If you live in the city, this slow-cooked chicken in hay is one of those rare recipes you don’t make often—not because the technique is complicated (it’s actually quite simple), but because sourcing one of the two main ingredients becomes, naturally, quite an adventure. And rightly so: instead of searching for a needle in a haystack, you find yourself, like I did, searching directly for the hay! My hay eventually arrived from a friend who had it shipped for me all over from the countryside. Oh well, sometimes, art requires a bit of sacrifice.
I first discovered this slow-cooked chicken in hay recipe from the renowned French chef Alain Passard. What fascinated me from the start was the absolute simplicity of this approach, which distills flavor down to two elements that seem destined to come together: a fresh chicken and the grasses it feeds on. Inspired by the idea, I began experimenting, creating a variation based on the original recipe but adapted for a Cornish hen. I’ll share both recipes with you here.
SLOW COOKED CHICKEN IN HAY à la Alain Passard
In Alain Passard’s version, the chicken is cooked using a technique called à l’étouffée, where it’s slow-cooked in a cast iron pot, or cocotte—to use the French term, sealed around the lid with a simple dough paste to keep any air from escaping. The chicken, nestled in hay within the pot, cooks slowly in its own juices, infusing with the scent of the grass until it becomes incredibly tender, needing no extra seasonings. Passard uses a 4-pound chicken, cooking it for about two hours, then lets it rest for 40 minutes after it’s out of the oven. Before cooking, he prepares a paste of roughly equal parts water and flour, which he uses as a seal around the pot’s lid. After the pot is removed from the oven and the chicken has rested, the dough seal is removed carefully with a knife or scissors, and a small knob of butter is added to melt over the still-steaming skin with a sprinkling of salt. Simplicity at its finest.
When preparing this dish, I had a few slices of locally sourced black truffle on hand, so I couldn't miss the opportunity to slip them under the chicken’s skin, though they aren’t part of Alain Passard’s original recipe. I served the dish with a creamy potato purée and some braised greens.
SLOW COOKED CORNISH HEN IN HAY
This version is an adaptation of Alain Passard’s original recipe. Since a 4-pound chicken would be too large for just one person (that is me), I opted for a small Cornish hen weighing around 1.3 pounds. From there, I took a few liberties: using a cast iron skillet instead of a cocotte and forgoing the dough seal, since this young hen was already tender. I seasoned it right from the start with salt, freshly ground pepper, and a hint of sumac (feel free to use any spices you have on hand). I added a few small potatoes, which would cook directly in their skins. I covered everything with a clear lid (a taller one works best if you have it) and placed the skillet in the oven for 40 minutes, until the kitchen filled with herbal, tea-like aromas. Pure simplicity.
After resting the hen for 10–15 minutes, the meat—juicy and succulent—practically fell off the bone. The potatoes, too, soaked up the fragrant hay aromas, needing only to be halved, sprinkled with salt, and topped with a thin slice of butter melting gently from their residual heat. All that’s left is to pour a glass of white wine and I tell you: this is one of those dishes that reminds us, among other things, of why life is worth living—and of how little we truly need to be happy.
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