Chef Juliette
Filets
Filets de volaille sautés teach the discipline of even cutting and last-minute cooking: flour lightly, gild quickly in clarified butter, and serve before a tender chicken breast has time to harden.
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Suprêmes de Volaille Villeroy
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 1622, Suprêmes de Volaille Villeroy, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
Part-poached chicken breasts wear a cold-set coat of Sauce Villeroy, then an anglaise crust fried deep gold; cut one and the sauce turns molten, while truffled Périgueux waits apart.
Main Dishes
French
Dinner Party
Special Occasion
40 min
Active Time
35 min cook•2 hr 30 min total
Yield4 servings
Suprêmes de Volaille Villeroy (chicken breast fillets enclosed in Villeroy sauce, crumbed, and fried) teaches that a crust is architecture. Before you touch a pan, know this: the Sauce Villeroy must set cold into an unbroken coat, because frying fat can crisp a shell but cannot mend a gap.
The classical service kitchen assumed a saucier keeping Villeroy and Périgueux ready, a stockpot never off the fire, cold trays waiting, and a fryer already at heat. The salamander has no work here. At home, four even suprêmes, prepared sauces, a refrigerator tray, and a heavy saucepan do the same job. The brigade's holding arrangements and extra hands are scaffolding and can go. The partial poach, the cold-set sauce, the panure à l'anglaise (a flour, egg, and fine-crumb casing), and the Périgueux served apart are the dish, and they stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.
When it is right, the crust is close and deep gold, the chicken remains tender, and a pale layer of Villeroy turns molten between the two. Périgueux waits in its sauceboat so every bite keeps its crisp shell. Chill each coated suprême until the sauce feels firm, dry, and unbroken beneath your finger. That is the step that decides the dish.
Suprêmes de Volaille Villeroy belongs to the Parisian grand-kitchen canon, where the courtly Villeroy name came to describe a practical technique: a reduced sauce set around delicate food beneath a protective crust. The method passed naturally into cuisine bourgeoise because nearly all the work could be completed before guests sat down, leaving only the frying for service. Though Périgueux points toward the truffles of Périgord, this formula keeps its dark sauce separate, never tucked inside the coating or poured over the crisp crust.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
chicken suprêmes
Quantity
4, about 5½ oz (155 g) each
trimmed to an even ¾-inch (2 cm) thickness
fine salt
Quantity
1 teaspoon (5 ml / 6 g)
finely ground white pepper
Quantity
¼ teaspoon (1.25 ml / 0.5 g)
unsalted butter
Quantity
2 tablespoons (30 ml / 28 g)
light chicken stock
Quantity
2 cups (480 ml / 480 g)
prepared Sauce Villeroy
Quantity
2 cups (480 ml / about 520 g)
warmed just enough to flow
plain flour
Quantity
¾ cup (180 ml / 95 g)
Anglaise (for Egg-and-bread-crumbing)
Quantity
1 cup (240 ml / about 245 g) Anglaise (for Egg-and-bread-crumbing) (No. 174)
fine dry white breadcrumbs
Quantity
2½ cups (600 ml / 250 g)
refined sunflower or peanut oil
Quantity
8 cups (1.9 L / about 1.75 kg)
for frying
prepared Sauce Périgueux
Quantity
1½ cups (360 ml / about 390 g)
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| chicken suprêmestrimmed to an even ¾-inch (2 cm) thickness | 4, about 5½ oz (155 g) each |
| fine salt | 1 teaspoon (5 ml / 6 g) |
| finely ground white pepper | ¼ teaspoon (1.25 ml / 0.5 g) |
| unsalted butter | 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 28 g) |
| light chicken stock | 2 cups (480 ml / 480 g) |
| prepared Sauce Villeroywarmed just enough to flow | 2 cups (480 ml / about 520 g) |
| plain flour | ¾ cup (180 ml / 95 g) |
| Anglaise (for Egg-and-bread-crumbing) | 1 cup (240 ml / about 245 g) Anglaise (for Egg-and-bread-crumbing) (No. 174) |
| fine dry white breadcrumbs | 2½ cups (600 ml / 250 g) |
| refined sunflower or peanut oilfor frying | 8 cups (1.9 L / about 1.75 kg) |
| prepared Sauce Périgueux | 1½ cups (360 ml / about 390 g) |
Equipment Needed
- •12-inch (30 cm) sauté pan with a close-fitting lid
- •Rimmed sheet pan with wire rack
- •Three shallow coating dishes
- •Heavy 4 to 5-quart (3.8 to 4.7 L) saucepan or Dutch oven
- •Deep-fry thermometer
- •Instant-read thermometer
- •Wire skimmer or frying spider
- •Warm sauceboat and oval serving platter
Instructions
- 1
Shape the suprêmes
Trim the suprêmes into neat ovals and place each between two sheets of parchment. Press the thick end gently with a flat pan until every piece is about ¾ inch (2 cm) thick. Even thickness matters more than perfect shape, because the final frying must heat the centre before the crumb darkens. Season both sides with the salt and white pepper, then leave them for 15 minutes while you butter the poaching pan and chill a parchment-lined tray.
