Filets

Filets de volaille sautés (sautéed chicken breast fillets) teach one exact lesson: cut evenly and they cook evenly. A suprême, the skinless breast fillet of a fowl, is tender enough to gild in the same minutes it cooks through. Leave one end thick and the other thin, and the pan makes you choose between raw and dry.

The original formula assumed whole birds entering a brigade, a cook to split the breasts along the sternum, minion fillets lifted clear, clarified butter ready, and plates leaving the instant the pan was done. It needed neither a saucier nor the stockpot that never left the fire, and it called for no salamander, because this is a dry pan formula with no sauce or gratin. At home, four small breasts replace the whole birds, a heavy skillet replaces the vegetable pan, and wooden picks hold the truffle-contised minions in their crescents. Buying the breasts already divided is scaffolding we can remove; even thickness, dry sautéing, clarified butter, and immediate service are the dish and must stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.

Flour only at the last moment and don't crowd the pan. If a piece colors before its center is ready, lower the heat and turn it more often; ça se rattrape. Once cooked, however, a suprême cannot wait, so have the table and side dish ready before the butter grows hot.