I did another Galantine of Chicken today. Experimented a bit. (Edited to add a picture - 3 pics)

[A HERETIC I AM]

This one deboned with more difficulty than the one I did before, but it worked out OK I guess. I brined this chicken first, THEN marinated it in wine, Lemon and fresh Orange Juice.





Here's how it looked today, sliced open;


A traditional Galantine is served chilled, but I warmed a slice up in the microwave for 60 seconds and it was delish!

I made the stuffing with celery, mushroom, onion, bread, cream, artichokes and a few herbs.

The one I did before I sliced shortly after it came out of the oven. This one I am going to let cool completely and then chill, and slice it tomorrow.

It smells awful damned good in here right about now!!

Edited to say, the brine recipe I used was 3/4 cup salt, 1/2 cup sugar into a 6 quart pan of scalding water (just to get it to dissolve completely) I put the cleaned out chicken in a stockpot, stuffed with 2 quarters each of an orange, lemon and onion, the other two quarters of each went into the pot. I shoved several fresh sprigs of Thyme in the cavity as well, poured the brine into the pot after it had cooled and then covered it completely with more water. It went in the fridge yesterday at about 4 PM. I started the deboning process about 4PM this afternoon.

[MichiganVote]

1. God that looks good. Be right over. How far r u from Michigan?

[A HERETIC I AM]

2. LOL...about 1000 miles from the Detroit area, anyway. n/t

[Callalily]

3. Oh gawd that looks good.

I just may have to try my hand at making one.

[FarPoint]

4. Oh this is Perfect!

The Brine....makes it all succulent indeed....then to marinade in wine........

Looks fabulous!

[Nay]

5. That looks wonderful.....but I'd kill myself before I'd ever take on the job

of deboning a damned chicken. (I'm the one who doesn't like to cook, but has to do it anyway.)

Can you get the suckers deboned already?

[A HERETIC I AM]

6. I don't know, to be honest!

I suppose you can find a deboned whole chicken, depending on the grocery store. I've never seen one in my grocer, however.

It really isn't that difficult to do, but it does take practice, as I discovered when I did this one. If you watch the video of Jacques Pepin doing it, he makes it look really simple!

I must admit that brining the chicken first made the job more difficult, as the chicken was so moist, it wanted to fall apart on me! Next time I'll bone it out and THEN brine it.

[Nay]

7. That's interesting, that brining made it harder. I do like brining -- I do that

to my Thanksgiving turkey and it always turns out superb.

I'm sure any grocery store that deboned chickens would charge an arm and a leg for the service. That would conflict with my innate cheapskatedness, but I might spring for it anyway. I'll watch the video and see if I would even want to attempt it.

Thanks for posting the video, and all your other very interesting cooking stuff. As I've said before, I truly wish I could like cooking more. In my case, I guess, it's partly the fact that I've always gotten stuck with it. But it does always help my attitude if I'm really in love with the taste of the dish I prepare.

[A HERETIC I AM]

8. You know, I have seen packaged, deboned turkeys...

So it is quite likely that some processor out there is doing the same with chickens.

You are very welcome re: the video and I am glad you have enjoyed the other threads I've done!

I hope you have a great Thanksgiving and don't let the cooking get to you!

[Nay]

9. I'm actually happy to do the cooking this year because....

my son and his family will be here on Thanksgiving Day.

Although they live only 3 blocks away, they have been going to a couple of her relatives' Thanksgivings for the past couple of years while we hosted them on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. (They tried eating 2 dinners on Thanksgiving, but that made everybody pukey!) That was OK with me because I was working the day before Thanksgiving in past years, and also because I try really hard to be gracious about sharing holidays with DIL's family because she has tons of local relatives. Sometimes I think they take advantage...but that's another story!

Anyway, this time I'm happy to be the cook! I'll decorate, cook for days before, and have a gay old time!

[Jenoch]

10. Your Galantine looks fantastic.

I too was motivated to make these after seeing the boning process done by Jacques Pepin. I've done chickens and small turkeys this way (under 10 pounds). I've never brined the boned out birds however. I might have to try that. One of the best things about doing this is all of the great bones to make stock.

I have a duck in the freezer. I am tempted to make a Turducken for Thanksgiving. The only thing really stopping me is that we have Thanksgiving at a relative's house about an hour away from our house. The whole timing thing the first time will be difficult enough without the added pressure of traveling with the birds.

[A HERETIC I AM]

11. Thanks very much!

Re: Stock, you ain't kidding! I made a big pot of it today. I made Clam Chowder this evening and used some of it and have a little over 3 quarts left.

I sympathize with you on the traveling bit. I'm about 350 away from my Thanksgiving dinner, so the most I'm going to take with me from here is maybe a couple loaves of bread I'll bake.

Best of luck with the Turducken, if that's what you decide to do.