by Julia Child
Immediately remove from heat, and stir vigorously for 1 minute to cool slightly and stop the cooking. Taste very carefully, adding salt, white pepper, and drops of lemon juice; sauce should be quite highly seasoned because flavor becomes somewhat subdued in a cold dish. Shortly before coating chicken, set saucepan in a large bowl of cold water and ice cubes; stir frequently until sauce is cool and has begun to thicken. Meanwhile, prepare the chicken for the next step.
Final assembly and serving
A chilled shallow serving dish, just large enough to hold chicken easily
For decoration:
Either minced fresh tarragon, parsley sprigs, or watercress;
Or 1 or 2 truffles to mince and stir into the sauce with the juices from the can;
Or a fluted mushroom cap to top each piece of chicken (Volume I, pages 510–11, for fluting and cooking)
Peel the skin off each piece of chicken, removing as much as you easily can without tearing the meat. Arrange chicken in dish. (If you are stirring truffles into sauce, do so now.) Spoon a thin layer of sauce over each piece, using about ⅓ of the sauce at this point. Cover chicken and chill for 15 to 20 minutes (or longer). When sauce has set on chicken and you are ready to continue, re-warm the remaining sauce briefly, only enough to liquefy it. Beat with wire whip until perfectly smooth, and spoon it over the chicken to mask each piece completely. Cover chicken with a bowl and chill.
Remove chicken from refrigerator about half an hour before serving (unless weather is too hot), to take off the chill; decorate as you wish with any of the elements suggested.
Waterzooi de Poulet
[Chicken Poached in White Wine and a Julienne of Vegetables, Cream, and Egg-yolk Sauce]
The preceding chaud-froid turns out to be an almost exact replica of the famous Belgian bouillabaisse of chicken, waterzooi. The Belgian dish is served hot, however, and the sauce is more like a soup—a waterzooi is ladled into deep plates, and you eat it with a knife, fork, and soup spoon. Although its general method is almost identical to that of the chaud-froid, as well as the poulet en bourride, the recipe will be easier for you to follow when you have the full details for its sauce and serving even if it means repeating familiar instructions. Accompany the waterzooi with boiled potatoes, French bread, and a white Graves or Burgundy. It is a separate course, and a rich one—precede with a cold vegetable or something like the salade Niçoise in Volume I, page 542, and follow with fresh fruit, a fruit tart, or a sherbet.
SHOWMANSHIP
In the fine Brussels restaurants where this dish is served, the chicken is poached whole; the maître d’hôtel carves it in front of you, and warms the pieces of chicken in the sauce while you savor its delicious perfume. If you can carve like a master and enjoy the drama of table-top cooking, by all means poach the chicken whole; carve it at the table, and make the sauce as described here, but in a chafing dish.
For 4 people
Follow the Master Recipe for chicken pieces poached in white wine, Steps 1 and 2, but cut the aromatic vegetables into julienne matchsticks for Step 1. When chicken is done, continue as follows.
Sauce and serving
If needed: more chicken broth
6 egg yolks in a mixing bowl
A wire whip and a ladle
1 cup crème fraîche or heavy cream
Salt and white pepper
2 Tb rather roughly chopped fresh parsley
If you wish, a serving casserole or a soup tureen
Wide soup plates
(You should have 2½ to 3 cups of cooking stock for the sauce; add extra broth if necessary.) When you are ready to serve, beat the egg yolks and cream to blend; continue beating, and ladle in driblets of the hot chicken-cooking liquid until about 1 cup has gone in. Remove casserole from heat; swirling it with one hand, gradually pour creamy mixture back over chicken. Taste carefully, and correct seasoning.
Set casserole over moderate heat and continue to swirl it slowly for 4 to 5 minutes, until sauce thickens into a light cream as the egg yolks gradually poach in the mixture; you must be very careful here not to heat the sauce too much or it will turn granular as the egg yolks scramble, but you must heat it to the point where it thickens. Serve immediately, either from casserole or turned into a tureen; decorate with parsley.
