No chickening out

This week’s kitchen experiment is “Poulet à la crème” (Chicken with cream sauce, see recipe and production notes below). It’s the next dish in M. Pépin’s The Apprentice. As I’m finding out, since this book is a memoir, and not a cookbook per se, the individual recipes serve the narrative, and are not classified by food category. So, making this dish was quite a gear change from last week’s soufflé. That said, it was fantastic.

The chicken is slowly cooked with herbs in stock and white wine, and the cream sauce is really simple and so rich and buttery. Very decadent. After I was done cooking the whole thing, and had a taste, I let out a loud “Oh, my god.” It was so good, I had to have it right there and then on the kitchen counter. Mmm.

Now I’m ready for a nap. By the way, I’m grouping all my cooking entries into one category, which you’ll also find in the sidebar.

Poulet à la Crème (Chicken with Cream Sauce)

Yield: 4 servings

1 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 chicken (about 3 lbs), cut into 4 pieces (2 legs and breasts, with bones)
½ tsp salt, plus more to taste
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
½ cup fruity white wine (e.g., Chardonnay)
½ cup good chicken stock
1 small onion (about 3 oz), peeled and left whole
1 bouquet garni, made of a dozen sprigs of parsley, 2 bay leaves, 2 sprigs thyme, all tied together with string

1 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 cup heavy cream

Melt the tablespoon of butter in a sturdy saucepan, and add the 4 pieces of chicken, skin side down. Sprinkle the chicken with the salt and pepper, and brown over medium heat, turning, for about 10 minutes. The chicken should be lightly browned, with the skin a blond rather than a dark brown color. Remove and discard some of the rendered fat, leaving only 1 to 2 tablespoons in the pan.

Add the wine, chicken stock, onion, and bouquet garni. Bring to a boil, and boil gently, covered, for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the chicken is tender. Transfer the chicken to a platter, and discard the onion and bouquet garni. Boil the liquid in the pan until it is reduced to about ¾ cup.

Meanwhile, make a beurre manié, or kneaded butter, by whisking together the tablespoon of soft butter and the flour in a small bowl. Pick up this mixture on the looped wires of a whisk, and whisk it into the reduced liquid in the pan until the mixture is smooth. Bring to a boil to thicken the liquid, then add the cream, return to a boil, and boil gently for 5 minutes. While the sauce is boiling, you may want to remove the bones from the breast and leg pieces of the chicken, leaving the thigh, drumstick, and wing bones in place. Arrange the chicken on a serving platter.

Taste the sauce, and add salt and pepper if needed. Strain the sauce through a fine sieve held over the chicken, and serve immediately.

Production notes: Regarding hardware, I learned two things: I need a larger saucepan (I turned the chicken a bit too quickly, splashing the stock all over me, a couple of times. Yes, twice.), and I need sharper knives, to deal with cutting meat. Speaking of the chicken, I bought one already quartered, but it turns out even that was kind of unwieldy for me, what with my non-existent meat preparation skills. Next time, I’ll buy cuts that are easier to work with.

I didn’t have string to tie up the herb bouquet, so I just used regular sewing thread. Seemed to work. And I didn’t have anything to strain the sauce through, but it was all right. I’m cooking for myself, and I don’t mind having bits of herbs floating in the sauce.