do something that will skeev some of you out.  Poussin are usually sold with their neck bones attached, and you will have to cut that away.  As we Italians say  "farcela" (deal with it).  Then sneak some herbs in between the skin and flesh, just like we do with chicken, and put the birds in the fridge.


When you are ready to cook, preheat  your oven to 400 degrees.  For two birds, you will need a couple of cloves of garlic, a tablespoon of olive oil, and two big tablespoons of dijon mustard.

Can you tell this is going to be an easy one?  Because it is.  Pour the tablespoon of olive oil in a medium sized pan.  Don't use your biggest one:  test by seeing if two birds fit, snugly, in the pan.  If they do, it's the right size.  If there's a lot of space, it's too big.  If they are pushing each other out of the next, it's too small.  If all you have are small pans, do these one at a time, and buy a bigger pan.

So, when the oil is hot, put the birds, breast side down, and regulate the heat to medium.  Brown them, and then turn them to get brown on all of their sides.  This won't take as long as you think it might, but take your time.  Annalena spent, maybe, five minutes.

Put those browned birds onto a baking sheet, and get your mustard.  Rub it all over the birds.  A tablespoon each please.  You could use honey mustard, but try it with smooth dijon first.  Peel the garlic cloves and put one each into the cavities of the birds.  The garlic will not flavor the flesh, but...


Now, into the oven, for 40-50 minutes.  At 40, pierce the point where the thigh meets the body, and if the juice runs clear, you're done.  Or, just cook them for 50 minutes if you prefer a more completely cooked bird.  It will still be juicy.

The mustard will darken, big time, during cooking.  But do not worry, you did not overcook these little guys.

After the roasting, get them out of the oven, and let them sit for about 5-10 minutes.  To serve these, Annalena gets a big scissor, and cuts them into four quarters.  You can slice them any way you like though.

What you are going to find, is a decidedly larger quantity of white meat than you might think there would be.  Breast meat develops on a bird earlier than the legs do, so dark meat lovers are at a disadvantage here. Still, Annalena reckons you will not miss it, given the delicious nature of your mustard crust.

Remember that clove of garlic?   Well, it's now soft and sweet, with some of the meat juice in it. So pull it out and put it alongside the bird.  You can take small bits of it with mouthfuls of chicken meat, or just swallow it down at the start.  It's good.  Sort of like an extra course.

Try this one, ragazzi, especially you folks who cook for one .  Then make it for someone you like.  And soon, you may be cooking for two on a regular basis.  Food can do that.