How to Cook Like Heston: Chicken Quiz

Answer: Trussing can leave areas between the wings and legs uncooked.

Trussing the chicken is usually done for appearances, making it look proper in 'stance'. But there's a side effect, it leaves the bird with an uneven colour and doneness in areas affected by the strings. Areas between the thighs and wings will have a harder time for heat to penetrate through, leaving a bird that is not evenly cooked.

So when you buy a chicken from the supermarket, get rid of those strings and open up the thighs for a perfect roast. For juicy results, leave the chicken in a brine of salt and water and let it soak overnight, about 60g of salt for every one liter of water. Afterwards, dry it up with paper towels, cut the wishbone off to make carving a breeze, stuff with thyme, lemon and smother the skin with softened butter. The keyword is smother, so get a good amount of it.

Answer: It gives the chicken a nice brown skin.

There's lot of things cooking at low temperature does, but not the browning of skin though. By cooking the bird low and slow, it helps to seal in all the moisture and flavour of the chicken. Heston states that you won't permeate the kitchen with roast smells, and that is a good thing, as smells are lost flavour. To know if your chicken is cooked, use a thermometer on the thickest part of the breast and ensure it reaches between 60-75°C (140-167°F) for both safety and perfection. Let the bird rest for 45 minutes before you blast the oven up to its highest temperature to roast that skin, but be sure to baste the chicken with a little oil to crisp it. Here's a top tip, when you carve out the breast to serve, slice it across the grain. This will make the meat fall apart and feel more tender.

Now, to prove his point of roasting gently, Heston roasted another chicken, one that is given the typical recipe of 180°C for 90 minutes, and it is shocking. The meat of this chicken is dry and chalky, like building material. With high temperatures, the flesh of the bird contracts and lose all its moisture. Heston's chicken is glistening with juice, the skin is beautifully caramelized and the meat falls apart at the touch. You will never see roast chicken the same ever again.

Answer: Milk Powder

It may sound insane, but think of milk powder as protein and sugar. By mixing milk powder with chicken wings and browning it in the oven before making your stock, it enhances the browning of meat. This is the Maillard Reaction, where proteins brown under heat, creating roast flavours. The powder is like adding propane to a flame, super boosting the roast flavour. Be sure to use chicken wings with their wing tips on, as the fat of the tips can help make for a fantastic stock. After roasting in an oven at 200°C (392°F) till golden, remove the wings and pour hot water in the tray and scrape the brown bits left by the chicken.

Before cooking that stock, Heston meets with a women's hockey team for a blindfold stock tasting. Three ladies and their chicken stocks go under the gun of Heston's tastebuds. They each taste alright, and Heston can pick up the ingredients that flavour the stocks, and their flaws.

The ladies used ingredients like celery and even a vegetable stock cube to bulk up the chicken flavour. Certain ingredients like celery, white wine and stock cubes tend to mask chicken flavour, as they are stronger in intensity, and a chicken carcass alone has little flavour to provide on its own, so the addition of chicken wings roasted with milk powder goes a long way to getting a better quality stock.

Answer: Pressure Cooker

Using a pressure cooker to make a stock is a great way to boost it even further. Conventional methods of making stock can allow aromas to escape through steam, and stocks usually have to be left open so you can remove the scum that builds up at the top. With the pressure cooker though, it keeps them sealed in tight. Remember, just like the roast chicken, lost smells equals lost flavours.

Have your pressure cooker be filled with the pan juices, sauteed carrots, onions and brown mushrooms, those roasted chicken wings and a chicken carcass and let the pressure build. After two hours of cooking and another 30 minutes of cooling, strain the stock with muslin cloth. This chicken stock will come out a beautiful rich golden brown colour, and if you want to keep it for longer, freeze it in cubes and take a frozen stock cube for a flavour enhancement in any dish. No need for those stock substitutes from supermarkets.

Answer: Let the cubes melt on a strainer lined with muslin cloth and warm through.

No need for any massive lab equipment, just grab the frozen stock cubes and let them melt on a strainer with muslin cloth. The muslin will trap any impurities and fat as the stock cubes melt, and with patience, drip by drip, you'll have a bowl of pure golden consomme.

Then warm it through in a pot on a gentle simmer and add a jasmine flower for an added enhancement. Who needs to go to a fancy restaurant for consomme?

Answer: Purify the stock with a floating cloud made of egg whites, minced meat and vegetables.

A traditional consomme is made over a stove top. With the stock, you add a mix of egg whites, minced meat such as chicken or pork, and diced mirepoix which is a mix of carrots, onions and celery. This mix forms a type of 'cloud' that floats to the top of the stock, trapping the fat and impurities.

This will simmer until the stock is clear, and the cloud is promptly thrown away. This method is tricky to master, so using this ice cube trick will take the hassle off making Michelin star quality consomme.

Answer: Chicken Stock

Take your chicken thighs and remove the skin before brining overnight. After brining, wash and dry the thighs and add it to a pot of chicken stock and simmer. Once it reaches simmer, cover it with a lid or tin foil and pop it in an 85°C (185°F) oven for 90 minutes. You will get juicy meat for that pie, but patience is what you need, my friend.

Now don't discard that skin, render the skin on a pan and use the fat to saute some chopped leeks. Now let's have some fun.

Answer: Its heat resistant, so it doesn't melt when baked.

Heston even grabs a blow torch to demonstrate how heat resistant it is! What agar-agar does to the sauce is that it resists heat. It means that when it bakes in the oven with the rest of the ingredients, the sauce stays thick and creamy, unlike regular pies that get somewhat watery, due to splitting fat in the cream. Using heavy amounts of flour in sauces can thicken it, but it will mask flavours, so agar-agar helps thicken the sauce without masking.

This sauce blob is made with reduced white wine, cream, milk and some of that lovely chicken stock. Once simmered, add in the agar-agar till it reaches 90°C (194°F). Let the mix set in the fridge, and you get this white cream jelly.

Answer: Blitz with a hand blender.

Grab a hand blender and blitz it. It turns that jelly lump into a luscious liquid sauce that won't melt in the pie. Get your chicken and chop into cubes, mix it with cooked and shredded ham hock, the leeks cooked earlier in chicken fat, chopped button mushrooms, wholegrain Dijon mustard, chopped parsley and that creamy sauce. Once mixed, add it to a tray and line with puff pastry, ensure to egg wash it before baking. Bake it in the oven at 215°C (419°F) for 15 minutes. Crispy puff pastry, tender juicy chicken and a sauce that compliments flavours, not overpower it. This pie is what dreams are made of, well, if you dream of pies every night that is.

If you don't want to use agar-agar or can't find it in your supermarket, you can thicken the sauce with a little corn flour for a similar result. Also, you can use that pie filling for amazing picnic sandwiches, on top of pasta or whatever you fancy, its just that good.

Answer: True

With a small garden stand or a pot, have some fresh thyme and lemons in a decorative stance. Hide the dry ice within and have some hot water with lemon and thyme scented essential oils. All Heston has to do, is water his lemons, and a cascading cloud of citrus and herb essence fills the table. This scent will enhance the roast chicken that was roasted with lemon and thyme. The scent will make food even tastier, and the table will look absolutely mystical. What a spectacular display.

To demonstrate the importance of scent and taste, Heston has the hockey ladies sip some wine with their noses plugged. With no sense of smell, the wine gives little to no taste. Once the plugs were removed and they take another sip, the difference is dramatic. What we taste is what we smell, and serving scent with the chicken will further enhance the taste and experience of dinner. Besides, who doesn't love a bit of dry ice?