Cooking! German chicken fricasse ^^
Jun. 23rd, 2010 08:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kyanve_te_shirhanBecause I said I'd post this a while ago and never got around to it.
On the one hand:
This does take about two hours to make. The good news is an hour and a half of that is watching a movie or something and peering at the pot occasionally.
It is a bit of work ... but not that much more than, say, alfredo or the like, and a lot less than you'd probably expect.
*Ingredients
-for stewing the chicken and making the base
1 5-pound stewing chicken
1 medium onion
1 scraped carrot
2 stalks of celery with tops (this can apparently also be a 1/2 knob of celery root... if you live somewhere besides Anchorage, you may have better luck finding one, I hit even the specialty grocery stores in town. Considering it's to flavor the stock, though...)
1 small parsley root, scraped (...this is another "good luck to you finding it", although again, if you live somewhere with more access you might have better luck. I ended up uh, skipping it.)
2 or 3 sprigs fresh parsley
5 or 6 peppercorns
1 small bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon salt
Water or chicken broth to cover, about 1 to 1 and 1/2 quarts (I used chicken stock - I have the condensed stuff you mix with hot water.)
-for the roux
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
-for the sauce
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup heavy cream
white wine or lemon juice (or both)
-and to put it over:
4 cups cooked rice
*-Stewing the chicken
-Wash the chicken and cut it in quarters. You can throw out any giblets, they're not really any use here.
-Put it in a 3 quart/decent size stock pot or soup kettle or something - you want a narrow pot, where you can fit the chicken in and not have to get too crazy with the broth/water. I have one that's slightly small, and I ended up making enough chicken stock that i had bowls of it all over my sink after I was done making the sauce ... which I probably could've used for something else, it was good chicken broth! ... Just ... you know... I'm one person and it was a bit much.
-Cut up the veggies - you should be able to fit them in the pot pretty easily, but don't be too fussy about them. Add them, the bay leaf, peppercorn, and parsley to the pot.
-Pour in enough water/broth to cover all of it.
-Bring that to a boil, let it simmer for ten minutes or so, then skim off foam that comes to the surface.
-When you stop seeing foam, cover it, reduce heat, and simmer gently (aka, it shouldn't be boiling, but should be cooking) until the larger pieces of chicken are tender and coming off the bone - this should take about an hour and a half. You can wander off and just poke your nose in occasionally to prod at it and see how it's doing.
-Pull the chicken out, set it aside for a minute. Strain the stuff from the pot through a mesh strainer; you're saving the broth you just made. At this point, you can throw the veggies away, or pass them to someone who wants to nom on them; they're perfectly tasty, just no longer useful for the fricasse.
-Take three or four cups of the broth and put it back in the pot, keeping a very low heat under it to keep it hot. Skim off as much of fat as you can.
*-The roux!
-Melt the butter in a small saucepan, and when it's hot and starting to bubble, slowly stir in the flour. This is basically the most widgetty part of the recipe - you want it to mix evenly, without any lumps, and be stirring it pretty continually from here until the roux is done.
-Once it's mixed in, keep stirring it over lower heat until the mixture starts to turn a bit yellow. If it darkens too much, it's ... not going to work and you end up with burnt-tasting fricasse.
*-The sauce
-Slowly pour in one cup of the hot chicken broth, stirring it until that mix is thickened, then stir that into the rest of the stock in the main pot. Keep that heated and simmering for about ten minutes.
Yes, this is a recipe you can make with a book in the kitchen or a movie going as long as you're keeping half an eye on it.
- Salt to taste - it probably won't take much, then remove it from heat.
- In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks and the cream. Stir that into the sauce slowly, then add the wine and/or lemon juice. It doesn't take very much of either - you're pretty much just putting enough in to flavor it a bit.
-Now that you've gotten all that done, pull the skin off the chicken and throw it away, then pull the chicken off the bones. It has good odds of still being hot, so there's no shame in using forks and whatnot to keep from burning your hands. You want it in decent sized chunks, but it's likely to fall apart on its own.
-Put the chicken meat in the sauce and warm it for a few minutes - it doesn't take much heat, and trying to COOK it will make the eggs thicken and give you a funny scrambled egg dish; you're basically warming it enough that it's "hot" and you've prevented salmonella.
-At this point, you can add some butter-stewed sliced mushrooms, and/or a tablespoon of drained capers. I was lazy and didn't add the mushrooms, but they'd probably be very nice; I did stir in the capers. Apparently some places will also add a small spoonful of anchovy paste.
-If you want to make a presentation, put the rice on a platter, put the chicken pieces on top of it, and cover it with some of the sauce; put the rest of the sauce in a little boat to pour over as people are eating. If not, it is perfectly edible and fine to have the rice in a bowl and the fricasse in a bowl and just serve from that.
I will note this:
The whole thing sounds like a lot more of a "hard work big production" than it is; I felt like making stroganoff was more work and required more fussing over than this, although that might just be that the stroganoff requires constant attention, while there are several chunks of this where you can wander off a bit as long as you make sure it's not boiling over or burning or anything.
It is also incredibly nommy, and ended up with some of the most tender, soft, moist chicken I've ever had.
