40 Clove Chicken

You probably know there's a typical french recipe for chicken with 40 cloves of garlic? The chicken and garlic are however roasted in the oven.

But I believe the main subject in your thread is chicken skin getting crispy. I do agree that mushy chickenskin in a dish is totally disgusting. In my coq au vin I will always remove the skin before cooking it; even when frying the meat with skin on, before adding the liquid, it will mostly turn out mushy.

However, nowadays those skilled modern cooks use their "Roner", as you know a hot waterbath to cook meat etc. at low temperature for many hours. They put smaller cuts in a plastic bag with a little butter, vacumize the bag. Afterward, many times they crisp the meat shortly in a hot pan. I watched one of our own 3 michelin star cooks prepare a bird in a Roner too, after having removed the skin. That skin was first blanched in boiling water for a minute to remove most of the fat, then it was spread open on a rack to dry and crisp up in the oven. He took 50/50 crispy skin and crisply baked puff pastry and chopped all of it in a crumble to serve with the bird. After all, a crisp skin still remains the most wanted and best part of a roasted chicken... but indeed the very worst part when stewed into mush!