1532—Poulets Sautés

As I pointed out at the beginning of Part V. of this chapter, the chickens best suited to the sauté treatment are those termed “à la Reine”; they should be of medium size, very fleshy, and tender.

In an extreme case, small pullets or large chickens might be used, but neither of these are so eminently suited to the procedure in question as chickens “à la Reine.”

The fowl which is to be sautéd should be cut up thus: after having emptied, singed, and thoroughly cleaned it; cut off its legs—quite a simple matter, since all that is necessary is the disjunction of the thigh-bones, after having cut the skin. Cut off the claws just below the joint of the tibia, and pare the spurs. Now cut the tibia above the joint, and remove the thigh-bone.

Cut the pinions at the first joint; remove the wings, after having cut round a portion of the breast in such wise that each wing holds one half of it; finally detach the centrepiece or breast-bone, which should be left whole if the fowl be small and cut into two if it be otherwise.

The carcass thus remains. Cut it into two, and trim each piece on both sides.

Before setting them to cook, moderately season the pieces of fowl with salt and pepper. Whatever the demands of a particular recipe may be, the preparatory principle of sautéd chickens is always as follows:—

Take a sautépan just large enough to hold the pieces of fowl, and heat therein two oz. of clarified butter; or, according to circumstances, half butter and half good oil. When the selected fat is quite hot, insert the pieces of fowl; let them colour quickly, and turn them over from time to time, that they may do so evenly. Now cover the utensil, and put it in a sufficiently hot oven to ensure the complete cooking of the fowl. Some tender pieces, such as the wings and the breast, should be withdrawn after a few minutes have elapsed, and kept warm; but the legs, the meat of which is firmer and thicker, should cook seven or eight minutes more at least.

When all the pieces are cooked, withdraw them; drain away their butter, and swill the sautépan with the prescribed liquor, which is either some kind of wine, mushroom cooking-liquor, or chicken stock, &c. This swilling forms, as I have already pointed out, an essential part of the procedure, inasmuch as its object is to dissolve those portions of solidified gravy which adhere to the bottom of the sautépan.

Reduce the swilling-liquor to half, and add thereto the sauce given in the recipe. Put the pieces of carcass, the claws, the pinions and the legs into this sauce, and simmer for a few minutes. The other pieces, i.e., the wings and breast, are then added, but when the sauce is sufficiently reduced, it must stop boiling. When the pieces are completely cooked, it is obviously unnecessary for the sauce to boil, since the former would only be hardened thereby.

A few minutes before serving, put the pieces into a deep entrée dish (fitted with a cover) in the following order:—The pieces of carcass, the claws and the pinions on the bottom of the dish, upon these the legs and the breast, and, last of all, the wings.

The sauce is then finished according to the directions of the recipe, and is poured over the pieces of fowl.

Some chickens are prepared without colouration—that is to say, the pieces are merely stiffened in butter without browning, and their cooking is completed in the oven as above. In this case the swilling-liquor is invariably white, as also the supplementary sauces, and the latter are finished with cream.