Chef Juliette
Abatis aux Navets
Glazed turnips, pearl onions, and tender poultry giblets settle into a pale, glossy sauce, with crisp-edged salt pork lending depth: a thrifty braise whose whole success rests on cooking the flour first.
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Fricassée de Poulet à l’Ancienne
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 1667, Fricassée de Poulet à l’Ancienne, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
Chicken gently stiffened in butter, never browned, then cooked in its own ivory sauce and finished with pearl onions, mushrooms, cream, yolks, tender herbs, and pale puff-pastry fleurons.
Main Dishes
French
Comfort Food
Dinner Party
Special Occasion
35 min
Active Time
55 min cook•1 hr 30 min total
Yield4 servings
Fricassée de Poulet à l’Ancienne (old-style chicken fricassée) teaches the white braise. Before you touch the pan, know the one true thing: pale is not unfinished. The chicken is raffermi, stiffened in butter without colouring, then flour and white stock turn what is already in the pan into the sauce in which the meat cooks. Brown the butter or the chicken and you may have a pleasant stew, but you no longer have this fricassée.
The book assumed a saucier at the stove, white stock never off the fire, and a pastry station ready to cut delicate fleurons. A salamander has no work here because the finish must remain pale. The home translation is a wide lidded sauté pan, good pale chicken stock, prepared white consommé, and all-butter puff pastry cut with a small cutter. Fluting ten mushroom caps is brigade display and can go; keeping the puff-pastry border, without deep colour, preserves the generous intent of the dish. One cook, one stove, one evening.
What stays untouched is the method: no browning, flour cooked against the chicken, garnishes added near the end, and a final liaison, the yolk-and-cream binding that gives the sauce its satin body. That liaison is the step that matters most. Temper it carefully, take the pan off the heat, and never let the finished sauce boil.
Fricassée de poulet à l’ancienne belongs to the Parisian bourgeois and classical table rather than to a single French province, and its pale sauce reflects a kitchen tradition that prized delicacy without sacrificing richness. Household chicken stew traveled into the grand kitchen, where cooks formalized its flour-bound sauce, pearl-onion and mushroom garnish, yolk-and-cream liaison, and border of pale pastry fleurons. It is often confused with blanquette, but the distinction is practical: fricassée begins by stiffening the raw meat in butter without colour, while blanquette does not.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
whole chicken, cut into 8 pieces as for a sauté
Quantity
1 whole, 3½ to 4 pounds (1.6 to 1.8 kg), using Fricassée de Veau (No. 1276)
cut into 2 breast halves, 2 wings, 2 thighs, and 2 drumsticks
fine salt
Quantity
1½ teaspoons (7.5 ml / 9 g), plus more as needed
ground white pepper
Quantity
½ teaspoon (2.5 ml / 1 g)
unsalted butter
Quantity
6 tablespoons (90 ml / 85 g)
for stiffening the chicken
all-purpose flour
Quantity
¾ cup plus 1 tablespoon (195 ml / 100 g)
warm white chicken stock
Quantity
5 cups (1.2 L / 1.2 kg)
divided
small pearl onions
Quantity
10, about 5 ounces (140 g)
peeled
prepared white chicken consommé
Quantity
1 cup (240 ml / 240 g)
small white button mushroom caps
Quantity
10, about 6 ounces (170 g)
wiped clean, stems trimmed
all-butter puff pastry
Quantity
½ standard sheet, about 4½ ounces (125 g)
kept cold
large egg yolks
Quantity
2
heavy cream
Quantity
4 tablespoons (60 ml / 60 g)
cold unsalted butter
Quantity
2 tablespoons (30 ml / 28 g)
cut into small cubes
flat-leaf parsley and chives
Quantity
2 teaspoons combined (10 ml / 2 g)
finely chopped
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| whole chicken, cut into 8 pieces as for a sautécut into 2 breast halves, 2 wings, 2 thighs, and 2 drumsticks | 1 whole, 3½ to 4 pounds (1.6 to 1.8 kg), using Fricassée de Veau (No. 1276) |
| fine salt | 1½ teaspoons (7.5 ml / 9 g), plus more as needed |
| ground white pepper | ½ teaspoon (2.5 ml / 1 g) |
| unsalted butterfor stiffening the chicken | 6 tablespoons (90 ml / 85 g) |
| all-purpose flour | ¾ cup plus 1 tablespoon (195 ml / 100 g) |
| warm white chicken stockdivided | 5 cups (1.2 L / 1.2 kg) |
| small pearl onionspeeled | 10, about 5 ounces (140 g) |
| prepared white chicken consommé | 1 cup (240 ml / 240 g) |
| small white button mushroom capswiped clean, stems trimmed | 10, about 6 ounces (170 g) |
| all-butter puff pastrykept cold | ½ standard sheet, about 4½ ounces (125 g) |
| large egg yolks | 2 |
| heavy cream | 4 tablespoons (60 ml / 60 g) |
| cold unsalted buttercut into small cubes | 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 28 g) |
| flat-leaf parsley and chivesfinely chopped | 2 teaspoons combined (10 ml / 2 g) |
Equipment Needed
- •12-inch (30 cm) heavy sauté pan with a lid
- •1-quart (1 L) saucepan
- •Rimmed baking sheet and parchment paper
- •1½-inch (4 cm) flower or fluted pastry cutter
- •Heatproof whisk and fine-mesh sieve
- •Instant-read thermometer
- •Deep oval serving dish or timbale
Instructions
- 1
Cut the fleurons
Heat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Cut the cold puff pastry into 8 to 12 small flowers or fluted rounds, each about 1½ inches (4 cm) wide. Set them on a parchment-lined baking sheet and chill for 10 minutes. Bake until fully risen, dry at the sides, and only faintly blond, 9 to 12 minutes. Lift them out before they bronze; their pale finish belongs to the dish.
