chicken Archives - The FrangloSaxon Cooks

Smothered Chicken

October 22, 2019 by Carine Clary Leave a Comment

Smothered chicken is one of the signature dishes of the South and as such it’s been subject to a lot of tweeking – some good, some not so good. Recipes you find in the old cookbooks will often just direct you to cut up or spatchcock the bird, season, flour & brown it, cover in water and run in a slow oven till it’s fork tender. No need for broth, the water turns into broth as the chicken cooks and the broth is thickened by the flour on the chicken.

Effete weenies can toss in a bay leaf or some sage and decorate the finished dish with parsley but at the core it’s salt, pepper, bird, and low heat to the finish.

Tips & Tricks

My tweeks are visible below, the most important one being the teaspoon of vinegar you add at the end which adds just a bit of bite to a pretty unctuous dish. I don’t add garlic but the celery and onion are a must for me and the teaspoon of tomato paste gives a little flavor and a beautiful mahogany color. Any poultry seasoning that your family likes will work well in this prep and I add marjoram when I have it because it tastes wonderful. When I run out of seasoning mix I add only it and it’s wonderful. Another sort of French variation on the theme would be to add only tarragon, but that’s on you.

The Prep

For the prep you need to make sure the pan is fairly hot when you drop the chicken into the bacon grease and if your bacon didn’t produce much grease add a little vegetable oil or butter. Once in the pan leave the chicken alone, letting the skin side form a crust. After a minute or two gently shake the skillet and if the chicken has formed a crust it will release and you can turn it over, cook for a couple then remove. You want that browning because it adds flavor.

Next, add your onion and celery and saute for two or three minutes on medium heat until somewhat softened. Next stir in the tomato paste and herbs, then add back the chicken, bacon bits, and water. Cover and put in the oven for about half an hour or until it tests as tender.

Arrange the chicken pieces on a platter that you’ve covered with hot rice. Now you will check the sauce for seasoning and add the vinegar. Once it’s perfect pour the gravy over the chicken, sprinkle with parsley or chives, and serve to your hungry tribe.

Side Dishes that pair well

For a dish this rich and unctuous you’ll do well pairing it with a light salad like Sensation Salad or Orange Arugula Salad.

Smothered Chicken

Author: Carine Clary

Cuisine: Southern

Ingredients

2 strips of bacon
2 lbs. chicken thighs (about 4) plus flour for dredging
1 cup onion, diced
½ cup celery, diced
¼ cup carrot, diced
1 tsp. tomato paste
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon poultry seasoning
1 tsp. marjoram
1 cup water
1 tsp. cider vinegar (or any other white vinegar)
Parsley
White rice

Instructions

Cut up bacon and fry in a braising pan or dutch oven until brown, then remove.
Salt & pepper chicken then dredge in flour.
Place skin side down in the bacon fat and brown. Turn over & brown on other side then remove.
Add onion, celery, and saute until soft (about 3 minutes).
Add tomato paste to the center of the pan & cook for a minute, then add seasonings.
Place chicken back in the pan and cover with water.
Cover and put in a 325 oven for 30 minutes until fork tender.
Remove chicken to a platter & check sauce for seasoning. Add vinegar.
Serve with white rice & garnish with parsley.

Notes

If you don't have any dried herbs several sprigs of thyme or marjoram will serve! Just drop them in before you put the chicken in the oven for the final cook.

Chicken Clemenceau

May 27, 2019 by Carine Clary Leave a Comment

Chicken Clemenceau, named after Georges Clémenceau, the World War I French President, is one of the backbone dishes of New Orleans restaurant cuisine, probably because it’s a composite, easy to assemble entree and who doesn’t like fried potatoes?

As a kid I used to order the shrimp version at Galatoires mostly because I loved shrimp and partly because I liked rolling the peas around my plate and surreptitiously flipping them at various angles towards unsuspecting diners. My mother tried to encourage eating as opposed to flipping by reminding me of starving children who would kill for peas. Unfortunately my sympathy for invisible starving people was poorly developed at that point so I kept up the flipping until my father proposed the scenario whereby I was an evil giant and the peas were rebellious peasants whom I must spear and devour.

