10 Ways Tuesdays - Chicken (c) 2011 LaDomestique.com

I’ve come up with 10 ways to use chicken in your spring pantry:

1.  Roast Chicken

Everyone should have a house recipe for roast chicken. I say pick one way and stick with it. Practice roasting a bird to moist, succulent perfection. Don’t settle for a dry, overcooked chicken. Over time your roast chicken will become your family legacy. Your kids will grow up talking about “mom’s roast chicken” to their kids. At my house roast chicken is always rubbed all over with butter, generously seasoned with salt and pepper, then stuffed with garlic and lemon. However, I just came across a recipe in A Taste of France where the chicken is slathered with Dijon mustard and roasted. The recipe then calls for crème fraîche to be heated in a pan and poured over the chicken, which goes back into the oven for ten more minutes. I would have never thought of that, but it sounds amazing.

2.  Chicken Stock

Now that you’ve roasted the bird, you might as well make some stock. I usually get the husband to pick the meat off the bones and throw the bones in a freezer bag to make stock later. I’m a stubborn advocate for homemade stock, refusing to go along with the idea that the boxed stuff in the grocery store has any resemblance to the real thing. The rich, comforting flavor provides a backbone to recipes for spring soup, braises, and sauces. Plus, a pot of stock bubbling away on the stove is guaranteed to make you feel like a domestic goddess. Go for it!

3.  Crêpes

If you are lucky enough to have leftover roast chicken in the fridge, why not try the recipe for “Crêpes with Chicken and Morels” from Bouchon, by Thomas Keller? Don’t be intimidated- it’s just shredded chicken sautéed with morels in a creamy sauce as a filling for crepes. I like his idea to incorporate herbs into the crêpe batter. See, chicken can be elegant. Wouldn’t this be a lovely spring supper? You could serve it with a sparkling Grüner Veltliner or a Chardonnay from Burgundy.

4.  Braised

In Barefoot in Paris, Ina Garten shares a recipe for “Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic”. She writes of a chicken broken down into eight pieces and braised in a dutch oven with forty cloves of garlic, white wine, and cream. The result is moist and tender chicken perfumed with the sweet, earthy flavor of garlic. Even better, this dish benefits from being made ahead and reheated.

5.  Glazed and Baked

Laura Calder’s “Honey Hen” from French Food at Home makes good use of pantry staples. She simply melts honey in a pan with Dijon and herbs de Provence, then glazes chicken pieces with the mixture and bakes it in the oven. The result is a sweet and savory bird perfumed with lavender. Serve it with a wine from Provence or the Languedoc, where wild herbs cover craggy hillsides.

6.  Just the wings, please

I’m a big fan of the ladies at Canal House. Their latest work, Volume 6, features a simple, rustic recipe for “Roasted Chicken Wings”. Melissa Hamilton reminisces about how her mother was a “great à la bonne femme cook”, but the dish she most remembers, “a pile of meaty sticky chicken wings, eaten with our fingers, always served with a leafy salad”.

7.  Panko Breaded Tenders

The coarse Japanese breadcrumbs, panko, are great for coating chicken tenders to be fried in oil. You’ll have a lighter, crunchier crust and panko will forever have a home in your pantry. Serve it with an ice cold beer and a crisp, lemony salad.

8.  Chicken Piccata

This Italian standard may be old news to you, but I have to include Chicken Piccata because it’s a favorite in my house. I always use a recipe from Every Day Italian by Giada De Laurentiis. I appreciate her recipe because it doesn’t call for white wine- one less thing I need to have on hand makes it easy to cook this dish on a whim. Tart lemon and briny capers are sure to wake up the palate. I serve this over buttery white rice with garlicky broccoli.

9.  Poached

Martha Stewart’s “Poached Chicken Breast and Spring Vegetable Salad” from her book, Cooking School, is a great opportunity to enjoy chicken with the freshest produce of the farmer’s market. She steams asparagus, leeks, artichokes, and potatoes; serving them on a platter with a side of herb vinaigrette. Lovely for a Saturday lunch in the garden.

10.  Pâté

I do love a rich, sweet and earthy chicken liver pâté with baguette and Champagne. An essential book on pantry ingredients, Preserved, contains a recipe for “Chicken Liver Pâté with Morels”. Nick Sandler and Johnny Acton combine  luxurious puree of chicken livers with the honeycombed texture of a spring mushroom, the morel. This rich and decadent recipe makes use of one of the thriftiest parts of a chicken.