Choose breasts of similar size. A careful cook turns modest chicken into something splendid; mismatched pieces merely make the timing quarrelsome. - 2
Part-poach gently
Rub a wide sauté pan with half the butter, arrange the suprêmes in one layer, and add enough chicken stock to come halfway up their sides. Dot them with the remaining butter, cover, and bring the liquid just below a simmer. Poach gently for about 4 minutes, turn, then cook for another 3 to 5 minutes, until the centres reach 150°F (66°C). Move the pan off the heat and keep it covered for 3 minutes, making certain the centres remain at or above 150°F (66°C). This measured hold is the home kitchen's safety-minded equivalent of the source's partial poach: the chicken remains short of its final 165°F (74°C), but it can pass through the necessary cold-setting stage safely. Never let the stock boil, or the outside toughens before the centre is ready.
Complete the coating, chilling, and frying in one continuous session. Part-poached poultry is not an overnight preparation. - 3
Set the Villeroy
Lift the suprêmes onto a rack, blot every surface dry, and let them stand for 5 minutes. Bring the prepared Sauce Villeroy to about 105 to 115°F (41 to 46°C), warm enough to fall in a thick ribbon but never hot enough to run like cream. Reserve about ⅓ cup (80 ml / 85 g) in a clean bowl for repairs. Dip each suprême into the remaining sauce, spooning it over any bare place, then lift it carefully onto the chilled tray. Aim for an even coat about ⅛ inch (3 mm) thick. Refrigerate uncovered for 45 to 60 minutes, until the Villeroy is firm and no longer tacky. If it slips, the chicken was wet or the sauce too warm. Blot the bare patch, chill both chicken and reserved sauce for 10 minutes, then patch it. Ça se rattrape. Discard any sauce left in the dipping dish.
Do not hurry this chill. The Villeroy coating is not decorative sauce; it is the molten layer the crust must imprison. - 4
Paner à l'anglaise
Arrange the flour, Anglaise (for Egg-and-bread-crumbing) (No. 174), and fine breadcrumbs in three shallow dishes. Dust each cold suprême lightly but completely with flour and shake away the excess. Coat it in the Anglaise, then lay it in the crumbs and press gently with cupped hands, sealing the sides as carefully as the broad faces. Flour gives the egg preparation something to grip, while the fine crumb forms the dense crust that checks the escape of the Villeroy. Return the breaded suprêmes to the cold for 15 minutes.
Use fine dry crumbs, not coarse panko. The source's fine raspings were hard white bread rubbed into small, even particles; ordinary fine breadcrumbs are their honest home equivalent. - 5
Ready sauce and fat
Heat the Sauce Périgueux gently until glossy and hot, without letting it boil, then transfer it to a warmed, covered sauceboat. Set a rack over a sheet pan and heat the oven to 350°F (180°C) as insurance. Pour the frying oil into a heavy 4 to 5-quart pot, filling it no more than halfway, and bring it to 360°F (182°C). The source asks for very hot frying fat; a thermometer gives one cook the control a permanently tended fryer once supplied.
- 6
Fry to deep gold
Lower two suprêmes into the oil and fry for 4 to 6 minutes, turning once, while keeping the fat between 345 and 355°F (174 and 180°C). The crust should become an even, deep gold and the chicken must reach 165°F (74°C) at its thickest point. Lift each piece with a wire skimmer and drain it on the rack, never on a flat bed of paper that softens the underside. If the crust colours before the centre is ready, lift the suprême and finish it on the rack in the oven until it reaches temperature. Ça se rattrape. If a pinhole leaks, do not prod it; turn the breach upward until the surrounding crust sets, then drain it that side up.
- 7
Form the crown
Rest the suprêmes for 2 minutes, just long enough for the crust to settle. Arrange them on a warm oval platter in a loose crown with their tapered ends pointing inward. Bring the Sauce Périgueux separately and spoon it beside each portion only after the crust is cut, never over the whole platter. The knife should meet crisp crumb first, then molten Villeroy, then tender chicken. À table!
Chef Tips
- •A suprême is the breast fillet, and here its size controls the cooking. Use four pieces close to 5½ oz (155 g) each and even them to the same thickness; very large modern breasts will brown outside before the centre is properly hot.
- •Prepared Sauce Villeroy must be reduced to true coating consistency before this recipe begins. Warm it only until it flows in a thick ribbon. If it pours, it will slide from the chicken instead of setting around it.
- •The source's frying fat becomes fresh refined sunflower or peanut oil at home because either holds the required heat cleanly. Keep the pot no more than half full, lower only two suprêmes at once, and let the temperature recover between batches.
- •Serve Sauce Périgueux apart. Pouring it over the platter would soften the very crust the treatment à l'anglaise was built to protect.
- •A supple red Burgundy or a mature claret has enough freshness for the fried crust and enough depth for the truffled Périgueux. Keep the vegetables simple and let this generous bird have the table.
Advance Preparation
- •Sauce Villeroy and Sauce Périgueux can be prepared up to 48 hours ahead and kept covered in the refrigerator. Rewarm each gently according to its purpose: Villeroy only until it ribbons, Périgueux until hot and glossy.
- •The breadcrumbs may be dried, sifted, and measured earlier in the day. Keep the Anglaise (for Egg-and-bread-crumbing) (No. 174) covered and cold until the coating station is assembled.
- •Do not part-poach the chicken the day before. Begin that stage no more than 2 hours before frying, chill the coated suprêmes promptly, and complete the dish in the same cooking session.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 400g)
Calories
950 calories
Total Fat
60 g
Saturated Fat
20 g
Trans Fat
1 g
Unsaturated Fat
37 g
Cholesterol
285 mg
Sodium
1900 mg
Total Carbohydrates
48 g
Dietary Fiber
2 g
Sugars
3 g
Protein
50 g
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