Bought all-butter puff pastry is the honest home equivalent to a pastry station making a small batch for service. The pastry must taste of butter, not shortening. - 2
Stiffen without colour
Pat the chicken dry and season it with the salt and white pepper. Melt 4 tablespoons of the butter in a wide, heavy sauté pan over medium-low heat. Add the chicken in one uncrowded layer, working in two batches if necessary, and turn the pieces for 5 to 7 minutes, just until every surface turns opaque and firms slightly. This is raffermir: stiffening the flesh without browning it. Add the remaining cooking butter as needed between batches.
Watch the butter closely. If it begins to brown, remove the chicken, lower the heat, wipe the pan clean, and continue with the reserved butter. Ça se rattrape. What cannot stay is the browned milk solid, because it will muddy the ivory sauce. - 3
Build the white sauce
Return all the chicken to the pan. Following the procedure of Fricassée de Veau (No. 1276), sprinkle the flour evenly over the pieces and turn them gently until every surface is dusted. Cook for 3 minutes over low heat, moving the chicken and scraping the pan so the flour loses its raw smell without taking colour. Pour in 4½ cups of the warm white stock a little at a time, stirring around and beneath the chicken after each addition. Bring the sauce just to a boil while stirring, then immediately lower it to a bare tremble.
If the sauce forms lumps, lift out the chicken and whisk the sauce until smooth. Pass it through a fine sieve if necessary, return it to the pan, and carry on. Never apologize at your own table; fix the sauce. - 4
Braise and poach
Cover the sauté pan and cook the chicken at the gentlest simmer for 20 minutes, turning the pieces once and scraping the bottom carefully. Meanwhile, put the pearl onions and white consommé in a small saucepan. Cover and poach at a bare tremble for 12 to 18 minutes, until a knife tip enters the onions without resistance but they still hold their shape. Drain them and keep them ready.
- 5
Add the garniture
Ten minutes before the chicken is finished, add the cooked pearl onions and raw mushroom caps to the fricassée. Cover and simmer gently for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring the sauce around the pieces once. The chicken is ready when the breasts register at least 160°F to 165°F (71°C to 74°C) and the thighs reach 170°F to 175°F (77°C to 79°C). If the breasts finish first, lift them out and keep them covered while the legs complete their cooking.
- 6
Prepare the liaison
Whisk the egg yolks and cream together in a heatproof bowl until completely smooth. Lift the cooked chicken, onions, and mushrooms into a warm, deep serving dish and cover them loosely. Skim excess fat from the sauce, then simmer it only until it coats the back of a spoon. If it is too thick, loosen it with some of the reserved stock; if it runs like broth, reduce it briefly before adding the liaison.
- 7
Bind without boiling
Take the pan off the heat. Whisk about 1 cup of hot sauce into the yolk-and-cream liaison, adding it slowly at first, then whisk the tempered liaison back into the pan. Return it to the lowest heat and stir constantly for 1 to 2 minutes, until the sauce turns satin-smooth and lightly thickens. Do not let it simmer. Remove it from the heat and whisk in the cold butter a few cubes at a time.
If the sauce shows its first grainy flecks, pull it from the heat at once and whisk in a tablespoon of cold cream. If it has curdled further, blend it briefly and pass it through a fine sieve. Ça se rattrape, but the finished liaison must never return to a boil. - 8
Finish and serve
Taste the sauce for salt and white pepper, then spoon it generously over the chicken, onions, and mushrooms. Scatter the chopped parsley and chives over the surface at the last moment. Arrange the pale puff-pastry fleurons around the fricassée, where they can catch the sauce without losing all their crisp layers. Serve immediately. À table!
Chef Tips
- •Ask the butcher to cut the chicken into 8 sauté pieces, keeping the breasts on the bone. A modest young chicken is exactly right; careful heat matters more than pedigree.
- •Choose pale, low-sodium chicken stock without roasted vegetables or caramel colouring. A dark stock fights the white sauce before the cooking has even begun.
- •Grooving the mushroom caps was presentation work for a brigade. Wipe them, trim the stems level, and leave them whole. Their shape and clean mushroom flavour are what the dish needs.
- •Use real butter and full-fat heavy cream. The liaison depends on their fat and body, and substitutes leave the sauce thin or unstable.
- •Pour a dry white Burgundy, a restrained white Bordeaux, or a dry Chenin Blanc. The wine needs enough freshness to meet the cream without overwhelming the pale sauce.
Advance Preparation
- •Cut and bake the pastry fleurons up to 4 hours ahead. Cool them completely and keep them uncovered at room temperature so their layers remain crisp.
- •Poach the pearl onions in consommé up to 1 day ahead, cool them promptly, and refrigerate them in a covered container.
- •The chicken can be cooked in its sauce earlier the same day, stopping before the mushrooms, onions, and liaison are added. Cool it promptly, refrigerate, then reheat at a gentle simmer before completing the final 10 minutes.
- •Do not make the liaison ahead. Once yolks and cream have bound the sauce, keep it warm for no more than 15 minutes and never allow it to boil.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 600g)
Calories
1090 calories
Total Fat
72 g
Saturated Fat
33 g
Trans Fat
2 g
Unsaturated Fat
37 g
Cholesterol
380 mg
Sodium
1450 mg
Total Carbohydrates
40 g
Dietary Fiber
2 g
Sugars
3 g
Protein
67 g
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