Suprêmes de Volaille Dreux

Suprêmes de Volaille Dreux (chicken breast fillets inlaid with truffle and salted tongue) teaches control. A suprême is the breast fillet of a fowl, and this delicate cut must stay moist and pale while its alternating roundels remain upright and distinct. Before you touch a pan, know the one true thing: shallow incisions preserve the breast; deep ones turn it into a bundle of loose slices.

The original entry assumed a saucier on staff, stock never off the fire, and another station delivering peeled cocks' combs and cleaned chicken kidneys. A salamander stood in that kitchen too, but Dreux has no use for it; these suprêmes are poached pale, not gratinéed. At home, prepared cocks' combs replace the brigade's peeling labor, one saucepan makes the Sauce Allemande (a velouté finished with egg yolk, cream, and lemon), and a covered skillet becomes the poaching pan. The separate stations are scaffolding and can go. The truffle and tongue inlays, poultry-offal garnish, pocher à sec, and Sauce Allemande are the dish and must stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.

When it is right, the chicken is tender and butter-sheened, black truffle and rose-colored tongue mark its surface, and the ivory sauce gathers the cocks' combs and kidneys without burying them. The decisive step is pocher à sec (gentle covered cooking in butter without added liquid). Check the temperature early and lift each suprême the moment it is done; sauce can wait a few minutes, lean chicken cannot.