Top Chef ™
Baker:
Season:
Week:
Challenge Type:
Salt Crust Chicken
Massimo: "Doing a Quebec classic that you eat in the winter. Gonna make a farce with the chicken thighs. It's going to go between the chicken and its skin. It's a sustainability challenge. You've got to keep all of it."
"I'm feeling good. This winter dish, I'm going to be doing chicken cooked in a salted crust in a beautiful, delicious broth. A very, very poetic winter classic.
"Piping the mousse under the skin is a second layer of defense from overcooking. But also, who doesn't love a nice chicken mousse?"
"I'm going to try and make a coeliac salt crust for the chicken. The salt crust captures steam, and whatever you cook in there just turns out to be juicy. In theory."
"I'm going to be doing something very, very, very, very dangerous. I'm going against a rule that I had, which was not to do something for the first time on Top Chef."
Presenting to Judges
Massimo: "All right. I decided to do something I grew up with with a technique that I did for the first time. This is poulet poché sauce creme. I fluffed the sauce with a sauce poulette, and the chicken was cooked in a salt crust."
Judges
"Obviously very technical dish. Cooking it in the salt crust retained so much moisture. And that farce with the chicken thigh was seasoned beautifully."
"It was nice. Technically, everything cooked properly. While I enjoyed the taste, there is something missing to make it more comforting. Maybe potato would have improved the dish."
