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Poulet Sauté Marengo
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 1564, Poulet Sauté Marengo, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
Oil-sautéed chicken in a glossy white-wine and tomato reduction, ringed with butter-fried heart croûtons, soft-yolked eggs, crayfish, mushrooms, and truffle: the full Marengo garnish, scaled for one home stove.
Main Dishes
French
Dinner Party
Special Occasion
Celebration
35 min
Active Time
55 min cook•1 hr 30 min total
Yield4 servings
Poulet Sauté Marengo (oil-sautéed chicken with the full Marengo garnish) teaches one true thing before the pan is hot: the garnish is not decoration. The fried eggs, heart-shaped croûtons, crayfish, mushrooms, and truffle carry the dish's identity, surrounding deeply browned chicken under a glossy sauce of white wine, tomato, and garlic. Remove them and the result may still be good chicken, but it is no longer this Marengo.
The classical entry assumes several hands, court-bouillon ready, and plates leaving at once. It needs neither a saucier tending a mother sauce, a stockpot never off the fire, nor a salamander; its sauce is built from the sauté pan's own fond, white wine, tomato, and reduction. At home, a low oven becomes the holding place, the garnishes are made while the chicken cooks, and the serving is four. One cook, one stove, one evening.
Trussing the crayfish was brigade scaffolding, useful for regimented presentation but irrelevant to flavour, so it goes. The crayfish themselves, the truffle, the fried eggs, and the butter-fried croûtons stay because they are the dish. The step that decides both chicken and sauce is the first browning: dry the pieces, leave room in the pan, and take the skin to a confident bronze before adding wine.
The name points to Marengo in Piedmont, while the dish's culinary home is French grand cuisine, where chicken sautéed in oil with tomato, wine, garlic, mushrooms, and truffle became Poulet Sauté Marengo. Its battlefield origin is a durable tale of a French commander's cook improvising from scattered provisions, but food historians treat the neatness of that story cautiously. Parisian grand kitchens fixed the memorable garnish of crayfish, fried eggs, and croûtons, carrying the dish from legend into the classical repertoire and eventually onto ambitious home tables.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
whole chicken
Quantity
1 (3½ lb / 1.6 kg)
cut into 8 pieces
fine sea salt
Quantity
2 teaspoons (10 ml / 12 g)
freshly ground black pepper
Quantity
½ teaspoon (2.5 ml / 1 g)
mild olive oil
Quantity
¼ cup (60 ml / 55 g)
divided
dry white wine
Quantity
¾ cup (180 ml / 180 g)
ripe tomatoes or tomato purée
Quantity
2 medium tomatoes (about 1 lb / 450 g), or 1½ tablespoons purée (22 ml / 24 g)
tomatoes peeled, seeded, and concassé
garlic
Quantity
1 small clove (about 3 g)
crushed
small button mushrooms
Quantity
10 (about 5 oz / 140 g)
wiped and trimmed
black truffle
Quantity
10 thin slices (about ¾ oz / 20 g)
drained if preserved
prepared court-bouillon
Quantity
4¼ cups (1 L / 1 kg)
whole raw food-grade crayfish
Quantity
8 (about 12 oz / 340 g)
thawed if frozen
day-old pain de mie
Quantity
8 thin slices (about 6 oz / 170 g)
crusts removed and cut into hearts
unsalted butter
Quantity
4 tablespoons (60 ml / 57 g)
small or medium eggs
Quantity
4
flat-leaf parsley
Quantity
2 tablespoons (30 ml / 8 g)
concassé
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| whole chickencut into 8 pieces | 1 (3½ lb / 1.6 kg) |
| fine sea salt | 2 teaspoons (10 ml / 12 g) |
| freshly ground black pepper | ½ teaspoon (2.5 ml / 1 g) |
| mild olive oildivided | ¼ cup (60 ml / 55 g) |
| dry white wine | ¾ cup (180 ml / 180 g) |
| ripe tomatoes or tomato puréetomatoes peeled, seeded, and concassé | 2 medium tomatoes (about 1 lb / 450 g), or 1½ tablespoons purée (22 ml / 24 g) |
| garliccrushed | 1 small clove (about 3 g) |
| small button mushroomswiped and trimmed | 10 (about 5 oz / 140 g) |
| black truffledrained if preserved | 10 thin slices (about ¾ oz / 20 g) |
| prepared court-bouillon | 4¼ cups (1 L / 1 kg) |
| whole raw food-grade crayfishthawed if frozen | 8 (about 12 oz / 340 g) |
| day-old pain de miecrusts removed and cut into hearts | 8 thin slices (about 6 oz / 170 g) |
| unsalted butter | 4 tablespoons (60 ml / 57 g) |
| small or medium eggs | 4 |
| flat-leaf parsleyconcassé | 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 8 g) |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy 12-inch sauté pan with lid
- •Medium saucepan for the court-bouillon
- •10-inch skillet
- •2-inch heart-shaped cutter
- •Wire rack and small sheet pan
- •Instant-read thermometer
- •Large oval serving platter
Instructions
- 1
Arrange the whole station
Heat the oven to 200°F (95°C) and set a wire rack over a small sheet pan. If using fresh tomatoes, score their bases, lower them into boiling water for 20 seconds, cool them under cold water, then peel, seed, and concassé them, meaning roughly chop them. Cut the bread into eight hearts and place every garnish within reach. Once the chicken meets the pan, this mise en place is what allows one cook to keep the whole Marengo garnish.
