Ever heard of "Beggar’s Chicken"?

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My husband was recently in San Francisco on a business trip and he came back gushing about a dinner he had prepared like this. The insides were gone. He said it was the best chicken he had ever had.

I do remember Alton Brown once cooking a chicken wrapped in foil and then put in a terra cotta flower pot to get the same effect. If memory serves me he used the terra cotta drain plate as a plate and put the pot over top like a tagine. He may have even included a brick inside.

Try it.
 
They make clay cooking vessels as well. We have 2 of them, they are called Romertoph (think they are German maybe and my spelling might be off a little) clay cookers I believe and they are amazing. The first small one my GF found at the goodwill and it had the cooking book with it. Second larger one was a score out of a house I was demolishing. I would recommend these things to anyone, they are so easy to use. Soak both sides in water for 20 mins or before you cook and DON'T preheat the oven, they all heat up together in the stove. That is their only "trick" and you follow those 2 steps and you will end up with the best chicken you have ever made. These things make the juiciest chicken around and do a great job on pork as well. I always tell people they are the perfect bachelors rig because you can cook really good food for your lady friends (wink, wink) without having to know your way around the kitchen at all (course 95% of the households I know now the man is the best cook in the house, with mine being the exception). Throw a little oil in for sticking, season the bird to your liking and pop it in, you can't mess it up. Forgot to pull it out in time, no problem it just cooks in its own juices and gets better (within reason of course
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I'd think you'd have to put it directly in the fire to actually get the clay to harden around the bird. In an oven you're just going to end up with mud covered chicken.
 
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Actually no. the oven dried it right up and it did form a solid baking vessel.

Pics?? How was it!! Your keeping us all in suspense!
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**and did you leave the guts in? **
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So the chicken (rooster actually) got done and now it's time to report back on what went wrong, and what went right.
The bad
1. I did cook this bird without gutting it. The intestines did open up and contaminate the meat on the lower part of the bird. I won't do that again but I had to try it.

2. I used a fairly mature rooster because that is what I had available to butcher. I am going to experiment more with roosters because I have 7 or 8 more that need processed, but when I get the procedure down I will either use young cockerels or hens, so that the meat is more tender.

3. I did not take the time to find clay soil I wanted to see if it would work with the relatively sandy soil that I have in my yard, if I slathered enough mud on the bird. The mud did dry out and the bird got cooked, but a rather large crack developed allowing part of the moisture to escape. I am planning to try again, with this same soil, but next time I am going to put on one layer of mud add some strips of paper, then put on another layer of mud. this, I think, should prevent the cracking and seal in the moisture as intended.

4. In the story of the beggar, the feathers were "covered in mud" and came right off with the clay vessel when it was broken. When I broke the vessel off, the feather remained and basically had to be plucked off of the already cooked rooster. To make the process work as intended I think I will need to soak the bird in a very thin solution of mud/clay for several hours so that the feathers become part of the clay vessel.

The good
1. The mud did dry out and harden nicely in the oven.

2. The breast meat was above the area that got contaminated, and turned out really tender and pretty tasty.

3. one of my coworkers has a farm with plenty of white clay soil that I can go dig up!
 
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It was not my intention to keep you waiting, but I am a very slow typist. I will provide photos once I get the process to work like I want it to! Probably do a youtube video as well!
 
Well thats how we learn, try and see what happens!
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Sounds like you have it figured out for next time!
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It was not my intention to keep you waiting, but I am a very slow typist. I will provide photos once I get the process to work like I want it to! Probably do a youtube video as well!

I know..i was teasing ya!
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