13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very Best Variety of Chicken Recipes. Buy It., March 17, 2006
This review is from: The New York Times Chicken Chicken Cookbook (Hardcover)
`The New York Times Chicken Cookbook', edited by New York Times director of news research, Linda Amster and culinary writer and editor, Julia Reed is akin to those CD offerings you get on TV covering `Best Love Ballads of the `70's' or `100 Most Inspiring Arias'. Almost all the recipes are by different contributors, so it has this mixed media feeling of such mixtures, or of a party or theme tape of all the songs mentioning the days of the week (I could never seem to find a song for Wednesday). This does not mean these diverse sources make it a poor cookbook. It's just that it brings different strengths and weaknesses to the table that must be considered.
First off, unlike CD collections I mentioned, I find a single subject cookbook to be inherently more valuable and interesting than, for example, non-chef celebrity cookbooks or even cookbooks from famous restaurants. When you go to such a book, you KNOW you will find something close to what you are looking for, such as an interesting new way to roast a chicken or something to do with leftover chicken. And, chicken is by far one of the very best subjects to which to dedicate an entire book, as it is cheap, nutritious, and the subject of a large number of popular preparation methods. I have already reviewed two other serious `all poultry' books. These are `The Complete Book of Chicken' by the editors of `Cooks Illustrated' Magazine and `Beard on Birds' by James Beard. The first of these shares with the New York Times effort the fact that all material was previously published and has been, therefore, thoroughly reviewed by copy and content editors and a critical public. Beard's book, on the other hand has the advantage of having been written, or at least edited, by the country's foremost food writer. The Times book has the advantage of being dedicated exclusively to Chicken. There is no space dedicated to turkey or game birds. This is a good thing, as where the average family may cook a turkey twice a year, they are likely to make chicken once a week or more often. And, they will rarely make pheasant, grouse, or even duck.
This Times book is organized by cooking method, which makes total sense. The chapters are:
A Perfect Roast Chicken with 42 different recipes on how to roast the bird, including brining techniques, roasting deboned chicken, and stuffing (yes, stuffing inside the bird!). As in all chapters, the `easy' recipes are so marked in their titles.
Great Baked Chicken with 24 recipes, 18 of which are marked as easy. Several of these recipes are really escapes from the Roasting chapter, but most are recipes for cut up, marinated, and baked chicken pieces.
Turning Up the Heat with 37 grilling recipes, including 27 easy recipes, plus five recipes for marinades.
Fried Chicken with 23 recipes, including 14 easy recipes. The biggest issue here is do you marinade first in milk or buttermilk or not. It also includes recipes for Buffalo Wings.
Steaming and Poaching Your Way to the Dinner Table may be my favorite section, as steaming and poaching are two of the healthiest and easiest ways of cooking chicken. This has 16 recipes, including 4 easy recipes and 5 easy steaming liquid recipes.
The Crispy, The Crunchy, and the Quickly Prepared covers sauteeing or stir frying chicken parts with 48 recipes, and 33 easy recipes.
The Slow Road to Tenderness covers 32 recipes for braising or stewing chicken, including 18 easy recipes. This is where you will find Coq au Vin and other luscious stews.
A Meal in Itself covers large chicken casseroles with 45 recipes and 9 easy recipes. This is where you find the ragouts, sambals, pot pies, and paellas.
This collection has the advantage of culling recipes from some of the most distinguished chefs and culinary writers from the past 50 years, including Mark Bittman, Daniel Boulud, Craig Claiborne, Tom Colicchio, Pierre Franey, Ken Hom, Barbara Kafka, Nigella Lawson, Jacques Pepin, Mimi Sheraton, and Patricia Wells. Among other things, this means you get some famous recipes such as Steve Raichlen's beer can chicken and some authoritative recipes such as Barbara Kafka's recipe for roasting chicken from her book on `Roasting'.
In spite of all this, there are some unusual omissions. The most serious one seems to be the fact that there is no authoritative recipe for chicken stock. I would think that this book would deserve at least two different chicken stock recipes, one for uncooked chicken and one for roasted chicken parts. This gap is compounded by the fact that there is not chapter on chicken soups, which strikes me as the most serious omission. Another missing chapter is one on chicken salads; however, salads do get cited in eight recipes in the index, while but a single index entry can be found for chicken soup! One other serious omission is that while several recipes require a butterflied chicken, there is nothing in the book that adequately describes how you butterfly a chicken! All of these omissions are excellently covered in the `Cooks Illustrated' volume. If you can afford the space for both books, I strongly suggest you get both and keep them side by side. A last omission I cannot understand is the fact that the book does not include a recipe for chicken adobo, which Raymond Sokolov lists as one of the 101 classic recipes every cook should know.
I also discovered some odd inconsistencies in recipe attributions, but that is only for the very picky among us. Overall, this is an excellent source for all cooks, and a great source if you happen to really like chicken. The stock and soup omissions are minor IF you already have a good book on soup making. This is the best of the three books mentioned for its variety of methods and tastes.
Highly recommended.
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