keltin
Washing Up
Has anybody ever tried Beggars Chicken. I came across the recipe years ago, and it has been the bane of my chicken cooking career. It’s the one dish I’ve never been able to do. Here is the recipe:
Beggars Chicken
Beggars Chicken w/pictures
It sounds awesome. Technically, the cooking (mechanics) of it is not so different from a pressure cooker or tightly sealed roaster. However, the absolute FUN of bringing a chicken encased in rock (ok, hardened dough) and then whipping out a mallet to crack it open sounds great.
I’ve tried it three times, but it always failed. The first time, I could never get the dough to seal....and I made a horrible mess with all the flour (flour and I don’t get along well).
The second time, I got the bird encased in the flour, but apparently my inner foil lining was breached, and the juices ran out and caused the dough to get soggy and leak (no airtight seal as required).
I then went commando-crazy on the recipe and went to a pottery shop and bought several pounds of clay! I thought for sure that would work......but that stuff is harder to work with than I thought. It never sealed properly, and eventually the inner foil pack leaked and the moisture caused the clay to come apart.
I never lost the chicken itself since it was wrapped in foil and protected from the mess of the casing. I just unwrapped it and cooked it on the grill, but I’ve yet to fully accomplish this recipe.
It’s been years since my last dismal failure at this recipe, and I’m thinking of trying again in the near future (glutton for punishment I guess). I’m also thinking of using a Cornish Hen for the next go round as that is a much smaller bird....and if I can do that, then I’ll move on to a full sized chicken.
Anyone ever tried this recipe? How did it turn out? Was serving it as much fun as I imagine?
Beggars Chicken
Beggars Chicken w/pictures
It sounds awesome. Technically, the cooking (mechanics) of it is not so different from a pressure cooker or tightly sealed roaster. However, the absolute FUN of bringing a chicken encased in rock (ok, hardened dough) and then whipping out a mallet to crack it open sounds great.
I’ve tried it three times, but it always failed. The first time, I could never get the dough to seal....and I made a horrible mess with all the flour (flour and I don’t get along well).
The second time, I got the bird encased in the flour, but apparently my inner foil lining was breached, and the juices ran out and caused the dough to get soggy and leak (no airtight seal as required).
I then went commando-crazy on the recipe and went to a pottery shop and bought several pounds of clay! I thought for sure that would work......but that stuff is harder to work with than I thought. It never sealed properly, and eventually the inner foil pack leaked and the moisture caused the clay to come apart.
I never lost the chicken itself since it was wrapped in foil and protected from the mess of the casing. I just unwrapped it and cooked it on the grill, but I’ve yet to fully accomplish this recipe.
It’s been years since my last dismal failure at this recipe, and I’m thinking of trying again in the near future (glutton for punishment I guess). I’m also thinking of using a Cornish Hen for the next go round as that is a much smaller bird....and if I can do that, then I’ll move on to a full sized chicken.
Anyone ever tried this recipe? How did it turn out? Was serving it as much fun as I imagine?
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