Cannabis Infused Buttery Roasted Chicken

Roasting whole chickens is a simple way to cook a lot of protein for several meals and people, without doing much work.  For this recipe, we’re going to keep the chicken super simple and the infused pan drippings extra buttery.

Ingredients:

• 2 whole young air-chilled chickens
• 1 stick of cold butter
• 2 tbsp infused cold butter or ghee
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• lemon
• salt

Equipment:

• half sheet tray
• baking rack (optional)
• butcher’s twine
• meat thermometer
• saucepot
• whisk
• knife
• cutting board
• mixing bowl

Roasted Chickens:

1. Unwrap the chickens and remove the bag of giblets
2. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels, inside and out
3. Heavily salt the entire chicken, including the inside
4. Truss each chicken
5. Place the chickens on a baking rack.
6. Insert an oven-safe meat thermometer into the breast, evenly spaced in the middle between the interior cavity and skin
7. Cook at 450°F until the temperature reaches 160-165°F
8. Tip the chicken upwards from the neck or bottom end and let the juices drain
9. Rest for 30 minutes or until cool to touch
10. Fabricate the chicken and chop into 1/2-3/4 inch pieces

Infused Buttery Pan Drippings:

1. Dice butter into 1/2 inch cubes, return to the fridge until ready to use
2. Pour all pan drippings into a saucepot, add heavy cream, and bring to a simmer. Feel free to add finely minced rosemary, thyme, or other aromatics
3. Turn heat to low and add 5-7 pieces of butter into the pot and whisk continuously
4. Once the butter is halfway dissolved, add 5-7 more pieces at a time while continuously whisking until the butter is gone. If the butter begins to steam, turn the heat off and remove the pot from the hot surface, return to heat if needed
5. Season the butter sauce (essentially a thin buerre blanc) with the zest of one lemon.  Chances are that the sauce is going to taste salty by itself due to the runoff of the chicken, which isn’t a bad thing because it’s going to be poured all over the chicken and will properly salt the birds
6. Strain the sauce if needed

*Pan Drippings*

The final consistency of the sauce will be thinner than a normal nappe, but it will still coat a spoon.  While the chicken is cooling you may notice a thin film at the top of the sauce.  If so, just give it a stir and it will dissolve again.

When you’re done chopping up the chicken, pour as much of the sauce as needed all over the meat.  You don’t need a ton of sauce because if you add too much it will drip down to the bottom of your bowl.  You want just enough to coat each piece of chicken.  

I love a traditional buerre blanc, which is much thicker than this sauce, but sometimes it’s too much!  This thinner butter sauce provides a great butter flavor but has a much lighter mouthfeel.

Who should eat an infused dish like this?  

You, your friends, and your family members with a moderate to high tolerance to cannabis edibles.  Why?  It’s impossible to know what the dose will be when infusing chunky recipes.  Since the infused butter isn’t homogenized throughout the chicken it is impossible to know the dose per serving.  So, this style of infusion is meant for those who don’t really care if they get 5mg, 20mg, or 50mg.  

Generally speaking, it’s recommended to infuse non-homogenized recipes with non-intoxicating cannabinoids that aren’t so dose-dependent like THC.  If you want to ensure this recipe is properly dosed with an intoxicating cannabinoid, I would recommend not infusing the sauce and then dividing it in half.  Mix the non-infused sauce with the chicken and then infuse the other half so it can be dosed by the tablespoon.  Once you serve the chicken you can individually dose each dish with the infused sauce as a garnish.

If you want to dive into infusing, dosing, and the science of edibles, be sure to check out our Cooking with Cannabis course that we created in partnership with The American Culinary Federation.

Notice how the chicken looks super shiny?  That’s the butter sauce coating every nook and cranny of each piece of chicken, without making it heavy!

What does this recipe go with?

• Taco with bleu cheese, franks red hot, pickled onions, and arugula
• Lettuce cups with giardiniera and basil
• Rice and roasted veggies with a citrus vinaigrette 
• Burrito with chimichurri
• Mashed taters and string beans… sooo much butter!
• You can also use the sauce to finish veggies, fish, and anything else that loves butter!

However you eat it, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do 🙂

Cheers,

Chef Brandon Allen