Chef Juliette
Poulets Sautés
The master sauté for poultry: jointed chicken coloured hard in clarified butter, cooked piece by piece to tenderness, then reunited with a pan sauce made from every bronze trace of fond.
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Poulet Sauté Forestière
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 1555, Poulet Sauté Forestière, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
Butter-browned chicken, earthy morels, crisp bacon, and golden potato dice meet in one reduced white-wine sauce, a lesson in sautéing where every drop of mushroom liquor and every trace of fond belongs.
Main Dishes
French
Dinner Party
Comfort Food
Special Occasion
40 min
Active Time
45 min cook•1 hr 25 min total
Yield4 servings
Poulet Sauté Forestière (forest-style sautéed chicken) teaches the central rule of a sauté: the pan is not merely where the meat browns, it is where the sauce begins. Sauté means cooking the chicken in shallow butter over lively heat so its surface bronzes and a fond forms below; white wine and veal stock later lift that fond into the sauce. The morels drink butter, then give it back with their own dark juices. None of that liquid leaves the pan.
The source assumes a saucier at the range, veal stock never off the fire, a garnish cook keeping potatoes and frizzled bacon ready, and enough pans to pass the work from hand to hand. Your honest equivalents are a 12-inch ovenproof sauté pan, a measured scant half-cup of gelatinous veal stock, and a second skillet; one small chicken gives four generous portions. There is no salamander work to imitate. The brigade handoffs and holding trays are scaffolding, so they go, but the butter sauté, ten-minute covered oven stew, white-wine swill, and reduction remain because they are the dish. One cook, one stove, one evening.
When it lands, chicken bronzed in butter sits under an amber gloss crowded with honeycombed morels, four heaps of potato dice ring the platter, and crisp bacon waits between them. Before touching the pan, know the one true thing: protect the fond and every spoonful of morel liquor. If either goes down the sink, no later flourish can put it back.
In the Parisian classical repertoire, forestière identifies a garnish family rather than a single provincial recipe: woodland mushrooms, potatoes, and bacon gathered around sautéed meat or poultry. Morels make this version the grander member of that family, while the white-wine and veal-stock reduction ties it to the bourgeois dining room and the professional sauce station. The name is often mistaken for a regional claim, but it is practical kitchen language, a promise that the forest enters through the garnish and pan juices, not through decorative rusticity.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
small chicken
Quantity
1 (about 3½ lb / 1.6 kg)
cut into 8 pieces, skin on
fine sea salt
Quantity
2 teaspoons (10 ml / 12 g)
divided
freshly ground black pepper
Quantity
½ teaspoon (2.5 ml / 1 g)
unsalted butter
Quantity
8 tablespoons (120 ml / 113 g)
divided
shallot
Quantity
1 tablespoon (15 ml / 10 g)
finely chopped
fresh morels, or dried morels
Quantity
3 loosely packed cups (710 ml / 140 g) fresh, or 1½ loosely packed cups (355 ml / 40 g) dried
fresh morels quartered; dried morels rehydrated and quartered
warm water (optional)
Quantity
1½ cups (355 ml / 355 g)
for rehydrating dried morels only
dry white wine
Quantity
½ cup (120 ml / 120 g)
unsalted gelatinous veal stock
Quantity
Scant ½ cup (95 ml / 95 g)
additional veal stock (optional)
Quantity
2 tablespoons (30 ml / 30 g)
for loosening the sauce only
waxy potatoes
Quantity
4 cups (950 ml / 680 g)
peeled and cut into large ¾-inch (2 cm) dice
unsmoked slab bacon
Quantity
4 thick rectangles (about 4 oz / 115 g total)
flat-leaf parsley
Quantity
1 tablespoon (15 ml / 4 g)
finely chopped
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| small chickencut into 8 pieces, skin on | 1 (about 3½ lb / 1.6 kg) |
| fine sea saltdivided | 2 teaspoons (10 ml / 12 g) |
| freshly ground black pepper | ½ teaspoon (2.5 ml / 1 g) |
| unsalted butterdivided | 8 tablespoons (120 ml / 113 g) |
| shallotfinely chopped | 1 tablespoon (15 ml / 10 g) |
| fresh morels, or dried morelsfresh morels quartered; dried morels rehydrated and quartered | 3 loosely packed cups (710 ml / 140 g) fresh, or 1½ loosely packed cups (355 ml / 40 g) dried |
| warm water (optional)for rehydrating dried morels only | 1½ cups (355 ml / 355 g) |
| dry white wine | ½ cup (120 ml / 120 g) |
| unsalted gelatinous veal stock | Scant ½ cup (95 ml / 95 g) |
| additional veal stock (optional)for loosening the sauce only | 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 30 g) |
| waxy potatoespeeled and cut into large ¾-inch (2 cm) dice | 4 cups (950 ml / 680 g) |
| unsmoked slab bacon | 4 thick rectangles (about 4 oz / 115 g total) |
| flat-leaf parsleyfinely chopped | 1 tablespoon (15 ml / 4 g) |
Equipment Needed
- •12-inch (30 cm) ovenproof sauté pan with a tight lid
- •10-inch (25 cm) heavy skillet
- •Instant-read thermometer
- •Fine-mesh sieve lined with a damp coffee filter, if using dried morels
- •Warm oval serving platter
Instructions
- 1
Prepare the mise en place
Heat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Check fresh morels carefully for grit, split larger ones lengthwise, rinse them briefly in cold water, and dry them well before quartering. If using dried morels, cover them with the warm water for 30 minutes, lift them out so the grit stays behind, and strain the soaking liquor through a damp coffee filter or two layers of fine cloth. Reserve ¼ cup (60 ml) of that dark liquor for the sauce. Dry the chicken thoroughly, but wait to season it until the pan is ready.