Also keeps well for leftovers.
On the one hand:
This does take about two hours to make. The good news is an hour and a half of that is watching a movie or something and peering at the pot occasionally.
It is a bit of work ... but not that much more than, say, alfredo or the like, and a lot less than you'd probably expect.
*Ingredients
-for stewing the chicken and making the base
1 5-pound stewing chicken
1 medium onion
1 scraped carrot
2 stalks of celery with tops (this can apparently also be a 1/2 knob of celery root... if you live somewhere besides Anchorage, you may have better luck finding one, I hit even the specialty grocery stores in town. Considering it's to flavor the stock, though...)
1 small parsley root, scraped (...this is another "good luck to you finding it", although again, if you live somewhere with more access you might have better luck. I ended up uh, skipping it.)
2 or 3 sprigs fresh parsley
5 or 6 peppercorns
1 small bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon salt
Water or chicken broth to cover, about 1 to 1 and 1/2 quarts (I used chicken stock - I have the condensed stuff you mix with hot water.)
-for the roux
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
-for the sauce
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup heavy cream
white wine or lemon juice (or both)
-and to put it over:
4 cups cooked rice
*-Stewing the chicken
-Wash the chicken and cut it in quarters. You can throw out any giblets, they're not really any use here.
-Put it in a 3 quart/decent size stock pot or soup kettle or something - you want a narrow pot, where you can fit the chicken in and not have to get too crazy with the broth/water. I have one that's slightly small, and I ended up making enough chicken stock that i had bowls of it all over my sink after I was done making the sauce ... which I probably could've used for something else, it was good chicken broth! ... Just ... you know... I'm one person and it was a bit much.
-Cut up the veggies - you should be able to fit them in the pot pretty easily, but don't be too fussy about them. Add them, the bay leaf, peppercorn, and parsley to the pot.
-Pour in enough water/broth to cover all of it.
-Bring that to a boil, let it simmer for ten minutes or so, then skim off foam that comes to the surface.
-When you stop seeing foam, cover it, reduce heat, and simmer gently (aka, it shouldn't be boiling, but should be cooking) until the larger pieces of chicken are tender and coming off the bone - this should take about an hour and a half. You can wander off and just poke your nose in occasionally to prod at it and see how it's doing.
-Pull the chicken out, set it aside for a minute. Strain the stuff from the pot through a mesh strainer; you're saving the broth you just made. At this point, you can throw the veggies away, or pass them to someone who wants to nom on them; they're perfectly tasty, just no longer useful for the fricasse.
-Take three or four cups of the broth and put it back in the pot, keeping a very low heat under it to keep it hot. Skim off as much of fat as you can.
*-The roux!
-Melt the butter in a small saucepan, and when it's hot and starting to bubble, slowly stir in the flour. This is basically the most widgetty part of the recipe - you want it to mix evenly, without any lumps, and be stirring it pretty continually from here until the roux is done.
-Once it's mixed in, keep stirring it over lower heat until the mixture starts to turn a bit yellow. If it darkens too much, it's ... not going to work and you end up with burnt-tasting fricasse.
*-The sauce
-Slowly pour in one cup of the hot chicken broth, stirring it until that mix is thickened, then stir that into the rest of the stock in the main pot. Keep that heated and simmering for about ten minutes.
Yes, this is a recipe you can make with a book in the kitchen or a movie going as long as you're keeping half an eye on it.
- Salt to taste - it probably won't take much, then remove it from heat.
- In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks and the cream. Stir that into the sauce slowly, then add the wine and/or lemon juice. It doesn't take very much of either - you're pretty much just putting enough in to flavor it a bit.
-Now that you've gotten all that done, pull the skin off the chicken and throw it away, then pull the chicken off the bones. It has good odds of still being hot, so there's no shame in using forks and whatnot to keep from burning your hands. You want it in decent sized chunks, but it's likely to fall apart on its own.
-Put the chicken meat in the sauce and warm it for a few minutes - it doesn't take much heat, and trying to COOK it will make the eggs thicken and give you a funny scrambled egg dish; you're basically warming it enough that it's "hot" and you've prevented salmonella.
-At this point, you can add some butter-stewed sliced mushrooms, and/or a tablespoon of drained capers. I was lazy and didn't add the mushrooms, but they'd probably be very nice; I did stir in the capers. Apparently some places will also add a small spoonful of anchovy paste.
-If you want to make a presentation, put the rice on a platter, put the chicken pieces on top of it, and cover it with some of the sauce; put the rest of the sauce in a little boat to pour over as people are eating. If not, it is perfectly edible and fine to have the rice in a bowl and the fricasse in a bowl and just serve from that.
I will note this:
The whole thing sounds like a lot more of a "hard work big production" than it is; I felt like making stroganoff was more work and required more fussing over than this, although that might just be that the stroganoff requires constant attention, while there are several chunks of this where you can wander off a bit as long as you make sure it's not boiling over or burning or anything.
It is also incredibly nommy, and ended up with some of the most tender, soft, moist chicken I've ever had.
Also keeps well for leftovers.
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Date: 2010-06-24 12:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-24 06:56 pm (UTC)