Roasted silkie chicken

I officially entered unknown territory on this one in my test kitchen. Silkie chicken, for those who aren’t familiar, is a bird with white fluffy feather and black skin. It’s commonly used in soups in Chinese cuisine. But wanting to find some other way of using this lean chicken? The inter web fails to provide any answers. So…who dares to tuck in at this black bird?

Knowing that this is a very lean chicken, I decided to cook it in the slow cooker to retain the moisture in the meat. To prevent the top of the skin from drying, I rubbed some chicken fat on the exposed chicken breasts. After slow cooking it on high for 3-4 hours, I roasted it in the oven for 15-20 min to get the skin nice and crispy. One mistake I made however is that I should have wrapped the chicken feet with aluminum foil to prevent them from completed drying out in the oven. However, I suppose not everyone likes to chew on chicken feet like me.

Since I’ve already ventured away from traditional Asian use of this bird, I experimented with european flavours. I stuffed the cavity with aromatics like garlic, onion and thyme and poured red wine on top of the bird and in the bottom of the crockpot. Overall this bird experiment was a sweet success! The meat was moist and flavourful with crispy skin! But yes I recognize that it looks like the bird got nuked…