Dining With the Stars #2 - Chicken a la Bosworth

Hobart Bosworth Chef du Jour

I did my first posting on Dining with the Stars way back in 2010 with the history of Green Goddess Dressing.  I did intend to do more cooking, but, just never got around to it.  Besides Fritzi Kramer over at Movies Silently has been doing a brave and bang up job of cooking vintage Hollywood recipes (legit or not). 

Fritzi recently asked if some people would be up to the job of doing some cooking while she was feeling a little under the weather.  Well, this was well over a month ago and I am finally getting around to trying out the recipe I was tasked with, Chicken a la (Hobart) Bosworth. 

Here is the recipe if you're at all curious:

Because I am living in single blessedness, I'm not cooking a whole bird.  Just too much for dinner for one.  So, for the record, using leg and thigh joint which is the tastiest part of the bird as far as I am concerned.  This also saves me the job of actually spatchcocking the bird itself.

Now, if you are curious to see Hobart Bosworth on screen.  I cannot recommend highly enough the Flicker Alley release of Behind the Door.  A film directed by Irvin Willat that you will not forget. Here's the trailer to whet your appetite:


Behind the Door (1919) - Trailer from Flicker Alley on Vimeo.

My only advice is maybe not watch this before you eat dinner.

Organic chicken, patted dry and seasoned with kosher salt started with some butter and a touch of oil.  Browning and then in to the oven.  I did not want to risk broiling in my Breville oven tossing butter all over the place and starting a fire. After that followed the recipe and roasted the legs for about 20 minutes.

Next up it was time to cook the mushrooms, a little butter, add the mushrooms and cook them off so they are flavorful and nicely browned.  I opted to use regular brown mushrooms and I had some lovely dehydrated shitakes from my boss (growing, cleaning and dehydrating by her husband).  I had soaked the shitakes and then squeezed them out and cooked them with the browns.  I added some marsala wine and flamed them to cook off the alcohol.

 

 

Next I took the chicken out and drained off a lot of the fat.  Added some flour to make a roux.  Added some more salt and pepper to taste and some fresh thyme, added in the mushroom soaking liquid and then some half and half.  Tasted for seasoning and added fresh parsley.

I opted to add the sauce as a condiment rather than submerge the chicken in it.  Should have added more liquid as it was a bit thicker than I wanted.  While I do have currant jam, I am not eating bread, so left off the toast points.  Not 100% true to Hobart Bosworth's recipe, but, he did say "season to taste."  I did and it was quite tasty. Thanks to Fritzi for tasking me to join in with her cooking/blogging.  I quite enjoyed it!