Thank you for posting this recipe! We were determined to make good use of our 5-year old rooster and frustrated by only finding modified recipes for roasting chickens. It turned out a hundred times better than we could have imagined - delicious and soft meat. Because I only found this recipe the night before our dinner I also had to modify it for the time, here are some changes I made, maybe someone else will find it encouraging to try!
- used one rooster instead of two, mostly halved the recipe except used the same amount of cognac to flambé - I have never done that before, it worked!
- skipped the bouillion entirely and replaced it with vegetable stock later
- we did marinate the whole rooster cut into chunks in one bottle of red wine, garlic, pepper, onion, carrot marinade overnight.
- when I braised the meat in bacon fat it was so hard I couldn't get the fork in to turn it; it was like a solid rubber mass. I nearly gave up. Don't.
- skipped the flouring while we were braising the meat and then after we lit the cognac and burned the alcohol off transferred everything into a pressure cooker (minus the extra fat so it doesn't clog the pressure cooker, saved that), with the wine marinade, dehydrated mushrooms, and added vegetable stock to bring it to 2/3 full, cooked it at high pressure for 3 hours.
- it was soft! but the meat didn't have much flavor so I added a whole head more garlic, onions, celery, peppercorns, and salt and brought it back up to pressure for another hour. Made a huge difference.
- transferred the meat to a cassarole dish and then in another pan made a rue with very finely diced bacon, the extra fat from braising, and two tablespoons flour. whisk it until it makes a paste, added a can of diced mushrooms, another a little bit at a time a half bottle of red wine, and all the liquid from the pressure cooker slowly stirring until it reduced and thickened. seasoned with salt and fresh parsley.
It was a super success, the meat was tender and completely delicious and the sauce is sooo rich. It was a lot of work but we modified it to two days (including killing and cleaning the rooster); definitely a good idea to do the cooking the day before or at least in the morning.
Thanks again!
- used one rooster instead of two, mostly halved the recipe except used the same amount of cognac to flambé - I have never done that before, it worked!
- skipped the bouillion entirely and replaced it with vegetable stock later
- we did marinate the whole rooster cut into chunks in one bottle of red wine, garlic, pepper, onion, carrot marinade overnight.
- when I braised the meat in bacon fat it was so hard I couldn't get the fork in to turn it; it was like a solid rubber mass. I nearly gave up. Don't.
- skipped the flouring while we were braising the meat and then after we lit the cognac and burned the alcohol off transferred everything into a pressure cooker (minus the extra fat so it doesn't clog the pressure cooker, saved that), with the wine marinade, dehydrated mushrooms, and added vegetable stock to bring it to 2/3 full, cooked it at high pressure for 3 hours.
- it was soft! but the meat didn't have much flavor so I added a whole head more garlic, onions, celery, peppercorns, and salt and brought it back up to pressure for another hour. Made a huge difference.
- transferred the meat to a cassarole dish and then in another pan made a rue with very finely diced bacon, the extra fat from braising, and two tablespoons flour. whisk it until it makes a paste, added a can of diced mushrooms, another a little bit at a time a half bottle of red wine, and all the liquid from the pressure cooker slowly stirring until it reduced and thickened. seasoned with salt and fresh parsley.
It was a super success, the meat was tender and completely delicious and the sauce is sooo rich. It was a lot of work but we modified it to two days (including killing and cleaning the rooster); definitely a good idea to do the cooking the day before or at least in the morning.
Thanks again!
