Jump to content

Pollo al Burro - Brown Butter Chicken Popularized at Trattoria Sostanza in Florence


porcupine

Recommended Posts

After actually locating the Plugra, I discovered that South Mountain Creamery, who I get biweekly deliveries from actually makes a butter that is ~85% butterfat. My heart wants to just use theirs, but my brain says don't mess with the recipe. 

Do you have a link for the recipe?  The only time I've found the butterfat content to make a real, noticeable difference in a recipe is in pastry.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The SMC butter is good, but the unsalted does not keep long, given the high percentage of butterfat and the fact there is no salt to preserve it.  I used to order it from them and stopped because it kept turning before I could use even half of it.   I have several half containers in the freezer.  The plastic in the container gets very brittle when it's frozen, so the containers break easily when frozen too.  Because it's in tubs, it's also hard to measure out easily in tablespoons.

That's a long way of saying that buying a half pound of Plugra or equivalent is probably better than buying a 1 lb. tub from SMC, unless you know you're going to have a lot of immediate uses for the excess.

Thank you, this is very helpful. I really only use butter to cook with these days since I no longer generally eat bread although typically I cook with ghee, not butter. But I suspect if I turned the tub of butter into ghee it would then keep well. Thoughts on that?

This may be the one she's using.

Yes, that's the one. Although I will say that I searched around quite a lot and it seems that the chefs at Sostanza actually char the chicken on the charcoal grill first, then in addition to also coating it in flour they also coat it in egg. The recipe is missing those 2 details. And I tend to believe the other source since there were pictures from the kitchen, both of the pieces of chicken on the fire and the bowl of egg next to the bowl of flour. :P I don't have a charcoal grill and doubt that flashing them on my gas grill would have the same effect so I think I will skip that step, but I plan to use the egg.

ETA: I also found a YouTube video where a couple used this recipe to cook the chicken, but they couldn't find the Plugra butter so used some standard grocery store brand and reported that the dish didn't taste exactly the same, that there was a nuttiness to the butter that was missing. Who knows.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've had Sostanza's butter chicken.  Also their bisteca Fiorentina.  Absolutely love the place!  There was also a dessert that I had ten or so years ago that was outstanding.  Maybe a lemon meringue pie?  Or lemon cream pie?  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you, this is very helpful. I really only use butter to cook with these days since I no longer generally eat bread although typically I cook with ghee, not butter. But I suspect if I turned the tub of butter into ghee it would then keep well. Thoughts on that?

Yes, that's the one. Although I will say that I searched around quite a lot and it seems that the chefs at Sostanza actually char the chicken on the charcoal grill first, then in addition to also coating it in flour they also coat it in egg. The recipe is missing those 2 details. And I tend to believe the other source since there were pictures from the kitchen, both of the pieces of chicken on the fire and the bowl of egg next to the bowl of flour. :P I don't have a charcoal grill and doubt that flashing them on my gas grill would have the same effect so I think I will skip that step, but I plan to use the egg.

ETA: I also found a YouTube video where a couple used this recipe to cook the chicken, but they couldn't find the Plugra butter so used some standard grocery store brand and reported that the dish didn't taste exactly the same, that there was a nuttiness to the butter that was missing. Who knows.

Guessing you made this last year?  How did it turn out?  I think we're going to try it so wanted to learn any tips you picked up the hard way.  Also, do you think it would matter much to use KerryGold rather than the Plugra.  I haven't checked on the butterfat difference but we've generally gravitated to only using kerrygold unsalted in recent years.  It's full fat, grass fed and, Cathal Armstrong's favorite but guess you can call him biased. :-)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guessing you made this last year?  How did it turn out?  I think we're going to try it so wanted to learn any tips you picked up the hard way.  Also, do you think it would matter much to use KerryGold rather than the Plugra.  I haven't checked on the butterfat difference but we've generally gravitated to only using kerrygold unsalted in recent years.  It's full fat, grass fed and, Cathal Armstrong's favorite but guess you can call him biased. :-)

Yes, I made it twice. The first time I did a trial run for myself because I was making it for a dinner party and didn't want to totally flub it and the dish turned out nearly perfectly. It wasn't quite as good as when I had it there, but it was damn close. I can't remember if I hit it with the grill beforehand or not, but I did everything else as I planned to, including using the egg (and I cooked it in my cast iron).

The second time was for the actual dinner party and I totally flubbed it.It was later in the night, I had had wine, I completely forgot to coat it in the egg. Here's a tip: if you remember that you forgot the egg coating half way through cooking, don't pull the chicken  out, dip it and put it back in the pan. :lol Everyone still said they liked it and it wasn't a total disaster, but I knew it wasn't the heaven that the dish should be.

Anyway, I can't speak to the butter other than what I've already mentioned above. I used the Plugra in both cases.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, I made it twice. The first time I did a trial run for myself because I was making it for a dinner party and didn't want to totally flub it and the dish turned out nearly perfectly. It wasn't quite as good as when I had it there, but it was damn close. I can't remember if I hit it with the grill beforehand or not, but I did everything else as I planned to, including using the egg (and I cooked it in my cast iron).

The second time was for the actual dinner party and I totally flubbed it.It was later in the night, I had had wine, I completely forgot to coat it in the egg. Here's a tip: if you remember that you forgot the egg coating half way through cooking, don't pull the chicken  out, dip it and put it back in the pan. :lol Everyone still said they liked it and it wasn't a total disaster, but I knew it wasn't the heaven that the dish should be.

Anyway, I can't speak to the butter other than what I've already mentioned above. I used the Plugra in both cases.

That's awesome. Thanks. Love the vignette about the second attempt. Both as a warning about the dangers of cooking when buzzed (haha) and that you clearly have very nice friends, as we should all be to each other.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, my friends are forgiving. Much more so than I am of myself. :) As an aside, I actually came across a photo from my trial run after I posted this today and I did not use cast iron, I used a stainless pan. When I made it for dinner club I think I did use cast iron, but I'm not positive. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...