Jamie Oliver? Chicken in Milk?

So I've been watching a little bit... actually A LOT of Jamie Oliver lately. Sometimes when you're watching Netflix, you pick something really fast, and just keep watching it when it turns out to not suck. Sometimes you have to hurry and just choose, otherwise you'll realize a half hour later that you've just wasted an entire episode's worth of time browsing all the options (and listened to the Apple TV's "bop" every time you click).

So I settled on "Oliver's Twist" one day about a week ago. It's a British cooking show, made in like 2002, and the host is Jamie Oliver. I guess he's sort of famous in England... Anyways, he's pretty eccentric, but not in an Emeril or even Ramsey kind of way. More like an almost too goofy to be comfortable kind of way, with several catch phrases that have no meaning to Americans, and sort of a lisp to go along with his partially cockney accent. I watched the entire season, and ended up really enjoying it, except for the theme song. Which makes me want to kill myself every time they play it (which is at least 3 times per episode).

Anywho, I was kind of blown away by the way he was cooking though. It must just be the British influence, or something, because I hadn't really seen anyone cooking like he does. He uses PILES of fresh herbs like no one I've seen! And his presentation is wacky, but that's probably the England thing. Going in, I was concerned I'd be seeing a lot of "Spotted Dick" and "Blood Pudding" and crap I would never want to eat because it's made of tongue or something. But it turns out, lots of English cooking looks pretty good. He uses tons of vegetables and fish, which is like inspiration in a bottle because I'm always feeling like I use the same old chicken and ground beef recipes.

Long story not so short, I decided to make one of the dishes that looked tasty, and it WAS!

I went for the chicken in Milk. Basically, you put a seared whole chicken in a roaster with milk, lemon, garlic, and fresh whole sage leaves, and out comes a juicy, flavorful chicken soaking in lemony broth and CHEESE! What the... ? Cheese? Yep.

So remember when you learned that one time when you were watching a documentary on cheese... (just go with me) that basic cheese is can be made by combining milk with an acid like lemon juice? Well, same concept applies. The lemon "splits" the milk and out comes cheese.

Seriously, have you guys ever used fresh sage? I sure hadn't. I smelled it at the store and I felt like I was in a forest. But it was definitely the perfect flavor for chicken. It's practically nothing like dried or ground sage. I highly recommend trying out this recipe.

And Oliver's Twist is still available on Netflix to watch instantly, so go check it out. You have to watch at least 4 before you start ignoring all the quirks.

Here's Jamie's recipe, and here's my version with the slight variations:

• One 4lb chicken 
• kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 
• 1 stick of butter 
• 2 tablespoons olive oil 
• 1 good handful of fresh sage, leaves picked • zest of 2 lemons (this needs to be peeled off in thick strips, not grated), plus juice from 1
• 10 cloves of garlic, skin left on (I used crushed because I just bought a jar of that super convenient stuff and wanted to use it)
• 2 cups milk (I used 2% but more whole means better cheese)


Preheat the oven to 375F (I used a roaster because I don't have roasting pan that will fit a chicken), and find a snug-fitting pot for the chicken (instead of a pot, I used my cast iron frying pan to sear the chicken). Season it generously all over, and fry it in the butter and a little olive oil, turning the chicken to get an even color all over, until golden. (On the show, Jamie used half the butter to sear one half of the chicken, then threw it away, then used the other half of the butter to sear the other half of the chicken. I guess it keeps the butter from going brown.) Remove from the heat, put the chicken on a plate, and throw away the oil and butter left in the pot. This will leave you with tasty sticky goodness at the bottom of the pan, which will give you a lovely caramel flavor later on (because I used a separate pan for searing than for roasting, I just tried to scrape as much of the bits from the frying pan into the roaster).

Put your chicken back in the pot with the rest of the ingredients, and cook in the preheated oven for 1½ hours. Baste with the cooking juice when you remember. The lemon zest will sort of split the milk, making a sauce that is absolutely fantastic.

To serve, pull the meat off the bones and divide it onto your plates. Spoon over plenty of juice and the little curds. Serve with wilted spinach or greens and some mashed potato. (On the show, Jamie served it with plain polenta mixed with butter and parmesan. I made the mistake of buying the preseasoned Sun Dried Tomato kind when the store was out of plain. Don't do it. Gross.)