Never pour morel soaking liquor straight through an ordinary sieve. The fine grit follows it. Lift the mushrooms out first, then filter the liquid until no sediment remains. - 2
Frizzle the bacon
Lay the bacon rectangles in a dry skillet over medium heat. Cook for 6 to 8 minutes, turning once, until their edges are crisp and rippled while the centres remain pleasantly meaty. Lift them onto a rack or absorbent paper. Pour the rendered bacon fat into a heatproof jar for another meal and wipe the skillet clean; the potatoes are tossed in butter because that is the garnish the source specifies.
- 3
Start the potatoes
Melt 3 tablespoons of the butter in the wiped skillet over medium heat. Add the potato dice in one layer with ½ teaspoon of the salt, cover, and cook for 6 minutes. Uncover and toss them frequently for another 8 to 10 minutes, until nearly tender and golden on several faces, then take the pan off the heat. If they colour before their centres soften, lower the heat and cover them again for 3 minutes. They will finish while the sauce reduces.
- 4
Sauté the chicken
Season the chicken with the remaining salt and the pepper. Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in the ovenproof sauté pan over medium-high heat. When the foam subsides, lay in the thighs and drumsticks skin-side down; add the breasts and wings about 3 minutes later. Brown the pieces in batches if necessary, giving the skin 5 to 7 minutes and the second side 2 to 3 minutes. You want a deep butter-gold crust and a brown fond on the pan floor, but the meat need not yet be cooked through.
If liquid gathers around the chicken and the skin stays pale, the pan is crowded. Lift out a few pieces, let the moisture cook away, and continue in batches. The fond must be brown and savoury, never black. - 5
Stew with morels
Return every chicken piece to the pan and lower the heat to medium. Sprinkle in the chopped shallot and cook for 30 seconds without letting it darken. Add the morels and turn them through the butter for 1 to 2 minutes, keeping every drop of their juice in the pan. Cover tightly and place the pan in the oven for 10 minutes. Check the chicken at the thickest part; it must reach at least 165°F (74°C). Remove finished breast pieces if necessary and give the legs another 3 to 5 minutes. The morels must receive at least the full 10 minutes of cooking.
- 6
Swill and reduce
Transfer the chicken and morels to a warm oval platter, tipping every collected juice back into the sauté pan. Spoon off only an obvious excess of clear fat, leaving the browned fond and mushroom liquor untouched. Set the pan over medium-high heat, add the white wine, and swill the pan by scraping and rinsing every brown trace into the liquid. Reduce the wine to about 2 tablespoons, then add the veal stock and, if you used dried morels, the reserved ¼ cup of filtered soaking liquor. Boil steadily until the sauce forms a thin, glossy veil on a spoon, then return the morels and any resting juices. If it is thin, keep reducing. If it tightens too far, loosen it with the additional stock. If butter pools on top, take the pan off the heat, spoon away the excess, and whisk in a teaspoon of cold stock. Ça se rattrape. Taste and correct the seasoning.
- 7
Finish the garnish
Return the potato skillet to medium-high heat, add the final tablespoon of butter, and toss for 2 to 3 minutes until the dice are tender, deeply golden, and gleaming. Arrange the chicken in the centre of the platter and spoon the morels and reduced sauce over it. Make four small heaps of potato dice around the chicken, place one frizzled bacon rectangle between each heap, and sprinkle the parsley over the chicken rather than the whole platter. Serve at once. À table!
Chef Tips
- •Fresh morels have a brief season. Outside it, dried morels are the honest classical pantry answer: soak them for 30 minutes, filter the liquor with real care, and use a measured ¼ cup in the sauce. Freeze the rest for a future mushroom sauce. Morels must always be thoroughly cooked.
- •Use unsalted veal stock with enough natural gelatin to set softly when cold. A salty stock cube becomes harsh as the sauce reduces. Unsalted chicken stock will cook properly if veal stock is unavailable, but the finished sauce will be lighter and less rounded; the substitution is not invisible.
- •This particular forestière contains neither cream nor roux. Its body comes from butter, chicken juices, gelatinous stock, and reduction. Adding cream may make a pleasant mushroom sauce, but it changes the source entry.
- •Choose unsmoked slab bacon if you can. Smoke easily dominates morels, while unsmoked cured pork gives salt, crispness, and richness without speaking over the mushrooms.
- •Cook with a dry white wine you would pour at the table, brisk rather than sweet and not heavily oaked. The same bottle suits the finished chicken, especially if it has enough acidity to meet the butter and bacon.
- •Leftovers keep for up to 3 days in the cold. Store the chicken and sauce together, but keep the potatoes and bacon separate. Reheat the chicken gently in its sauce, refresh the potatoes in butter, and crisp the bacon briefly in a dry skillet.
Advance Preparation
- •The chicken may be jointed and the fresh morels cleaned up to 6 hours ahead. Keep both covered and cold in separate containers, then dry them again before cooking.
- •Dried morels may be soaked up to 4 hours ahead. Strain the liquor, cover both mushrooms and liquid separately, and keep them cold until needed.
- •The potatoes may be diced up to 4 hours ahead and held under cold water. Drain and dry them completely before they meet the butter.
- •The bacon may be frizzled up to 2 hours ahead and refreshed in a dry skillet just before serving. Build the sauce only after the chicken cooks because its fresh fond is the foundation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 475g)
Calories
950 calories
Total Fat
62 g
Saturated Fat
26 g
Trans Fat
1 g
Unsaturated Fat
31 g
Cholesterol
260 mg
Sodium
1850 mg
Total Carbohydrates
33 g
Dietary Fiber
5 g
Sugars
2 g
Protein
65 g
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