- 2
Sauté the chicken
Pat the chicken completely dry and season it with the salt and pepper. Sauté, cooking in a shallow pan with a little hot fat, begins with a dry surface and properly heated oil. Heat 3 tablespoons of the olive oil in a heavy 12-inch sauté pan over medium-high heat until it moves freely across the pan, then brown the chicken in two batches, skin-side first, for 8 to 10 minutes per batch. Do not force a piece that sticks; browned chicken releases when its crust is ready. If the fond turns black rather than deep brown, remove the pan from the heat, transfer the chicken out, carefully wipe away the burnt patches, and resume with a little reserved oil. Ça se rattrape. Burnt fond cannot be improved with wine.
Crowding traps moisture and gives pale chicken. Two deliberate batches build more flavour than one hurried panful. - 3
Deglaze and simmer
Return all the chicken to the pan, keeping the skin mostly above the liquid. Pour in the white wine and scrape every brown deposit from the pan floor. Add the tomato concassé, or dissolve the tomato purée in the wine, then add the garlic, mushrooms, and all ten truffle slices. Bring the liquid to a bare simmer, cover the pan slightly ajar, and cook for 20 to 30 minutes. Remove the breast pieces when they register 160°F (71°C), allowing them to reach 165°F (74°C) while resting; continue until the thighs reach at least 175°F (79°C). If the liquid threatens to disappear before the legs are tender, add hot water one tablespoon at a time. The sauce must reduce, not scorch.
- 4
Cook the crayfish
While the chicken simmers, bring the court-bouillon to a lively simmer in a saucepan. Lower in the crayfish, cover, and cook for 4 to 6 minutes, until their shells are brilliant red and the flesh is opaque and reaches 145°F (63°C). Drain well and hold them loosely covered near the stove for no longer than 15 minutes. Leave them whole; their naturally curved tails give the platter the form once achieved by trussing.
- 5
Fry the croûtons
Melt half the butter in a skillet over medium heat until it foams, then fry the heart-shaped croûtons, pieces of bread fried in butter, in two batches. Add the remaining butter as the pan dries and turn the croûtons when their undersides are deep butter-gold. Drain them on the prepared rack and keep them crisp in the low oven. Do not stack them. If they colour before their centres crisp, lower the heat and let the oven finish them.
- 6
Reduce the sauce
Transfer the cooked chicken to a warmed oval platter and hold it loosely covered. Bring the sauce, mushrooms, and truffle to a brisk simmer for 3 to 6 minutes, until the liquid turns glossy and nappes, or coats, the back of a spoon while remaining pourable. If it is thin, keep reducing. If it tightens too far, loosen it with a spoonful of hot water. Skim away any heavy pool of oil, taste for salt, then spoon the sauce over the chicken with the mushrooms and truffle plainly visible.
- 7
Fry eggs and serve
Heat the reserved tablespoon of olive oil in the cleaned skillet over medium heat. Fry the eggs in batches until the whites are set and the yolks remain soft; if a glassy patch of white persists, cover the pan for 20 seconds rather than flipping the egg. Set the four eggs at intervals around the chicken, place the crayfish between them, and tuck the butter-fried heart croûtons around the rim. Sprinkle with the parsley concassé and serve at once. The crowded garnish is the dish's memory, so bring it to the table whole. À table!
Chef Tips
- •Choose a chicken close to the stated weight. A much larger bird leaves the breast waiting while the legs finish, and this quick sauté is not a long braise. Technique first: dry it well, brown in batches, and a modest chicken will serve splendidly.
- •When fresh tomatoes are pale and woolly, use the entry's exact alternative, 1½ tablespoons of tomato purée. The classical pantry solved the season cleanly; poor fresh fruit contributes water without flavour.
- •Preserved black truffle is an honest answer when fresh truffle is unavailable. Drain it, slice it thinly, and keep its packing liquid out of the sauce. Truffle-flavoured oil is not a substitute for the ten slices the entry requires.
- •Order whole raw crayfish from a fishmonger or use a reliable frozen source. Do not replace them with peeled tails, because the scarlet shells form part of the Marengo border and season each bite taken beside them.
- •Pour the same dry white wine used in the pan, or serve a light red with little tannin. Leftover chicken and sauce keep for 2 days under refrigeration, but the eggs, crayfish, and croûtons are best eaten the evening they are cooked.
Advance Preparation
- •Prepare the tomato concassé, clean the mushrooms, slice the truffle, and cut the bread hearts up to 6 hours ahead. Refrigerate the tomato and truffle separately, and keep the bread uncovered at room temperature so its surface stays dry.
- •The court-bouillon can be prepared up to 2 days ahead and refrigerated. Return it to a full simmer before adding the crayfish.
- •For a dinner party, organize the full garnish before guests sit down and begin the chicken about 45 minutes before serving. Cook the crayfish and croûtons while the chicken simmers, then reduce the sauce and fry the eggs at the last moment.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 450g)
Calories
890 calories
Total Fat
54 g
Saturated Fat
17 g
Trans Fat
1 g
Unsaturated Fat
32 g
Cholesterol
395 mg
Sodium
1700 mg
Total Carbohydrates
28 g
Dietary Fiber
3 g
Sugars
6 g
Protein
72 g
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