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  • 4 months ago
Michelin-starred Chef Daniel Boulud joins Bon Appétit to show how to make the iconic Chobster at Café Boulud at Maison Barnes. A luxurious fusion of roast chicken and lobster inspired by classic French cuisine, this dish is the next level of surf and turf. Watch as Boulud demonstrates professional techniques such as trussing a chicken, poaching a lobster, and building a rich sauce Américaine for an unforgettable fine dining experience.
Transcript
00:03I'm Chef Daniel Boulu at Café Boulu at Maison Barnes.
00:06We would like to make you the chopster.
00:09A love affair between the chicken and the lobster.
00:17First, I'd like to introduce Chef Romain Pommier,
00:21Executive Chef here at Café Boulu at Maison Barnes.
00:24And we are both from Lyon.
00:26We were talking about a recipe from our homeland.
00:32Poulet aux écrovis, which is a casserole of chicken and crayfish.
00:37Here we do roast chicken and lobster.
00:40Our iconic dish here at Café Boulu at Maison Barnes.
00:47So we have a beautiful chicken from Pennsylvania.
00:51The chicken get some seasoning and herbs around.
00:55And also garlic inside.
00:58And then we put the head of the lobster that we have broke down.
01:03Chicken love to be stuffed with something that's going to give wonderful flavor inside.
01:08If you're going to present your chicken on the table, I think it's better if you trust it.
01:13It will help the breast be more plump and also keep the legs tight to the chicken.
01:19I'm passing the needles on the bottom between the wings and the breast.
01:24And I'm going right under the corner of the legs.
01:27You don't want to pierce the breast.
01:29That will release too much juice and get it too dry.
01:33If you're going to pay a lot of money for your chicken in a restaurant,
01:36you don't want a chicken to be massacred by a trussing.
01:39The chicken has been brined for 20 minutes.
01:42Then we let it dry overnight.
01:45So we have some thyme, some sage, garlic, some bay leaf to flavor the chicken while it's roasting.
01:52And of course, we cover nicely our chicken with a lot of butter.
01:56I like the butter to start slowly melt over the chicken and then it will be used to baste the
02:03chicken as well.
02:07Voila! You can watch TV here.
02:16I'm putting just a little to speak here to hold the tail straight.
02:20And I have a hot court bouillon here.
02:23It's just aromate, bouquet garni, a little bit of lemon.
02:27And let it pull like this gently on the corner of the stove now.
02:31Poaching the lobster very gently and very slowly to just partly cook the lobster.
02:36And then the lobster will be finished with the chicken after.
02:44While the lobster is lightly poaching, we're going to start to roast some of the wings for making soda.
02:52And here, just breaking them so it's a little bit easier.
02:55And of course, the neck as well.
02:58We have a base of sauce American that we make in large quantity.
03:02But we are fortifying the sauce with, of course, chicken and lobster.
03:09Some salt and some espalette paper.
03:13Putting a little bit of herbs also inside.
03:16We put a little bit of black peppercorn.
03:19Some garlic.
03:20There is already tomato preparation inside the American sauce.
03:26But I'm adding tomato paste here to really fortify also the flavor of tomato.
03:32So this got flambé with cognac.
03:35Are you ready?
03:37Be careful, huh?
03:37We'll give a complexity, aroma and acidity and tannin.
03:43So this is not to be cooking for hours, but just to refortify that base we had already made.
03:51So you see our chicken jus is a little bit more concentrated.
03:55So, of course, you could do a dish of chicken and lobster together, but we feel that the best accompaniment
04:04and combine the most the chicken and the lobster flavor together is the sauce American.
04:10So the sauce is starting to reduce well.
04:13Now adding some cream to the preparation will smooth the taste of the sauce.
04:20A delicate harmony between the lobster and the chicken.
04:25Voila!
04:27It is lightly spicy.
04:29There's a lot of complexity in it and a lot of finesse.
04:33So the sauce is getting trained finely.
04:37Look how beautiful this sauce American is.
04:40So we're going to reduce it a touch more when we plate it.
04:44But that's a very good base here.
04:50Let's break down the lobster.
04:52The claw.
04:54So the tail, break the bottom like this and then open wide and break the top.
05:02Voila!
05:04For the knuckle, you can use a lobster cracker, but the back of a knife is also very good.
05:10You just have to be careful.
05:12Voila!
05:13One knuckle.
05:14And here is our lobster.
05:16Voila!
05:18The lobster is getting closer and closer to the chicken.
05:22And of course, with that, you can keep that to make your sauce American.
05:25You see the guilt here?
05:27You want to take it out because this is Peter.
05:30Voila!
05:34At Café Boulu at Maison Barne, when you order the chopster, we present it to you before we carve it
05:42and of course serve it to you.
05:44Chef Romain found on the flea market a brass lobster.
05:49So now we have this beautiful presentation with a little bit of thyme.
05:55Here I have the lobster that was poached and it's warmed up with lobster butter to keep the lobster warm
06:01and happy.
06:02And we'll finish the dish in the dining room.
06:07Café Boulu at Maison Barne is composed of the main dining room of Café Boulu and salon and private room
06:15of Maison Barne.
06:16So the chopster will be presented in the armor.
06:20I like to remove the legs first.
06:22And of course, make sure we take also the bottom of the legs here with what we call the solilus,
06:29which is the chicken oysters.
06:31So the breast, we lift the breast after lifting the legs.
06:36Now I'm taking the stuffing, the lobster body, the herbs and the garlic inside my duck breast here.
06:44So now I am pressing to extract the umami of lobster.
06:49And this will be added to the sauce, giving it a last boost of flavor.
06:54So for the presentation, beautiful breast of chicken, beautiful lobster, finish in the lobster butter and the sauce.
07:04Voila!
07:05This is one of a kind dish in America.
07:08Chicken is very delicate.
07:10Lobster is very delicate too.
07:12Every bite, you have a little bit of lobster, you have a little bit of chicken, and you dip it
07:18into the sauce.
07:22The chicken has been cooked with the aromatic and the lobster inside.
07:26And when you eat the two together, you can taste everything.
07:29It's really magical.
07:31It's really cool.
07:38I may have an idea that I will do a chicken farm by the sea in Maine, and the chicken
07:46can come and have conversation with the lobsters.
07:50And certainly start to create a relationship.
07:55So when they get into the chopster moment, they already feel like they know each other, they like each other.
08:02I think I'm going to write the children's books about the chicken and the lobster.
08:06It sounds like everybody.
08:08Maybe.
08:08Maybe.
08:08Maybe.
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