It was a winning strategy! I really cottoned to the idea of being the all powerful pea(sant) killer and have loved peas ever since – enough, at least, to use them in recipes like this.

The Prep

One thing that struck me when I first started making Chicken Clemenceau at home was the tendency of some recipe writers to call for large amounts of frying oil, in one case an actual gallon. This is fine if you have a dedicated biofuel pump in your kitchen but for most people it’s just way way too much. If you cut the potatoes up into small chunks you can pan fry the lot in an inch or so of oil. With the price of oil being what it is deep frying has become an indulgence of the rich. So the thing to remember about frying veg in oil is, cut small, fry shallow. You’ll save enough over time to buy some caviar.

So to sum up this recipe I’d say it’s more about organization than actual culinary skill. After you put the chicken in the oven it’s just a matter of getting the other ingredients prepped, sauteed and assembled.

Chicken Clemenceau

Author: Carine Clary

Cuisine: Creole

Serves: 4

Ingredients

1 small chicken, about 3 lbs., cut up (or equal weight in cut up parts)
Salt, poultry seasoning, and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 lb. potatoes (red or Yukon Gold), diced & soaked in water for 30 minutes
Vegetable oil
⅓ cup clarified butter
1 lb. medium mushrooms, sliced in quarters (white or Cremini)
3 tablespoons minced garlic
1 cup green peas (fresh or frozen, not canned)
Minced curly parsley for garnish

Instructions

Dry chicken well. Season & bake skin side up in a 350 oven until done (about 30 minutes).
While the chicken is cooking, drain potatoes & fry in about an inch of the oil.
Remove and drain on paper towels.
Melt the butter over a low flame & add the garlic and mushrooms. Saute until light brown.
Add peas & cook for a few minutes.
Spoon the vegetables onto a platter, arrange the chicken on top, and garnish with parsley.

Notes

Clarified butter is butter that has been melted over a very low heat until the fluffy white milk solids float to the top. They are skimmed off and what remains is a cooking oil that has a higher smoke point than regular butter. In the Indian tradition it's called "ghee" but it tastes great in whatever cuisine it's used in.

For this recipe it's fine to just use regular butter as long as you remember to saute the garlic & mushrooms on a low enough heat to keep the butter from burning.

Oven Fried Chicken

October 21, 2018 by Carine Clary Leave a Comment

We all (well, almost all) remember the old ads for oven fried chicken starring that obnoxiously sweet little girl saying, “It’s Shake ‘n Bake – ‘N ah hepped…” And guess what? It was pretty good. And not least for the corporate bottom line because what they were selling was basically flavored bread crumbs at a grossly inflated price. The concept of “oven fried” gives you the crunch of fried without the mess or expense of complete immersion in oil so it’s not only tasty it’s healthier. And for the New Orleanians among us it is very similar to Congresswoman Lindy Boggs’ favorite ‘feed the masses’ main dish for political cookouts. I just call it ‘Shake ‘n Fake.’

I’ve seen versions of this that require many ingredients, not to mention marinating etc… Just don’t. This is fast food. Healthy tasty fast food, but fast food none the less. Don’t make it something it’s not because it’s great just the way it is. This is something you can throw together in a few minutes after you come home from work and 45 minutes later it’s done. By the time you’ve changed clothes, checked the mail, fed the dog and screamed at the kids it’s done. Then you can ring the dinner bell.

And when it comes to breading you have options. You can use traditional breadcrumbs or panko (read up on the difference here.) There are seasoned breadcrumbs and panko but I have tried all kinds and prefer the plain panko. The natural taste of the chicken with the lemon juice is delish and usually good enough for everyone.

