The American touting the provinces of France by automobile soon discovers that the small towns he passes en route are very different from their counterparts at home. In the first place, the towns follow closely on each other's heels, separated only by small intensively cultivated farming areas. The American looks in vain for the spacious front lawns, the side yards, and the friendly porches of the houses on Main Street. In France, the façades of the houses rise straight from the sidewalk line and great inhospitable wooden doors bar the stranger's entry. Instead of casually curtained windows that offer an occasional glimpse of a cozy living room, the visitor sees tightly shuttered windows through which only the merest thread of light can escape to indicate that the family is at home.
Too few visitors to France ever go beyond this forbidding barricade into the charming little rear yards that are the pride of every French household, although travelers on the railroads that run behind the rows of houses may enjoy a fleeting view of the long narrow gardens. It was one of my greatest pleasures, when I returned for a visit to France in 1953, to visit friends who lived in such typically French houses, to step through the back door into the fenced garden (all gardens are fenced in France), and to enjoy with my friends the charming intimacy of French family life. I knew that I would be asked to have an apéritif and hors-d'oeuvre (or frequently Champagne and pâté de foie gras, brought out in my honor) at a metal table on an arbor-shaded terrace. Despite the passage of years since I'd been home, everything seemed the same. Neat rows of Carrots, onions, beets, and lettuce stretched away from the house. Flowers edged the two parallel walks, interspersed with strawberry plants, clumps of fragrant herbs, and carefully trimmed berry bushes. Apple, peach, pear, and apricot trees, espaliered in the space-saving French fashion, made familiar patterns against the fences, and at the very rear of the garden, partly hidden by shrubs, partly shaded by a plum tree, a busy clucking announced the presence of the poulailler, the chicken coop.
The French family loves its chickens. The fuzzy little chicks that overrun the chicken yard in the spring are scrupulously fed and cared for, but at the same time careful planning dictates how many of the creatures will be needed to supply eggs during the winter and how many will be consumed, at different stages of growth. City housewives envy their country cousins their poulaillers at the back of the garden, and in compensation develop great skill in judging the chickens they buy each week at the market. Most young French girls consider learning how to cook chicken in a dozen or more delicious ways a prerequisite for marriage. Henry IV's dream of a chicken in every pot every Sunday was an expression of a French gastronomic ideal: a never-ending supply of precious chickens for every French family.
The weight of the chicken determines its designation and also how it should be cooked. Young chickens that weigh from one and a half to two and a half pounds are called broilers, and are usually broiled. Fryers, or frying chickens, weigh from two and a half to three and a half pounds. Roasters, or roasting chickens, vary from three and a half to five pounds, and average about font pounds. A young chicken has plump legs and a plump neck, and flawing tips and breast bones are flexible. The hair on the skin of a young chicken is fine, and the spurs on the back of the feet are pointed and sharp. Old hens—about the size of the roasting chickens—are less tender, but they make fine flavored soup.
The must popular size, the most widely sold, and I think the most versatile, is the fryer, which is equally suitable for frying, sautéing, cooking en cocotte, and roasting. Many gourmets prefer to roast two or three fryers rather than one larger roasting chicken, and use capons when a larger bird is desired. And. naturally, people who raise their own chickens rarely eat a hen of roasting size, since they are the most prolific layers.
The little broiling chicken tends to be dry and demands quick cooking, hut at not quite so quick a pace as, for instance, red meat. The broiler also requires frequent basting with butter. The skin side is always cooked first, to just the desired shade of brown, then the chicken is turned and the cooking process finished on the underside, which will not Show when the bird is served. Test the chicken for doneness in the usual way—insert a fork at the second joint. If the chicken is cooked, the juices that follow the fork will be clear, with no tinge of pink. Broiled chicken should be served immediately, since there is no satisfactory way to keep it hot. In a warming oven it gets dry and tough, and in a covered dish it steams and loses some of its crispness.
Broiled Spring Chicken
Split a 2- to 2 ½-pound broiler down the back, clean it, dry it well, and season it with salt and pepper. Brush the skin generously with melted butter. Cook the bird on a rack in a broiling pan in a preheated broiling oven, skin side toward the heat, until the skin is golden brown. Turn the chicken, spread the underside with butter, and continue to cook under moderate heat for about 35 minutes, brushing often with more melted butter. Remove the chicken to a warm serving platter, and keep it warm.
Add a little chicken stock or water to the butter and juices that drip into the pan under the rack and cook all together on top of the stove, stirring and scraping in all the crusty brown bits that cling to the pan. Pour the sauce over the chicken and garnish the platter with broiled tomatoes or mushrooms, broiled bacon or ham, or simply with water cress.
