Poulet Sauté Hongroise

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •12-inch (30 cm) lidded sauté pan or deep skillet
• •2-quart (2 L) saucepan with a tight lid
• •Fine-mesh sieve
• •10- to 12-inch (25 to 30 cm) oval serving platter
• •Instant-read thermometer

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the tomatoes

   Cut a shallow cross in the base of each tomato. Lower them into boiling water for 20 to 30 seconds, just until the skins loosen, then transfer them to cold water and peel. Core and quarter three tomatoes for the chicken. Seed the remaining two and make a tomato concassée, roughly chopped tomato, in pieces about ½ inch (1.25 cm) wide. Leave the concassée in a sieve for several minutes so excess juice cannot make the pilaff wet.

2. 2

   Cook the pilaff

   Melt 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 28 g) of the butter in a 2-quart (2 L) saucepan over medium-low heat. Add half the onion and cook for 3 minutes without colouring it. Stir in the rice and cook for 2 minutes, turning every grain through the butter until the edges look translucent. Add the stock and ½ teaspoon (2.5 ml / 3 g) of the salt, bring to a simmer, then cover and cook over the lowest heat for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and rest, still covered, for 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork, fold in the drained concassée, and cover again to keep warm.

3. 3

   Sauté without colour

   Season the chicken with the remaining salt and the white pepper. Melt the remaining 4 tablespoons (60 ml / 57 g) butter in a wide lidded sauté pan over medium-low heat. Add the chicken in one layer with the remaining onion, then sprinkle the paprika into the butter and turn the pieces gently to coat. Sauté for 8 to 10 minutes, turning often, until the chicken has lost its raw exterior and the onion is pale straw, not brown. The paprika should smell sweet and warm. If it begins darkening, pull the pan from the heat and add a spoonful of water to cool the butter. If it blackens or smells acrid, lift out the chicken, discard the scorched butter and onion, wipe the pan, and restart that foundation. Ça se rattrape. Burnt paprika does not improve with reduction.

   Keep the heat modest even if the chicken seems slow to colour. It should not colour. This sauté builds tenderness and paprika perfume, not a brown fond.
4. 4

   Finish with tomatoes

   Add the three quartered tomatoes and their juices, nestling them among the chicken pieces. Cover and hold the pan at a quiet simmer, turning the chicken once. Begin checking the breast pieces after 12 minutes and remove them as soon as their thickest part reaches 165°F (74°C). Continue cooking the leg pieces until they reach at least 165°F (74°C) and feel tender at the joint, usually 22 to 30 minutes. Transfer each finished piece to a warm plate and cover loosely. The tomatoes should have collapsed into the butter and onion while retaining a little body.

5. 5

   Reduce and sieve

   Pour the cream into the tomatoes left in the sauté pan. Bring it to the gentlest simmer and reduce uncovered until the mixture has lost roughly half its volume and coats a spoon in a glossy, pale paprika-red layer, about 6 to 10 minutes. Do not boil hard or the cream can turn grainy against the tomato. Press the sauce firmly through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean saucepan, leaving only skins, seeds, and coarse onion behind. Reheat gently. If it is too thick to flow, loosen it with a spoonful of hot water; if it runs like cream, reduce it for another minute or two.

6. 6

   Mould and serve

   Warm a broad serving platter with hot water, then dry it. Spoon the tomato pilaff around the rim and shape it into a compact border with the back of a buttered spoon, leaving a generous well in the middle. Arrange the chicken inside that border and pour the hot, sieved sauce over the pieces, allowing a little to pool against the rice. Serve at once. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Use sweet Hungarian paprika that smells vivid when you open the tin. Smoked paprika changes the dish, and hot paprika overwhelms the cream; the classical hongroise profile wants sweetness, warmth, and colour.
• •Fresh ripe tomatoes give the sauce its lightness. Out of season, use one 28-ounce (800 g) can of good whole peeled tomatoes, drained: quarter three large tomatoes for the chicken and concass the remainder for the rice. Keep the juice nearby in case the sauce needs loosening.
• •Ask the butcher to cut the chicken into eight pieces, or buy a cut-up bird of the same weight. Breast and leg meat do not finish together, so remove each piece when it is ready instead of making the breast wait for the thigh.
• •A dry Alsatian Pinot Gris has enough body for the cream and enough freshness for the tomatoes. Serve the chicken immediately, while the sauce still flows and the pilaff remains separate-grained.
• •Leftovers keep for up to 3 days in the refrigerator. Reheat the chicken and sauce together over low heat, adding a spoonful of water if the sauce has tightened; boil it and the cream loses its smoothness.

Advance Preparation

• •Peel and cut the tomatoes and chop the onion up to 12 hours ahead. Refrigerate them in separate covered containers, keeping the quartered tomatoes and concassée apart.
• •The pilaff can be cooked up to 45 minutes before serving. Keep it covered in its pan, then fold in the concassée shortly before shaping the border.
• •The chicken is best cooked and sauced just before it reaches the table. If it must wait for 20 minutes, hold the pieces covered and keep the unsieved tomato mixture warm, then add the cream, reduce, and sieve at the last moment.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 470g)