Poularde Albufera

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •8 to 10 quart snug-fitting stockpot
• •Kitchen twine and a poultry skewer
• •Parchment paper or clean muslin
• •Instant-read thermometer
• •Small food processor
• •Fine-mesh sieve
• •¼-inch (6 mm) melon baller or very small spoon
• •Small heavy saucepan
• •Oval serving platter and warm saucière

Instructions

1. 1

   Make the quenelle mousseline

   Chill the bowl and blade of a small processor. Add the diced chicken with ¼ teaspoon of the salt and a pinch of white pepper, then process until smooth and tacky. Add the egg white and nutmeg, process again, then pour in the cold cream in three additions, reserving the final spoonful until the mixture is smooth. This mousseline, a cream-enriched forcemeat, must remain cold enough to feel firm. If it turns loose or grainy, stop immediately, chill the bowl for 10 minutes, then process in the reserved cold cream. Ça se rattrape. Cover and refrigerate.

   Poach a teaspoon of mousseline in hot water and taste it. Adjust the seasoning now, while the mixture can still be corrected.
2. 2

   Stuff and truss

   Season the poularde inside and out with 1½ teaspoons of the salt and a little white pepper. Spoon the cold Pilaff Rice (for the Stuffing of Fowls) (No. 2256) loosely into the body cavity, leaving a two-finger space at the opening so the rice can finish expanding. Do not force in every last spoonful if the cavity is full. Close the opening with a skewer, tie the legs together, and pass a length of kitchen twine beneath the bird to make a lifting sling. Pack the rice tightly and it will press against the skin before the bird is cooked.

3. 3

   Poach at a tremble

   Set the poularde breast-side up in a snug stockpot. Add the chicken stock, onion, carrot, celery, and bouquet garni, then enough cold water to cover the bird. Bring the liquid up slowly until it reaches 176 to 185°F (80 to 85°C), with only an occasional lazy movement at the surface. Skim, cover with a parchment cartouche, and keep the lid slightly ajar. Hold that bare tremble for 60 to 75 minutes, until the centre of the stuffing and the deepest part of the thigh both reach 165°F (74°C). If the liquid begins bubbling, lift the pot off the heat at once and lower the burner before returning it. If the skin splits, lay clean damp muslin firmly over the opening to contain the rice and continue more gently; the sauce will cloak the seam.

4. 4

   Shape the service garnish

   While the bird poaches, use a ¼-inch (6 mm) melon baller or the tip of a small spoon to raise pea-size pieces from the truffle. Save every trimming. Cut each tongue slice into a pointed cock’s-comb shape with four or five notches along one edge. Mix the softened butter, roasted pepper purée, and cayenne into a smooth beurre de piment, or pimento butter, and keep it cool but pliable. Warm the tartlet shells in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 5 minutes near serving time.

5. 5

   Cook the small garnish

   Lift the cooked poularde by its twine sling, let it drain, and transfer it to a warm platter beneath buttered parchment. Hold it in a 170°F (75°C) oven for no more than 30 minutes. Strain the poaching liquor. Bring 2 cups of it back to a bare tremble and drop in pea-size ovals of mousseline, shaping them with two small spoons. Poach the quenelles for about 2 minutes, until firm and cooked through, then drain them. Poach the cocks’ kidneys in the same liquor for 3 to 4 minutes, until opaque and just firm. If using sweetbread instead, brown its prepared lobes lightly in half the garnish butter. Cook the button mushrooms in the remaining butter until tender but still pale. Hold everything in a warm bowl with two spoonfuls of poaching liquor, adding the truffle pearls only after the heat is off.

6. 6

   Build the sauce suprême

   Melt the roux butter in a saucepan, stir in the flour, and cook this roux blanc, or white roux, for 2 minutes without letting it color. Whisk in the 2½ cups of reserved hot poaching liquor a little at a time, scraping into the corners so no flour hides there. Simmer gently for 8 minutes, then add the cream, keeping 1 tablespoon aside. Reduce for 10 to 15 minutes, until this sauce suprême, a velouté enriched with cream, coats the back of a spoon. If it is lumpy, strain it. If it tightens too far, loosen it with another spoonful of poaching liquor.

7. 7

   Finish sauce Albuféra

   Whisk the glace de viande into the sauce suprême and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat, then whisk in the beurre de piment a small piece at a time. The finished sauce Albuféra should be glossy, full-bodied, and warm ivory with the faintest coral cast. Do not boil it after the butter goes in. If it separates, place the reserved tablespoon of warm cream in a clean saucepan and whisk the broken sauce into it one spoonful at a time until it returns to a smooth emulsion. Taste for salt and white pepper.

8. 8

   Dish and coat

   Remove the twine and parchment from the poularde. Coat the whole bird generously with sauce Albuféra, letting the sauce pool beneath it rather than smearing the platter. Divide the truffle pearls, quenelles, mushrooms, and cocks’ kidneys or sweetbread among the warm tartlet shells, including the saved truffle trimmings, then bind each filling with a spoonful of sauce. Arrange the tartlets around the poularde and place one cock’s-comb slice of salted tongue between each pair. Serve the remaining sauce in a warm saucière and carve the bird at the table. À table!

Chef Tips

• •A true poularde is a young hen fattened for tenderness and a generous layer of flavorful fat. Order one if your poultry seller can provide it, but a plump 4 to 5 pound roasting chicken is the honest home equivalent. Technique first, always.
• •Prepare the Pilaff Rice (for the Stuffing of Fowls) (No. 2256) as its own finished component and chill it thoroughly before filling the bird. It is deliberately only three-quarters cooked, because the cream-softened rice completes its cooking inside the poularde.
• •The source garnish calls for rognons de coq, called cocks’ kidneys in the English entry and anatomically the bird’s testicles. A specialist poultry supplier may obtain them. Prepared veal sweetbread is not identical, but it preserves the garnish’s delicate offal character and tender texture without pretending the substitution is invisible.
• •Fresh black truffle is splendid here, but a firm whole preserved truffle is the classical pantry’s honest answer outside the season. Drain it well and use the preserving liquor in another sauce. Truffle oil cannot supply the little black morsels the original platter requires.
• •Ready-made savory tartlet shells remove the labor of a separate pastry station without changing the composed garnish. Choose plain butter pastry with no sweetness, herbs, or cheese.
• •Serve a broad dry white Burgundy or a mature dry white Bordeaux. The wine needs enough body for cream, foie gras, and truffle, but enough freshness to keep the sauce from tiring the palate.
• •Refrigerate leftover poultry, stuffing, garnishes, and sauce separately within 2 hours. Keep them for up to 2 days, reheating the sauce over gentle heat and whisking in a spoonful of cream if it has tightened. We don’t apologize for butter.

Advance Preparation

• •The Pilaff Rice (for the Stuffing of Fowls) (No. 2256) may be prepared 1 day ahead, cooled promptly, covered, and refrigerated. Do not stuff the poularde until you are ready to begin cooking.
• •The quenelle mousseline may be made up to 4 hours ahead and kept very cold. Poach one tester before service so the seasoning can still be corrected.
• •The beurre de piment, truffle pearls, mushrooms, and tongue combs may be prepared 1 day ahead and refrigerated separately. Warm the tartlet shells only just before filling them.
• •If using veal sweetbread, soak, blanch, peel, and press it the day before. Cut it into small lobes and brown it in butter during the final garnish preparation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 700g)