The chicken and sauce, which is more like a cream soup, are ladled into soup plates, along with a serving of potatoes, and eaten with knife, fork, and soup spoon.
(*) AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTE: Although you may make the egg yolk and cream liaison, pour it over the chicken, and reheat later, it is safer to keep the poached chicken warm, and finish the dish just before serving. Finished waterzooi risks curdling if you try to keep it warm; in other words, this is not a dish adaptable to complete ahead-of-time cookery.
Bouillabaisse de Poulet
[Chicken Poached in White Wine with Provençal Vegetables, Herbs, and Flavorings]
Famous and successful recipes have a way of turning up in other guises, chicken has a habit of wearing other costumes, and there should be nothing surprising about chicken swimming in the robust flavors of a bouillabaisse. Although the method here is almost the same as that for the previous poachings, the ingredients differ; we therefore outline all the steps. Serve this with steamed rice or boiled potatoes, French bread, and a strong young white wine like a Riesling or Pinot Blanc, a rather light red like Beaujolais or Mountain Red, or a rosé.
For 4 people
1) Preliminary cooking of vegetables
½ cup sliced onions
½ cup sliced white of leek (or more onion)
¼ cup olive oil
A heavy 3-quart flameproof casserole with cover
Cook the onions and leeks slowly with the oil in the covered casserole for about 10 minutes, stirring fairly frequently, until tender but not browned.
About 1½ cups tomato pulp (4 or 5 tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and juiced, or a combination of fresh tomatoes and canned Italian-type plum tomatoes, drained and sieved)
2 cloves garlic, minced or mashed
While vegetables are cooking, prepare the tomatoes; when vegetables are tender, stir tomatoes in along with the garlic. Cover, and cook 5 minutes so that tomatoes will render their juices; then uncover, raise heat, and let juices almost entirely evaporate.
2) Poaching the chicken
2½ lbs. ready-cut chicken, prepared as described
Salt
When tomatoes are done, salt chicken lightly, and arrange in casserole, spreading vegetables around and on top. Cover and cook 10 minutes over moderate heat, turning once.
1½ cups dry white wine or 1 cup dry white French vermouth
About 2 cups chicken stock or canned chicken broth
1 bay leaf
½ tsp thyme
¼ tsp fennel seeds, crushed
2 pinches saffron threads
A 2-inch piece of dried orange peel, or ½ tsp bottled dried orange peel
Big pinch pepper
Pinch Cayenne pepper or drops Tabasco sauce
Salt as needed
Pour the wine or vermouth over the chicken, and enough stock or broth barely to cover the meat. Add the herbs and seasonings, bring to the simmer, and salt lightly as necessary. Cover casserole and simmer slowly either on top of the stove or in a preheated 325-degree oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until chicken is tender.
3) Serving
Tip casserole and skim off surface fat; remove bay leaf and orange peel, and carefully correct seasoning. Serve as is, from casserole, or arrange chicken and vegetables on a bed of steamed rice, decorate with parsley sprigs, and pass rest of cooking liquid separately.
(*) AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTE: May be kept warm for at least half an hour; set cover askew for air circulation and place in a 120-degree oven, on a hot-tray, or over barely simmering water. Do not overheat and let chicken overcook.
To serve cold or in aspic
This is delicious as a cold dish. When chicken is done, skim off surface fat, remove bay leaf and orange peel, and
correct seasoning. When cool, cover and refrigerate for several hours. Scrape off congealed fat and serve the chicken as is; cooking stock will set lightly, like jellied consommé. (If you want a firmer jellied effect, strain cooking stock out of casserole when chicken is done, degrease completely, and dissolve in it 1 package [1 tablespoon] of gelatin for each 2 cups of liquid; pour back over the chicken and vegetables, and chill.)