The so-called frying chicken, of medium size, plump and fleshy, is sautéed and adapted to many garnishes, to make poulet sausé chasseur, poulet sauté à la bourbonnaise, poulet sauté aux champignons, and so on, depending upon the sauce and the additional ingredients used. Thus prepared, it will serve three or four persons.
The proper pan in which to sauté chicken is a heavy metal skillet with low flaring sides. Use clarified butter for the fat, if possible, or good salad oil, or fresh pork or beef drippings. So far, the directions for sautéing chicken resemble those for sautéing meats, which I gave in an earlier chapter of this series; but from this point the process differs. Never cook chicken in smoking hot fat. Very hot fat shrivels the skin and cooks the flesh near the skin so quickly that it is dried out before the flesh near the bone is thoroughly cooked. Simply heat the fat through and cook the bird over moderately low heat, I find that the white meat will cook in seven or eight minutes less than the dark, and I remove the breasts from the pan as soon as they are done. The wings take three or four minutes longer than the breasts, but not so long as the dark meat; they, too, should be removed before they become over-cooked and lose their succulence.
To Prepare Chicken for Sautéing
Remove the drumsticks and the second joints in one piece, and with a small pointed knife dégagez—that is, loosen—the skin at the drumstick end and push it back a bit so the bone protrudes. This will prevent the thin layer of skin that clings to the end of the bone from becoming dry and brittle during the cooking. Lay these pieces skin side down on the cutting board, and with the dull edge of a large knife, crack the cartilage between the drumstick and second joint without breaking the skin. Pull out the bone from the second joint and make an incision down the flesh of the inside of the drumstick. The whole piece will lie flat on the pan and will cook more evenly.
Cut off the wings. Remove the breast meat in three pieces, one on each side and one in the center, cutting where they separate naturally. Leave the back in one piece (there is little to eat on it, but it flavors the sauce and makes a support on which the legs, breasts, and wings may be arranged on the serving platter). Wipe the pieces dry and season them with salt and pepper. Dredge them with flour, if you like, but be sure to shake off every bit of surplus flour, because loose bits are apt to drop off in the pan and scorch, thus spoiling both the appearance and flavor of the sauce.
Poulet Sauté à la Bourbonnnaise
Prepare a 2 ½ to 3-pound chicken for sautéing and season the pieces with salt and pepper. Melt 2 tablespoons clarified butter in a skillet and in it cook the chicken, skin side down, until it is golden brown. Turn the pieces, add 6 small onions and 6 carrots, peeled and thinly sliced, and sprinkle all with 2 tablespoons chopped parsley. Add 1 ½ cups cream, bring the liquid to a boil, stirring, and cover the skillet. Simmer the chicken slowly for about 30 minutes, until it is thoroughly cooked. Remove the chicken to a heated serving dish. Stir into the pan juices ¼ cup cream and 1 tablespoon butter kneaded with ½ tablespoon flour. Cook, stirring, for a minute or two, correct the seasoning with salt and white pepper, and finish the sauce with 2 tablespoons Cognac. Pour the sauce and vegetables over the chicken.
Poulet Sauté Chasseur
Cut up a 2 ½ to 3-pound chicken for sautéing. Heat 2 tablespoons salad oil in a skillet and in it cook the chicken, skin side down, until it is brown. Turn the pieces and brown the other side. Add to the skillet ½ cup mushrooms, cleaned and sliced, and continue to cook until the mushrooms are soft. Remove the chicken and mushrooms to a deep dish and keep them warm. Drain off the oil and to the pan add 2 tablespoons butter and 1 tablespoon shallots or half an onion, chopped. Sprinkle the vegetables with 1 tablespoon Hour and cook, stirring, until the roux is golden. Add ½ cup white wine and continue to cook, stirring, until the wine is reduced by half. Add ¾ cup cooked tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes longer. Return the pieces of chicken to the sauce, cover the skillet, and simmer all together for about 20 minutes, until the chicken is thoroughly cooked. Correct the seasoning with salt and pepper and serve the poulet sauté chasseur from a deep dish, sprinkled with finely chopped mixed tarragon and parsley.
Poulet Sauté aux Champignons (Sautéed Chicken with Mushrooms)
Prepare a 2 ½- to 3-pound fryer for sautéing and season the pieces with salt and pepper. Melt 2 tablespoons clarified butter in a skillet and in it cook the pieces of chicken, skin side down, until they are brown. Turn the chicken, add to the pan a dozen mushrooms. cleaned and sliced, and cook for 5 minutes longer. Add 2 shallots or half a small onion, finely chopped, sprinkle the vegetables with 1 tablespoon flour, and cook all together, stirring, for a minute or two. Add ½ cup white wine, cover the pan, and simmer the chicken for about 30 minutes, until it is very under. Mix ¼ cup cream with 1 egg yolk and warm the mixture with a little of the pan sauce. Remove the skillet from the heat, add the cream and egg yolk, and shake and move the pan in a circular motion to blend the sauce. Correct the seasoning and serve from a deep serving dish.
