chickenhead

I roasted my first chicken last week. When I purchased the bird from a Korean market, I stared wanly at the chicken head encased with the body under the cellophane skin. It looked sleepy and featherless.

I prepared a brine with Kosher salt, garlic and a little bit of sugar. "It should taste like the ocean in terms of saltiness" said Nate, my professor. I took teaspoons of brine from my stock pot until the mixture reminded me of my first surf lesson.

Upon tearing the plastic wrap off the bird, I realized that the chicken still had its head on. I had picked it up out of the tray with my bare hands so I leaned over the sink to have a think. Do I put the bird down, wash my hands and take out a knife to decapitate it or do I brine with the head on and return later with the guillotine? I decided on the latter so the whole bird went into the pot and I washed and returned to my other prep.

When it came time to cut it off, I wasn't as squeamish as I thought I'd be. After a pointer from Nate, I took my gyotou and cut the head off at the base of the neck and threw the head into the trash. The stuffing, salting and tying took a while but eventually the bird was placed on a bed of spinach and yams to roast for about an hour. Meanwhile, I made creamed corn with what I thought was fresh corn from the market and a basil plum cobbler.

The chicken was saltier than we thought it'd be but most of the salt fell into the spinach and yams. Those were eaten sparingly. The creamed corn suffered due to old, tough kernels and the basil plum cobbler was surprisingly minty due to Thai instead of Italian basil. All in all, we had a good meal and a lesson that sometimes you have to deal with life head on.