Simmered, then high-temperature roasted meats

[FXcuisine]

When roasting large pieces of meat or poultry, the meat can turn dry before it is cooked through. And if we boil it instead, we miss the delicious browned crust. There are some cooking methods that try to achieve both the juicy interior and the intensely flavored crust. One is tandoor roasting, whereby the meat is tenderized by a long marination in acids/enzymes before it is quickly roasted at very high temperature. But the marination tends to destroy the meat's texture and turn it into a chewy mess. Some recipes first sauté, then braisé the meat, but this destroys the crispy crust.

I have recently tested a traditional Indian recipe that calls for first simmering a leg of lamb for 30 minutes, then marinating it and finally to roast it at 600°F+ in my tandoor.

You can see that recipe in pictures on my blog.

Do you know of other recipes where the meat is boiled before being roasted? I was thinking of trying with a corn-fed chicken first simmered, then tandoor-roasted to get a more juicy interior. Thank you for your help!

[Sony]

Hmmm....The only recipe I can think of that's somewhat similar is Nigella's fried chicken recipe, where she first simmers the chicken in milk before coating and frying.

Your leg of lamb looks delicious! How done was it inside?

[alwang]

Mark Bittman has a recipe where he braises and then grills lamb shanks:

http://splendidtable.publicradio.org/recip...lambshanks.html

I tried something similar: I cooked a couple of lamb shanks sous vide with rosemary, garlic, and OO at 175F for 8 hours. Then I grilled it over charcoal till I got a decent char. It was pretty tasty. I find that the sous vide cooking lets the meat get just as tender as a braise, but the SV shank holds together on the bone a little better so it's easier to grill.

-a

[snowangel]

Over here, you'll see that Chris did something similar, grilling instead of roasting. I'm going to try this method soon.

[nduran]

Aren't ribs frequently boiled?

[russ parsons]

i did something similar this easter: cooked a leg of lamb briefly in a covered dutch oven with a little liquid, then removed the lid and browned it before serving medium-rare. it was a really interesting technique--the initial braising really got the flavors through the meat. it wasn't braised and it wasn't roasted. something in between (and don't say broasted).

[mizducky]

There's a number of Asian cooking techniques in which cuts of pork with the skin still on are first braised, then deep-fried to crisp up the skin. I've yet to try doing this myself because I'm a real wimp about messing with deep-fat frying, but the concept sounds very appealing--definitely the best of both worlds.

[infernooo]

I think the most important thing with this method is to make sure you are putting the flavour lost from boiling back into the meat somehow.. e.g. if you boil the meat, cook down the liquid to a glaze and baste the meat with it during the final stages when crisping/grilling it.