Chicken Croquettes and Cutlets

Croquettes et côtelettes de volaille (chicken croquettes and cutlets) teach the discipline of a properly bound filling. The chicken, mushroom, tongue, and truffle must remain distinct inside a reduced Allemande that holds them together without swallowing them. Cold paste is the one true thing to know before you touch the frying pan: if the filling isn't firm, the crumb coat cannot protect it.

The original kitchen assumed a saucier with finished Allemande at hand, a stockpot never cold, another pair of hands for shaping, cutlet moulds, and an open kettle of fat. Here the professional mixture is halved without disturbing its proportions, giving ten proper two-ounce pieces. A small batch of finished Allemande, a broad pan, your hands, and a thermometer are the honest home equivalents. The moulds and napkin under the finished croquettes were service scaffolding and can go; the reduction, yolk binding, hard chilling, fine crumb, and separate sauce are the dish and must stay.

Fried correctly, each piece wears a close golden shell that gives under the teeth to a creamy, finely diced centre. Shape them only when the paste is cold enough to lift cleanly from the tray. If it smears, stop and chill it again. One cook, one stove, one evening.