Poulet Grillé á la Diable (Grilled Chicken With Mustard)

One of the reasons the Accidental Locavore loves to cook is because you get to try all the interesting recipes that cross your path. Often, the most difficult part is figuring out that age-old question, “what’s for dinner?” Today, I had an edge; Frank wanted chicken, roasted chicken, so I had the perfect excuse to pull out an old favorite Julia Child recipe for Poulet Grillé Á  la Diable. It’s a recipe I used to make all the time, easy and tasty. It brings into play a little-used part of the oven, the broiler.

Poulet Grillé á la Diable

• 1 chicken about 4 pounds, halved or quartered
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Salt
• 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons minced shallots or scallions
• 1/2 teaspoon thyme, basil or tarragon
• Pinch of pepper
• Pinch of cayenne pepper
• 2 cups fresh breadcrumbs

Preheat the broiler to moderately high. Melt the butter with the olive oil in a small pan. Dry the chicken thoroughly and paint both sides with the butter mix. Put the chicken skin side down in the bottom of a broiler pan (without the rack). Place it so the chicken is about 5-6″ away from the broiling element and cook for 10 minutes on each side, basting with the butter mix every 5 minutes. The chicken should be lightly browned.

While the chicken is cooking, put the mustard, shallots, herbs, salt and peppers in a small bowl. Slowly pour the remainder of the butter into the mix, beating it well to emulsify it. When the chicken is done, add half of the fat from the pan, slowly beating into the mustard mix. Reserve the rest of the fat.

Paint the chicken with the mustard mix. Pour the breadcrumbs into a wide shallow bowl, or plate. Roll the chicken in the crumbs, patting them so they’ll adhere.

Place the chicken, skin side down, on the broiling pan, this time with the rack in place. Drizzle with half the basting fat. Broil under moderately high heat for 10 minutes. Turn the pieces over and drizzle with the remaining fat. Cook for another 10 minutes or until the juices run clear when pricked with a fork. Serve and enjoy!

My verdict: 

As good as I remember it being! This is definitely going back into rotation. Don’t worry if your broiler isn’t adjustable, many aren’t. Just keep an eye on the chicken and if it’s getting too brown too fast, lower the rack. I didn’t make homemade bread crumbs (sorry Julia), but substituted panko bread crumbs instead and they were great! I used some fresh basil as the herb. Julia doesn’t specify fresh or dried. My preference would have been for some fresh tarragon, but the amount is negligible, and used what I had fresh. Some dried herbs de Provence would be a fine substitute. Since the mustard is key here, try to use some good Dijon if you have it. This post might give you some mustard ideas. And yes, if you’re going to be picky, this is not technically roasted chicken…