The other variation on this simple recipe is whether to cook it in butter, olive oil, or a neutral vegetable oil. I like butter or a flavored olive oil but after testing the recipe in safflower oil I was distinctly underwhelmed so I would skip that unless you have nothing else on hand. A garlic or rosemary infused oil not only tastes great but smells wonderful.

To get started you will melt the butter in the pan that you plan to cook the chicken in (that’s it next to the ugly burn mark on the stove) then set that aside then set up a breading station. Next you’ll pat dry the chicken pieces (and leave the skin on. The oil that will render out of the skin will flavor the crumbs and it will make the resulting chicken more tender), salt and pepper to taste, dip in plain flour and set aside.

Beat the eggs well with the lemon juice and dip the floured chicken in it, then roll it in the panko or crumbs. Lay carefully skin side down in the oil and put in the oven for 45 minutes flipping over when half done and remove when browned.

And as they say in the cartoons, “That’s all folks!” Serve it with a tossed green salad and some boiled buttered potatoes and you’ll win the good old plain cooking award for the week.

Oven Fried Chicken

Author: Carine Clary

Cuisine: Southern

Ingredients

2.5 lbs chicken pieces of equal size seasoned to taste with salt, pepper & celery salt
½ cup butter (or flavored olive oil)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
⅔ cup flour
2 eggs
2 cups panko

Instructions

Put the butter (or oil) in a 13 X 9 inch baking dish and place in a 350 degree oven to melt. (this may require an extra pan or skillet depending on size of pieces. They should all be lying flat in the butter)
Dry off chicken pieces, salt & pepper to taste, dip in flour & set aside.
Beat eggs well with a tablespoon of lemon juice (or water).
Dip chicken in egg mixture then coat thoroughly with breading.
Place skin side down in the baking dish and cook for 45 minutes, turning once.

Notes

Optional Seasoning for Breading:
1 cup Panko, 1 tablespoon poultry seasoning, 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. toasted garlic granules, ½ tsp. cayenne.

Chicken Rochambeau

January 7, 2017 by Carine Clary Leave a Comment

If they had Denny’s in France Chicken Rochambeau would probably be the Friday open-faced sandwich special. Hot, creamy, satisfying. Except it’s French so instead of cheese sauce it has Bearnaise and just to enhance your feelings of inadequacy they will place the toast on top of yet another sauce called Marchand de Vin. (That’s ‘wine merchant sauce’ in American) You can see it in the picture leaking from beneath like a busted fuel line in an old Chevy.

Le Comte de Rochambeau

Leave it to the French to turn diner-type comfort food into a dish called Chicken Rochambeau. It’s named after a General who fought under Washington in the Revolutionary War and I could retail his biography right here and impress you with my ability to regurgitate an encyclopedia entry but I won’t. Because you know what? I don’t think he ever ate his chicken. Chicken, yes. Chicken Rochambeau….Qu’est-ce que c’est? He probably would have loved it but I imagine he choked down the same gruel as the other patriots back at Valley Forge.

Still, the name is distinguished and the dish is filling and I hate to admit it but that extra sauce on the bottom is a really tasty touch. Damn those French! Their culinary snobbery, while annoying, is usually justified. So here I will stop rambling get on with it.

The Chicken & Ham

Chicken Rochambeau is basically a stacked sandwich with two sauces. The easy part is toasting the bread and getting the meat on top. For the ham, you may use deli slices or leftover New Year’s holiday ham. Next comes the chicken. I use a skin-on breast, salted & peppered, drizzled with oil & a squirt of lemon juice, and run in a 350-degree oven till the skin is brown & crispy about 30 minutes. To ensure crispy skin dry it off with a paper towel before doing the other stuff. Leaving the skin on adds flavor to the final dish.

And just for the record, the picture below represents what most people call ‘a chicken breast.’ It’s not. It’s actually half of a breast. So when the recipe calls for ‘a breast’ it means two of these guys.

