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 Marseillaise
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 1566, Poulet Sauté Marseillaise, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
Garlic, green capsicum, and tomato meet browned chicken in olive oil, then white wine is reduced almost dry so the Marseillaise garnish coats every piece instead of pooling beneath it.
Main Dishes
French
Weeknight
Outdoor Dining
Dinner Party
20 min
Active Time
40 min cook•1 hr total
Yield4 servings
Poulet Sauté Marseillaise (Marseille-style sautéed chicken) teaches a clean lesson in pan cooking: reduction makes the garnish belong to the bird. The chicken should arrive bronzed, surrounded by distinct pieces of garlic, green capsicum, and tomato, all caught in a sharp little glaze of white wine and lemon. Know one thing before touching the pan. The wine must reduce almost dry.
Unlike many grand-kitchen formulas, this one assumes neither a saucier on staff, a stock never off the fire, nor a salamander. It does assume a chicken already jointed and another pair of hands tossing the garnish while the bird cooks. At home, the vegetables pass through the same skillet first and wait while the chicken browns. That parallel labor was brigade scaffolding, so it can go. Sautéing the chicken in oil, returning the tossed garnish halfway through, and reducing the wine nearly away are the dish, so they stay exactly where they belong.
The entry is already built around a single bird. Home scaling simply defines it as a 3-pound chicken for four while preserving the original equality of capsicum and tomato, 3 ounces of each, and translating one-sixth pint of wine to 95 millilitres. One cook, one stove, one evening. Watch the liquid rather than the clock, because the reduction is the step that decides the dish.
Poulet Sauté Marseillaise belongs to Marseille and Provence's olive-oil South, where garlic, tomato, and green capsicum make a brisk garnish rather than a long-cooked sauce. Grand kitchens carried that local combination into the national sauté repertoire as à la Marseillaise, keeping the vegetables distinct and using white wine to lift the chicken's fond. The name does not invite a sweep through the southern pantry: this formula contains no olives, cream, or dried herbs.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
whole chicken
Quantity
1, about 3 lb (1.4 kg)
cut into 8 serving pieces
mild olive oil
Quantity
3 tablespoons (45 ml / 41 g)
divided
garlic
Quantity
2 cloves (about 6 g)
lightly crushed
green capsicum
Quantity
about ¾ cup (180 ml / 3 oz / 85 g)
ciselé into narrow strips
ripe tomato
Quantity
about ½ cup (120 ml / 3 oz / 85 g)
quartered
dry white wine
Quantity
scant ½ cup (95 ml / 94 g)
fresh lemon juice
Quantity
¼ teaspoon (1 ml / 1 g)
flat-leaf parsley
Quantity
2 teaspoons (10 ml / 2 g)
concassé
fine sea salt
Quantity
1½ teaspoons (7.5 ml / 9 g)
freshly ground black pepper
Quantity
½ teaspoon (2.5 ml / 1 g)
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| whole chickencut into 8 serving pieces | 1, about 3 lb (1.4 kg) |
| mild olive oildivided | 3 tablespoons (45 ml / 41 g) |
| garliclightly crushed | 2 cloves (about 6 g) |
| green capsicumciselé into narrow strips | about ¾ cup (180 ml / 3 oz / 85 g) |
| ripe tomatoquartered | about ½ cup (120 ml / 3 oz / 85 g) |
| dry white wine | scant ½ cup (95 ml / 94 g) |
| fresh lemon juice | ¼ teaspoon (1 ml / 1 g) |
| flat-leaf parsleyconcassé | 2 teaspoons (10 ml / 2 g) |
| fine sea salt | 1½ teaspoons (7.5 ml / 9 g) |
| freshly ground black pepper | ½ teaspoon (2.5 ml / 1 g) |
Equipment Needed
- •12-inch (30 cm) heavy sauté pan or skillet
- •Long kitchen tongs
- •Instant-read thermometer
- •Warm shallow serving platter
Instructions
- 1
Prepare the sauté
Pat the chicken thoroughly dry, then season every side with the salt and pepper. Ciselé means cutting the capsicum crosswise into narrow, even strips; even pieces cook together and remain recognizable in the finished garnish. Quarter the tomato, lightly crush the garlic, and chop the parsley concassé, meaning roughly rather than to green dust. Have everything beside the stove before the oil heats, because a sauté waits for nobody.
