Poulet Sauté aux Morilles

Poulet Sauté aux Morilles (butter-sautéed chicken with morels) teaches the architecture of a classical sauté. Colour the chicken properly, finish it gently under cover, then turn its fond and cooking juices into the sauce. The true thing to know before touching the pan concerns the morels: wash them swiftly through several changes of cold water, but never leave them soaking. Grit must go. Flavour must stay.

The original recipe assumed a saucier nearby and a stockpot supplying meat glaze whenever the pan called for it. At home, rich unsalted chicken stock reduced to two concentrated spoonfuls is the honest equivalent. This version keeps the book's proportions for one chicken, 300 grams of morels, two tablespoons of glaze, and the full butter finish, scaled for four people. The permanent stockpot and the extra pair of hands were brigade scaffolding, so they go. The separate butter-stewing of the mushrooms, covered oven finish, brandy deglaze, and final emulsion are the dish itself, so they stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.

Butter does three distinct jobs here: it colours the chicken, stews the morels, and gives the finished sauce its gleam. We don't apologize for butter, but we do make every addition earn its place. Wash the morels briefly and dry them well before they meet that butter. That careful washing is the one step that protects both the sauce and the mushroom's woodland depth.