Instead of wine, ½ cup water may be used to make the sauce. In this case, flavor the sauce with the juice of ½ lemon before adding the cream and egg yolk.
Roasting chickens and the older fowl used for boiling and braising weigh about the same—from three and a half to six pounds—but fowl needs long, slow, moist heat to make it tender. Capons, which run still heavier, are always tender. Chicken (or capon) roasted in the French manner has a deliciously brown, slightly crisp skin, and the flesh is juicy and succulent. Set your oven at a moderately hot temperature, around 375° F. Rub the bird with butter and turn it frequently as it cooks, so that the juices go through the flesh somewhat as they do when the bird is roasted on a revolving spit. To prevent the juices in the pan from scorching, add a very little water, just enough to cover the bottom of the pan. and replace the water as it cooks away.
Small chickens, such as fryers, are rarely stuffed, but larger roasters and capons usually are. In stuffing any bird, be sure to fill the cavity loosely or the stuffing may burst out of the bird when it expands during the cooking. A stuffed chicken takes longer to roast than an unstuffed bird, because the heat has to penetrate the stuffing, and so slows down the cooking of the chicken itself. Allow twenty-five to thirty-five minutes longer for a stuffed four-pound bird, which would take about one to one and a halt hours if it were nor stuffed. If the bird seems to brown too quickly at 375° F., turn down the heat or cover the breast with a buttered paper. Do not overcook and thus dry out a roasted bird; when the juice that follows a fork that pierces the second joint is clear, the bird is done.
Birds that are to be cooked whole, either in the oven or on top of the stove, should be trussed. When the legs and wings are held close to the body, the birds are easier to handle and to turn, and they do not dry out so readily. And, of course, a trussed bird is more attractive when it is served.
There are several ways of trussing a bird. I use a chef's needle, a kitchen needle about six or seven inches long, which I thread with white string. I hold the legs and second joints close to the body, cramping them in at the joint, and insert the needle into the left joint and through the body, bringing it out at the right joint. Then I insert it again at the right leg and bring it through the body and out at the left leg, and tie the ends of the string. I hold the wings close to the body in much the same way, and sew through the left wing tip and body and out to the right wing tip, back through the right wing and out at the left, and tic this pair of string ends. As an alternate method, you may insert one long skewer through the joints and the body and another through the wings, and body. Catch the string around the ends of the skewers and cross and tie the string over the back of the bird—not over the breast, because the strings will leave
Poulet Rosi (Roast Cbicken)
Truss a young roasting chicken. Spread the bird with 2 tablespoons butter. Sprinkle it with salt and lay it on its side in the roasting pan. Add ¼ cup water to the pan and roast the bird in a moderately hot oven (375° F.) for about 10 to 15 minutes, basting it frequently with the pan drippings. Turn the chicken on its other side and cook it for 10 to 15 minutes, basting frequently. If the water cooks away, add a little more. Turn the chicken on its back and roast it until it is done, about 1 to 1 ½ hours in all. Remove the bird to a serving platter. Add a few spoonfuls of chicken stock or water to the roasting pan and cook, stirring in all the brown crustiness that clings to the pan. Correct the seasoning with salt and a little white pepper and swirl in, off the heat, 1 tablespoon butter. Serve the pan gravy separately.
Chestnut Stuffing for Poultry
Cook ½ pound chestnuts in salted water with a piece of celery (page 38).
pound each of fresh lean pork and fat pork through the finest blade of the meat grinder. Add ½ teaspoon salt, a pinch of poultry seasoning, the drained chestnuts, broken in large pieces, and 1 cup fresh bread crumbs. Toss the mixture lightly and moisten it with ¼ cup Sherry. This makes enough stuffing for a 4- to 5- pound roasting chicken.
