Strategies for cooking plated dinner parties?

Hey ChefSteps community, I'm developing a fall menu for a dinner party for ~8-10 people and I'd like to do roasted chicken... but I've never attempted to do that for that many people, especially plated. I figure I'll need to roast at least two chickens at the same time, spatchcock style but I think I'm going to have at least three major problems:

1. Kenji's spatchcock roasted chicken method gives me fantastic results but generates a massive amount of smoke even with onions covering the bottom of the pan, fans on, and windows open. I'd cook SV and then sear but the fat under the skin never renders with SV and I wouldn't get that roasty flavor.

2. I need to carve the chicken and plate a whole bunch of plates. How do I even carve the dark meat in a nice presentation that isn't just a drum on the plate (especially since I won't have enough for one for each person)?

3. I need to do all of this fast enough that everything stays hot and the skin stays crispy.

Should I even attempt this? Sous vide steak for 8-10 seems much easier to accomplish at this point, but doesn't feel enough like a fall dinner IMO. Any suggestions for how to accomplish this—or do something completely different would be greatly appreciated.

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Comments

HammeredChef_DEFINITELY_does_NOT_work_at_22134

IMHO you have picked the biggest pain in the ass to ever try and plate....you could roast it slice it, bag it and keep it warm SV until plating. The flavor will be there but the crispy is gone... I would look at steak, pork tenderloin, short ribs, seafood... If you want chicken you will have to roast it, carve it keep it in the oven (without drying out) and plate it on hot plates Or do chicken roulades ...and deep fry at the last minute..

meyer8863

With a plated meal, I would suggest breaking down the bird rather than spatchcocking it.

Unless you are going to present the perfectly roasted bird on a platter, then run it back to the kitchen for plating, it seems like your job would be easier to cook the light and dark meat seperately. With the dark meat, a roulade is really my favorite way to go. It makes serving easy, since all the hard work is done in prep (debone, take out tendons, etc.). You can also buy extra leg/thighs, to make extra roulades. Sous vide is def the way to go for that. Airline breasts are my favorite, pan seared and finished in your oven. (Check out Stella culinary pan roasted chicken breast)

With all that said, THE SINGLE BIGGEST TIP I can give you... heat your plates. They retain a TON of heat, which allows you a solid 8-10 minute window for plating. With the wine flowing, your guests won't even notice the delay.

Good luck!

lockgavin

did you think About separating the skin from the breast and making a crumble like the duck recipe on chef steps? Or just the duck recipe itself? Maybe serve with a confit leg torchon kind of deal? I'm sure both techniques would lend themselves to chicken. That way you are crisping the leg and the breast gets the crumble.

Or short ribs. Short ribs are always great.

Also a smaller bird? Roast of 4 boneless Cornish hens, half per person?

fisher23

If you really want poultry, Cornish hens are great and everyone gets the same. +1, with @Vinlo_21439 or go with roulades.

Martin_411586

All that work and then have soggy skins while you're looking for roasty, homey, hearty fall flavours? Don't do it.

Perhaps you could cook a small bird per two people, to share. Roast, cut in halves and serve them on a bed of roast veg and place between/in front of two guests (with a warm, clean plate each). It's not quite a plated dinner party but does it need to be?

So...

You could.. separate the skin from the bird. Then cook the bird as you like (probably sv) and roast the skins off separately to get those roasty-toasty bits that way.

Or grill the bird as you would normally do, skin on. Then remove the skin (discard/use in stock) if it would get soggy later on in the process and plate with skins you've bought separately and have crisped up in the oven.

Or make a roulade. Lots of options! Make a (black) truffle filling, a saffron mousse, etc. roll in to the meat and/or stuff the lot in a chicken/duck neck. Then brown in a pan after cooking sv and slice.

Or if you like this style: de-bone the bird completely but leave the skin on. Hammer flat(ish) where needed. Then make a mousse with, say.... breast meat, foie and toasted nuts (for example) to use as a filling. Pipe a center line of filling onto the bird, roll the roulade, cook sv, brown in a pan and serve as a slice.

FrankM_3301

Excellent advice below. For fancy plating, I like @Martin_68354's suggestion. Bone out the chicken, season or fill, roll, tie, sous vide, finish to crisp skin, slice, and plate. If you roll from the leg/thigh side you will have dark and white meat in each slice. Basting while you finish will crisp skin.