VARIATIONS
Final touches—Rouille and Pistou
You might pass a rouille with the chicken—the garlic, pimento, and chili-pepper sauce given at the end of the bouillabaisse recipe in Volume I, page 52. Another excellent sauce would be the pistou, a fragrant combination of basil, tomato, garlic, and cheese that may either be incorporated into the cooking liquid just before serving, or be passed separately. Finally there is the marvelous garlic mayonnaise, aïoli, in the next variation.
Poulet en Bourride
[Bouillabaisse of Chicken with Aïoli Sauce]
What the Belgians do to chicken in their waterzooi, their rivals on the Mediterranean accomplish in a most Provençal manner. In fact, the two recipes are almost exact parallels—egg yolks and cream thicken the broth of the waterzooi, while it is egg yolks and olive oil for the bourride. This is a very rich and splendid dish; we would suggest only boiled potatoes to go with it, a very simple beginning to the meal, such as asparagus vinaigrette, and a sherbet or fruits for dessert. A strong, dry white wine like Burgundy or Côtes-du-Rhône would be our suggestion for wine.
Poach the chicken exactly as described for the bouillabaisse of chicken, here, Steps 1 and 2; skim off surface fat, and keep chicken warm. While it simmers, prepare the aïoli as follows.
The aïoli sauce
⅓ cup (lightly pressed) fresh crumbs from nonsweetened, homemade-type white bread
Wine vinegar
A heavy bowl or mortar, a pestle or wooden masher, and wire whip
6 to 8 large cloves garlic, mashed
½ tsp salt
6 egg yolks
¾ to 1 cup olive oil
Following the procedure for aïoli sauce in Volume I, page 92, moisten the crumbs with drops of vinegar and pound to a paste in the bowl or mortar. Add garlic and salt, and continue pounding until smooth. Then add egg yolks and pound until thick and sticky. Finally begin beating in drops of olive oil; when sauce is thick and heavy, thin with vinegar, and continue beating in oil with wire whip. Season to taste, and cover airtight until ready to use.
Combining chicken and aïoli
A ladle
Optional: a warm soup tureen
Wide soup plates
Rather roughly chopped fresh parsley
When chicken is done and just before you are ready to serve, remove from heat. Gradually ladle driblets of the hot chicken-cooking liquid into the aïoli sauce, beating sauce with wire whip; when a cup of liquid has gone in, pour mixture back into chicken and vegetables, swirling casserole with one hand as you do so, to blend.
Set casserole over moderate heat and continue to swirl it slowly for 4 to 5 minutes, until sauce thickens into a light cream; be careful not to heat sauce to the simmer or it will turn granular as the egg yolks scramble, but you must heat it to the point where it thickens. Serve immediately, either from casserole or turned into a tureen; decorate with parsley.
Like waterzooi, the chicken and the souplike sauce are ladled into soup plates, along with a serving of potatoes, and eaten with knife, fork, and soup spoon.
(*) AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTE: See remarks for waterzooi.
WHOLE CHICKEN
CASSEROLE-POACHED CHICKEN
Poularde Pochée à Court Mouillement
Roasting and stewing are not the only ways to cook a whole chicken; there are also casserole roasting, which produces the savory brown poulet poêlé à l’estragon and its variations in Volume I, pages 249–53, and casserole poaching, for those times when you wish to serve a whole chicken with one of the many white-wine sauces. This is called pocher à court mouillement because the chicken is set in a casserole that will just hold it, and the poaching liquid comes only part way up—the dark meat of the legs and thighs simmers and the white meat of the breast steams. This gives you not only a beautifully tender and juicy chicken, but also a perfectly flavored white-wine chicken broth for a sauce, or, if you are serving the chicken cold, for your aspic or chaud-froid. You may cook the chicken with or without stuffing, and serve it any number of ways. We begin with chicken in a white-wine and tarragon sauce.
THE CHICKEN TO BUY—PREPARING IT FOR POACHING
Roasting chickens and capons are best for casserole poaching because their flesh is mature enough to hold up under the steam and moisture; however, if you are careful to maintain a slow and gentle simmer, you may use a large fryer, 3½ pounds ready-to-cook. Broilers are far too immature; their tender flesh falls apart in the casserole.