Dry skin meets hot fat and browns. Wet skin releases water, and the chicken begins by simmering in its own moisture. - 2
Toss the garnish
Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a wide, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add the ciselé capsicum and toss for 2 minutes, then add the quartered tomato and crushed garlic. Toss for another minute, just until everything shines and the tomato edges begin to soften. Transfer the garnish to a bowl. It should be lightly cooked, not collapsed into sauce. If the garlic colors too quickly, pull the skillet from the heat and fold the tomato over it; its moisture will cool the pan before bitterness sets in.
- 3
Brown the chicken
Return the skillet to medium-high heat and add the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil. Set in the thighs and drumsticks, skin-side down, and leave them untouched for 5 minutes. Add the breast pieces and wings, also skin-side down, and cook for another 4 to 5 minutes, shifting the leg pieces only if their skin threatens to scorch. Turn everything and brown the second side for 3 minutes. Keep the pieces in one layer; if your skillet cannot hold them without crowding, brown in two batches and reunite them afterward.
- 4
Add garnish halfway
Lower the heat to medium and return the tossed garlic, capsicum, and tomato to the skillet, arranging them between the chicken pieces rather than over the browned skin. This is the source formula's halfway point, and its sequence matters: added earlier, the garlic burns and the tomato disappears; added now, the garnish finishes with the bird while keeping its shape. Continue cooking for 10 to 15 minutes, turning the pieces once, until the thickest part of each reaches 165°F (74°C). Remove breast pieces as soon as they are ready if the legs need longer.
- 5
Reduce nearly dry
Spoon away the loose oil while leaving the browned fond and a thin sheen in the skillet. Pour in the white wine and lemon juice around the chicken, raise the heat, and swill the pan by scraping and shaking until every browned trace dissolves. Boil briskly until the broad, watery bubbles tighten into a glossy glaze and a spoon drawn through the pan leaves a nearly dry path, about 2 to 4 minutes. Stop with a sheen, not a puddle. If the pan dries before the fond releases, add 1 tablespoon of water, scrape again, and reduce once more. Ça se rattrape.
- 6
Dish and finish
Arrange the chicken on a warm serving platter with the browned skin facing up. Spoon the Marseillaise garnish and every trace of the reduced pan glaze over and around it, then scatter with the concassé parsley. Serve immediately while the vegetables still have shape and the glaze catches the light. À table!
Chef Tips
- •Ask the butcher to cut one modest chicken into eight pieces, or buy an equivalent mixture of bone-in, skin-on breasts, thighs, drumsticks, and wings. A very large bird cooks unevenly in the shallow pan this method requires.
- •Use green capsicum, not red. Its faint bitterness gives the sweet tomato and browned chicken a needed edge; red capsicum pushes the garnish toward sweetness and changes the balance of the source formula.
- •If fresh tomatoes are pale and woolly, use 3 ounces of well-drained whole canned plum tomato, cut into quarters. The texture will be softer, but an honest preserved tomato is better than a sad fresh one.
- •Choose a dry white wine without obvious sweetness or heavy oak. Cassis blanc suits the Marseille table beautifully, while a dry Côtes de Provence rosé makes a generous glass alongside.
- •Do not add stock to make more sauce. The wine reduction is meant to glaze the garnish and chicken, not surround them with liquid; stopping it early changes the character of the dish.
Advance Preparation
- •The chicken can be jointed and seasoned up to 8 hours ahead. Refrigerate it uncovered so the skin dries, then let it stand outside the refrigerator for 20 minutes before cooking.
- •The capsicum, garlic, and parsley can be prepared up to 4 hours ahead. Quarter the tomato no more than 1 hour ahead so it keeps its juices and shape.
- •Poulet Sauté Marseillaise is best cooked just before serving. Refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours and keep them for up to 2 days; reheat gently with a spoonful of water so the reduced glaze does not catch.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 230g)
Calories
530 calories
Total Fat
34 g
Saturated Fat
8 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
23 g
Cholesterol
160 mg
Sodium
1040 mg
Total Carbohydrates
3 g
Dietary Fiber
1 g
Sugars
2 g
Protein
50 g
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