Chicken Fricassee With Cream

Chicken Fricassee With Cream

The most popular item in the menu of Chef Georges Blanc’s gastronomic restaurant, which bears his name, is the Poulet de Bresse and here he makes Chicken Fricassee with the famous Bresse, a breed of chicken from the Rhone-Alps in France and the most sought after and expensive label of all chickens in a country that takes its food quality and labels seriously.

In France, there are five labels for chicken categorized according to their production method: standard broiler, certified, label rouge, organic, and Bresse. The Bresse is considered to be the most superior quality out of the five and is highly valued for its depth of flavor, delicious clean fat, and tender meat. Few of these precious foul make it out of the country due to their high demand inside France.

In this recipe, Chef Georges Blanc cooks a classic French recipe called chicken fricassee with cream using a large fatty Bresse chicken with white plumage, red comb, and blue legs—making up the colors of the French Flag, or tricolore. Chef Blanc adds that, “It is the only foul which bears the seal of quality of the French Agricultural Industry. It is free-range, fed exclusively with grain and milk, and the result is a very high quality foul.” You can make the same recipe using free-range organic chicken from your local farm although it might taste a lot different from the Bresse version as molecular gastronomist Heston Blumenthal would attest in the BBC series “In Search of Perfection,” Bresse chicken is a clear winner in terms of taste and texture out of the many chickens breeds in the world.

Known for his series of cookbooks, particularly, The Natural Cuisine of Georges Blanc, Chef Blanc likes preparing and serving traditional and authentic French family-style cuisine. His recipe for Chicken fricassee is one of the best available around.


Recommended Wine

Gevrey Chambertin, Pommard


Chicken Fricassee With Cream

Ingredients


· 1 chicken (about 4.4 lbs.)

· 14 ½ tablespoons butter
· 2 cup double cream (40-45% fat content)
· 12 baby onions (cut into 4 – 5 chunks each)
· 3 garlic cloves, mushrooms
· 1 1/4 cups white wine, thyme
· 1 laurel leaf
· pepper, salt


Preparation Instructions

1. Cut chicken into eight pieces. Place pieces in a pot with melted butter and season with salt and pepper. Add chopped onions, four or five garlic cloves, and some mushrooms. Add bay leaf and thyme. Cook until it turns a golden brown color, then sprinkle with white wine. Add cream. Cover and leave to cook for forty minutes.

2. Take the chicken out and place in a saucepan. Add some water to the cream. Strain the liquid to take out the herb garnishing and then pour into the chicken and heat for a little bit more. Season according to taste. Arrange on a dish and serve.

Interesting Twist of Stuffing Inside a Duck

Interesting Twist of Stuffing Inside a Duck

Le magret de canard is French for duck breast, but a true “magret de canard” comes from the meat of ducks that are specially raised to produce foie gras. Because they are particularly fattened, the breasts from these ducks are exceptionally thick and have a beefier taste than ordinary duck meat. A specialty of the South Western provinces of France, magret de canard is often served rare with a sweet and sour sauce to balance out the rich fattiness of the duck meat. In this recipe, magret de canard is pan-fried to make a juicy duck steak and is served with a classic pepper sauce made with five kinds of peppercorns, cognac and port wine, and finally topped with crispy fried potato strings.

The clever thing about this duck steak is that when it gets to the plate, you don’t see any sauce. It is only when you cut into it that the sauce starts flowing. In order to achieve this effect, there is a little trick you must do one day before serving this dish. You must prepare the pepper sauce the night or a day before you plan to serve this dish, and allow it to cool. Once cooled you place the sauce in small plastic ice cube molds and in the freezer to harden.

Before cooking the duck steaks, you make a shallow incision in the center of the steak in the shape of a cross, and with your thumb, you press down and make a pouch where the frozen sauce will fit inside. Once you have inserted the frozen sauce snugly inside the duck steak, you plug the hole with some ground duck meat. The duck steak is then immediately fried in some hot oil on the side of the plugged hole to seal it.

Ingredients

2/5 cup Cognac

5/8 cup red port wine
1 tablespoon of a variety of different peppercorns
2 cups cream
1/2 cup duck stock
4 duck fillets (magrets de canards)
Peanut oil
2 large potatoes
Salt, pepper

Preparation Instructions

1. The first thing is to make a classic pepper sauce. Reduce the port wine and cognac until nearly dry. Deglaze with the duck glaze. Add fresh cream, and reduce to a thick sauce consistency. Season with salt and five kinds of peppers. Allow to cool.

2. Place the sauce in small ice cube molds and into the freezer to harden.

3. Make a little cross incision in the duck steak and with your thumb, open inside to make a small pouch for putting in the frozen sauce. With a piece of ground duck meat, plug the hole to keep the frozen sauce hidden inside. Immediately fry on the side with the plugged hole. Then turn it over to cook on the other side.

4. To make crispy straw potatoes, slice potatoes into strings using a mandolin. Shape into flat discs and deep fry in hot oil.

5. Place the duck steak in the center of the plate, put the fried potato crisp on top and serve.