To prepare the chicken for cooking, first remove the package of giblets from inside the cavity. The giblets should include the liver, heart, gizzard, and neck. If you are not stuffing the chicken, you may season the liver and return it to the cavity to cook and serve with the chicken, or save it for another purpose. Reserve the rest of the giblets for the casserole; they will give added flavor to the broth.
Pull loose fat from around inside of vent opening; you may render it, and use for general cooking or for rubbing over the chicken instead of butter. Cut off nubbins attached to wing elbows and, to make carving easier, remove the wishbone by cutting around its forked outline from inside the neck end of the chicken, then break its two ends loose from bottom of breast and pull it free. Run cold water all around inside and outside of chicken, and dry thoroughly with paper towels. (We were not enthusiastic about washing chickens in Volume I; we now think it is a wise precaution.) After you have inserted whatever flavoring or stuffing is called for, truss the chicken as illustrated in Volume I, pages 237–9 (or in less detail here).
POULARDE POCHÉE À L’ESTRAGON
[Casserole-poached Chicken with White-wine and Tarragon Sauce]
A fine roasting chicken is a poularde in French, and capon is chapon; either one is recommended for this delicious recipe. Rather than a stuffing, we have suggested an herbal flavoring inside the chicken, which is typical of many French recipes; if you do wish a stuffing, see the variations at the end of the recipe as well as the list of stuffings.
Nothing that accompanies the chicken should mask the lovely flavor of the tarragon, and with this in mind, we would suggest steamed rice and the garniture of mushrooms and onions used for chicken fricassee (Volume I, page 260); or either the unusual rice and onion soubise in Volume I on page 485 or the stuffed onions, with buttered peas or asparagus tips. This is definitely an occasion for one of the great white Burgundy wines.
For 5 to 6 people
1) Preparations for poaching
½ cup each of sliced carrots and sliced onions
2 Tb butter
A heavy enameled casserole or roaster just large enough to hold the chicken comfortably breast-up
Preheat oven to 325 degrees in time for Step 2. Cook the onions and carrots in the covered casserole, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are tender but not brown. Meanwhile, prepare the chicken as follows.
A 4½ lb. ready-to-cook roasting chicken or capon
3 Tb soft butter (half for inside and half for outside of chicken)
½ tsp salt (for inside and outside of chicken)
A medium-sized branch of fresh tarragon, or 1 tsp fragrant dried tarragon
Prepare chicken for roasting as described in paragraph preceding recipe, but before trussing it, sprinkle with half the salt, and add the tarragon; then truss the chicken. When vegetables are tender, massage the rest of the butter into the chicken skin, sprinkle with remaining salt, and arrange the chicken breast-up in the casserole.
1⅓ cups dry white wine, or 1 cup dry white French vermouth
2 or more cups chicken stock or canned chicken broth
1 bay leaf
/> 6 parsley sprigs
A medium-sized branch of fresh tarragon, or ½ Tb fragrant dried tarragon
The washed chicken giblets (neck, gizzard, heart, wing nubbins, wishbone)
Salt as needed
A double thickness of well-washed and rinsed damp cheesecloth to cover chicken breast and thighs
2 Tb soft butter
Waxed paper
Pour the wine into the casserole, and enough chicken stock or broth to reach about ⅓ the way up the chicken. Add the herbs, and giblets. Bring to simmer on top of the stove, taste liquid, and salt lightly, as needed. Drape the damp, washed cheesecloth over the breast and thighs; it should be long enough to fall into the liquid all around so that it will draw the broth over the chicken and baste it during the cooking. Smear the butter over the cheesecloth, top with waxed paper, cover the casserole, and set in middle level of preheated oven.
(*) AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTE: You may arrange the chicken in the casserole with wine, broth, cloth, and trimmings, then refrigerate, and poach it the next day.