The most popular traditional dish at Christmas, capon requires you to follow a very specific cooking technique to the letter.
An emblematic dish of the end-of-year celebrations, capon will reign at the heart of the Christmas Eve table. Its tender flesh and delicious taste make it an excellent choice for this special occasion. But given its high price, it would be a shame to miss cooking. Are you afraid of reading disappointment in the eyes of your guests when faced with dry poultry? We give you the secret method to ensure a successful feast.
First of all, know that a good capon must have flawless skin, smooth-skinned legs and a short neck. If your budget allows it, choose a Label Rouge or organic capon, which you will preferably have found from a farmer or poultry merchant. It is of course not recommended to opt for already prepared or frozen poultry. This first criterion can guarantee you the ultimate taste experience.
Ready for preparation? Read these lines carefully, you are going to have to be active for a while. At least an hour before preparation, take the capon out of the fridge and let it rest at room temperature. Then place the seasoning: salt and pepper which we sprinkle generously on top, and under the skin, we delicately slip a mixture of aromatic herbs, thin slices of garlic, lemongrass and butter molten. Then tie the capon’s legs with kitchen twine to prevent the legs from loosening during cooking. Finally, last step before cooking, brush the poultry with melted butter using a brush.
Let’s go for traditional cooking in the oven. Allow 30 minutes of cooking per 500 gram slice of meat. If your capon weighs 2.5 kilos for example, opt for 2h30 cooking. To ensure tenderness and uniformity, cooking will be done at low temperature: set the thermostat to 150°C. And only at the very end, for crispy skin, we will raise the thermostat to 220°C for only 10 minutes.
We start by placing the capon on a thigh in a large dish with 15 centiliters of water and 5 centiliters of white wine. We roll up our sleeves: this step is crucial to ensure the juiciness of your capon. All 10 minutes, we water it with a mixture of olive oil and butter. A third of the time, we turn the poultry on the second thigh. We continue like this until the last third, where we will finish cooking the capon on its back. At the end of cooking, deglaze the roasting tray and pour the juices over the poultry.
This delicate cooking method will guarantee you 100% soft and tasty flesh. If it requires a little patience, know that before cooking, some chefs even advise leave the poultry to soak for 10 to 12 hours in water or broth to obtain even more tender and moist flesh! A word to the wise.