Chicken en Cocotte
Truss a tender roasting chicken weighing about 4 pounds. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a large cocotte or flameproof casserole and in it brown lightly ½ cup diced bacon, or diced salt pork parboiled for a few minutes and well drained, Skim off the dice and reserve them. Season the chicken with salt and lay it on its side in the hot fat in the casserole. Cook over moderate heat for about 10 minutes to brown the skin. Brown the breast and the other side in the same way. Add to the cocotte 2/3 cup carrots, cut in large dice, and 6 small onions, Sprinkle the vegetables with ½ teaspoon sugar and cook them for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they begin to take on color. Add the reserved bacon or pork dice and ½ cup water, and cook for 20 minutes longer. If necessary add a little more water. Add 1 cup fresh green peas, turn the chicken on its back, cover the cocotte tightly, and continue to cook for 20 minutes longer, until the peas are tender. In the meantime, peel and dice 3 potatoes and cook the dice slowly in 3 tablespoons melted butter until they arc tender and brown. Remove the Chicken to a serving platter and carve it. Correct the seasoning of the vegetables and serve with the chicken. Pass the potatoes separately.
Chicken en Cocotte with Sherry
Follow the directions for chicken en cocotte, substituting ½ pound mushrooms, cleaned and cut in quarters, for the peas. Remove the chicken to a heated serving platter and surround it with the vegetables. In a small saucepan, melt 1 tablespoon butter, add ½ teaspoon flour, and cook the roux, stirring, until it is golden. Add ½ cup hot chicken stock and 1 tablespoon tomato paste, mix well, and cook, stirring, for 4 minutes. Add this sauce to the liquid in the cocotte, correct the seasoning with salt, and finish with 3 tablespoons dry Sherry. Serve the sauce separately.
Fowl —heavier and older birds not tender enough to cook quickly in any of the ways we have already described—surrender readily to long simmering in water or wine. They are naturally more flavorful than younger birds, and consequently make richer broth. There are probably few simple dishes better loved than a boiled fowl, served with the vegetables with which it cooked and with buttered rice (November, 1957). And many gourmets prefer stewed or boiled chicken to the crustier preparations, and enjoy even tender young chickens cooked by this method. Probably the most famous of this genre is the coq au vin.
Coq au Vin
Cut a 4-pound spring chicken into 8 pieces: 2 legs, 2 second joints, 2 wings, and 2 breast pieces. Dry the chicken and season with salt and white pepper.
Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a flameproof casserole and in it brown lightly ½ cup diced bacon, or parboiled and drained fat salt pork. Skim off and reserve the dice, and in the hot fat brown the chicken pieces on both sides. To the casserole add 12 each of small mushrooms and small onions, adjust the cover, and continue to cook over low heat until the onions soften and begin to brown. Pour off about half the fat, add 2 finely chopped shallots or half an onion and I clove of garlic, crushed, and sprinkle the vegetables with 2 tablespoons flour. Cook, stirring, until the flour begins to brown, add 2 cups red wine and enough water to cover the chicken, and a bouquet garni made by tying together 2 stalks of celery, 2 sprigs of parsley, half a bay leaf, and a sprig of thyme. Bring the liquid to a boil, add the reserved pork or bacon dice, cover the casserole, and simmer the chicken on top of the stove for about 40 minutes, until the flesh is very tender. Skim off any fat that rises to the surface of the sauce, discard the bouquet garni, and correct the seasoning with salt. Arrange the chicken, vegetables, and sauce in a deep serving dish and sprinkle with chopped parsley.
Poulet Poché (Poached Chicken)
Make a vegetable court-bouillon by cooking for 1 hour 2 quarts water, 2 each of carrots, onions, and leeks, 2 teaspoons salt and a bouquet garni made by tying together 2 stalks of celery. 4 sprigs of parsley, half a bay leaf, and a sprig of thyme. If any chicken bones are available, they may be added.
Truss a plump frying chicken and simmer it in the broth for about I hour, until it is tender and cooked through. Serve the chicken with buttered rice (November, 1957) and with sauce supréme (January, 1958) made with some of the broth.
Poulet à l'Ancienne
Cut up a plump chicken as for coq au vin and season the pieces with salt and pepper. Cook the chicken for 8 minutes in 3 tablespoons butter, turning the pieces often to prevent them from taking on color. Add 1 shallot or half a small onion, chopped, and 2 tablespoons flour, and cook, stirring, for a minute or two. Add 2 cups chicken stock or hot water, bring the liquid to a boil, stirring constantly, and cook for a few minutes longer. Add 12 small white onions and a bouquet garni made by tying together 2 stalks of celery, 3 sprigs of parsley, half a bay leaf, and a sprig of rhyme. Cover the pan and cook the chicken for about 30 minutes, until it is tender. Discard the bouquet garni, Add to the pan 12 small mushrooms, cooked for 5 minutes in ½ cup water acidulated with a few drops of lemon juice. Heat the sauce well, and just before serving, add 1 egg yolk mixed with ¼ cup warmed light cream. Shake the pan to blend the sauce and correct the seasoning with salt, white pepper, and a little more lemon juice. Serve with rice or boiled potatoes.