The Sauces

Now to the sauces. Realistically no one will make an extra sauce unless it’s really easy so that’s how I’m making it here. This version of Marchand de Vin sauce, although lacking somewhat in haute cuisine authenticity, is really really easy and very fast. It also tastes good.

Marchand de Vin Sauce

To do it make a roux then add some shallots and next the beef broth. When it’s smooth drop in a bay leaf, ground black pepper, and some thyme (either a sprig or a pinch of powdered) and let simmer for about ten minutes to extract the bay & thyme flavors. If you have extra tarragon from the bearnaise sauce add some as well.

And here’s where it gets fast. Instead of adding a lot of red wine and waiting for it to boil down you just add a few teaspoons of a nice thick red balsamic vinegar. Cover it, strain it when you’re ready to assemble, and you have an acceptable approximation of one of the basic brown sauces of French cooking. You should make this sauce first, take it off the heat, and let the flavors develop while you prepare the rest.

Bearnaise Sauce

Following the directions below will yield a good Bearnaise Sauce – just don’t step away while the wine vinegar mixture is simmering. The point of boiling the wine vinegar, shallots & tarragon down to a couple of tablespoons is to concentrate flavor. This is what turns the egg yolks and butter into a great sauce. And be sure and add a full tablespoon or more of finely chopped tarragon to the final sauce before serving.

Once all this is done put a spoonful of the Marchand de Vin sauce on the plate, toast on top, then ham then chicken then the Bearnaise then eat!

Chicken Rochambeau

Author: Carine Clary

Cuisine: Creole

Ingredients

For the sandwich:
1 chicken breast cut in half
4 slices artisan-style sourdough bread or French bread
Salt & pepper to taste
1 cup Marchand de Vin Sauce
1 cup Bearnaise Sauce
Marchand de Vin Sauce*
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
Small diced shallot
Ground Pepper to taste
1 bay leaf
1 clove crushed garlic
Pinch of ground thyme (or 1 sprig of fresh)
3 teaspoons red balsamic vinegar
1 can Campbell's Beef Consume (or 1¼ cup beef broth)**
Optional tarragon if you have some leftover from the bearnaise sauce
Bearnaise Sauce
3 tablespoons diced shallots
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
3 tablespoons chopped tarragon
1 tablespoon water
2 egg yolks
1 stick butter cut into pieces and chilled plus an extra half stick if you like a thinner sauce.
Extra chopped tarragon (about 1 to 2 tablespoons) to stir into the finished sauce.

Instructions

For the Marchand de Vin Sauce:
Melt butter & whisk in flour to make the roux.
Stir in diced shallot & seasonings then add beef broth & whisk until smooth.
Let simmer on low heat for 5 or 10 minutes.
Stir in the balsamic vinegar, cover & reserve for later.
Strain when ready to use.
For the Sandwich:
Dry off the chicken breast, drizzle with oil, add salt, pepper & lemon juice.
Place in a preheated 350-degree oven for 30 minutes or until brown.
Remove, let cool a bit and separate into pieces suitable for laying over the toasted bread.
For the Bearnaise:
Put the shallots, vinegar, tarragon, salt & pepper in a saucepan and cook over low heat until only a couple of tablespoons of liquid remain.
Strain into a container and let cool.
Rinse out the saucepan and put the cooled liquid back in with the two egg yolks.
Cook over low heat until thickened then start adding teaspoon-sized chunks of cold butter.
Keep whisking in the butter bit by bit until you reach the desired thickness. In my case this is a little less than a stick, for others it may be up to a stick & a half. Play it by ear and stop when it looks right to you.
Assembly:
Put a spoonful of Marchand de Vin sauce on the plate.
Place toast on top & cover with ham and chicken.
Cover with a ladle of Bearnaise Sauce.

Notes

*Any leftover Marchand de Vin sauce is great spooned over a Salisbury steak (also known as a bunless hamburger and a popular Swanson's frozen dinner back in the day.)

**If you use Campbell's Beef Consume in the Marchand de Vin sauce be aware that it is very salty and adjust seasonings accordingly.