Chicken in a Salt Crust - Poulet a l'ail en Croute de Sel

Serves: to serve 4 - 6

Prep Time: 20 Minutes

Cook Time: 1 Hour 30 Minutes

Ready In: 1 hr 50 mins

1 medium-sized - free range chicken

1 x 5oz packet - Boursin (Cuisine) Ail et Fines Herbes

5-6 lb - coarse sea salt or rock salt

1½ lb - plain flour (all purpose flour)

4 - eggs

2 teaspoons - rosemary

2 teaspoons - thyme

1 tablespoon - red baies (red or mixed peppercorns will work)

1 tablespoon - black peppercorns

Rinse the chicken and wipe it dry on absorbent kitchen paper. Now comes the tricky bit if you have big hands like me!! Slide a long spoon or fork handle between the skin and the flesh to separate the two, without breaking the skin. Now push Boursin between skin and flesh all around the breasts, legs and thighs of the chicken. Once you have some under the skin, you can manipulate it further using your fingers on the outside. If you have any Boursin left over at the end, put it inside the body of the chicken.
In a very large bowl or pan, mix the coarse salt, flour, rosemary, thyme, baies and peppercorns. Separate the egg whites (you won't be using the yolks) and add these to the salt mix along with some of the cold water. Mix this all together to form a thick 'paste'. It should just hold together in a ball if you squeeze some in your hand. If it's too dry, add another more water or another egg white. If it's too wet, add some flour.
You can either cook your chicken in a very shallow dish (as shown in the photo on the left) or on a flat baking tray. I prefer the latter, having already broken two dishes when eventually cracking open the crust! Place a layer of salt about ½" (1cm) thick on the baking tray (dish) and place the chicken on top then use the rest of the salt to form a shell over the whole chicken. Check for holes or cracks ... there shouldn't be any! (I always make sure I have some spare ingredients - especially coarse salt - in case there isn't enough to cover the whole chicken completely)
Cook in a preheated hot oven (Mk 6 - 400ºF - 200ºC) for 1½ hours (for a large chicken you should cook for 1¾ hours). The crust will now be a golden colour and will be quite hard. But the fun comes when you present this to your guests and ask them to guess what it is! So far, none of my guests have yet succeeded and they've all wanted to come to the kitchen with me to watch me opening 'the beast'.
But a word of warning! I've had to take a hammer and chisel to it before now, to crack the crust! Once cracked, it's fairly easy to prise open (though be careful of the steam - it's darn hot in there!)
Carve the chicken and watch as people drool over the taste! The skin may be a little salty, but not as much as you might imagine, and the flesh is totally moist and carries this amazing taste of garlic and herbs that come with the cheese.