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.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Pilaw de Volaille à la Grecque
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 1679, Pilaw de Volaille à la Grecque, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
Chicken browned with onion, bound lightly with flour and consommé, then simmered with capsicum, currants, and sultanas. The separate pilaw stays loose, ready to catch every spoonful of glossy sauce.
Main Dishes
French
Weeknight
Comfort Food
Budget Friendly
25 min
Active Time
50 min cook•1 hr 15 min total
Yield4 servings
Pilaw de Volaille à la Grecque (Greek-style chicken pilaw) teaches separation. The chicken builds its sauce in one pan, while the pilaw comes to the table beside it, loose enough to absorb that sauce without becoming a stew. The one true thing to know before touching the pan is this: cook the flour in the fat before the consommé arrives, then add the liquid gradually. That small discipline gives you a supple sauce rather than a floury paste.
The original assumed a saucier watching the pan, white consommé, a clear refined stock, from a pot never off the fire, and another hand to send the pilaw separately. At home, cook the rice first and hold it covered, then use one wide sauté pan for the chicken. Rendered mutton fat remains the first choice; clarified butter is the honest equivalent when rendering sheep fat would become an evening of its own.
For a table of four, one small chicken receives the entry's proportions: 85 grams of onion, 28 grams of flour, 560 millilitres of consommé, two-thirds of a capsicum, and 42 grams of currants and sultanas combined. Two tablespoons of frying fat give the home pan the usable measure the old direction left to the cook's eye. A warmed deep serving bowl replaces the service timbale. The separate kitchen stations and formal vessel are scaffolding; frying the poultry with onion, singer with flour, moistening with consommé, and cooking gently are the dish, so they stay.
The finished sauce should be savory first, with little flashes of sweet pepper and dried fruit, never sugary and never heavy. When the consommé meets the flour, add it in three pours and stir each one smooth before the next. That is the step that decides the evening.
Pilaw de Volaille à la Grecque belongs to the Parisian classical repertoire rather than to one particular Greek regional table; à la grecque here is a French service name, signaled by capsicum and dried vine fruits. Pilaw entered French kitchens through Ottoman and eastern Mediterranean rice traditions, then classical service placed the rice beside the sauced poultry so each retained its proper texture. Despite its title, the dish is the French canon's interpretation of those flavors, not a claim to reproduce a Greek household pilafi.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
small whole chicken
Quantity
1 (3 to 3½ lb / 1.4 to 1.6 kg)
jointed into 10 small bone-in pieces
rendered mutton fat, or clarified butter
Quantity
2 tablespoons (30 ml / 28 g)
yellow onion
Quantity
½ cup (120 ml / 85 g)
finely chopped
all-purpose flour
Quantity
¼ cup (60 ml / 28 g)
white consommé, or clear unsalted chicken stock
Quantity
2⅓ cups (560 ml / 560 g)
large red capsicum (bell pepper)
Quantity
⅔ large, about ⅔ cup (160 ml / 100 g)
cut into ⅜-inch (1 cm) dice
dried currants
Quantity
2 tablespoons (30 ml / 21 g)
sultanas (golden raisins)
Quantity
2 tablespoons (30 ml / 21 g)
fine sea salt
Quantity
1½ teaspoons (7.5 ml / 9 g)
divided
freshly ground black pepper
Quantity
½ teaspoon (2.5 ml / 1 g)
prepared pilaw rice
Quantity
4 cups (950 ml / 680 g)
kept hot for serving separately
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| small whole chickenjointed into 10 small bone-in pieces | 1 (3 to 3½ lb / 1.4 to 1.6 kg) |
| rendered mutton fat, or clarified butter | 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 28 g) |
| yellow onionfinely chopped | ½ cup (120 ml / 85 g) |
| all-purpose flour | ¼ cup (60 ml / 28 g) |
| white consommé, or clear unsalted chicken stock | 2⅓ cups (560 ml / 560 g) |
| large red capsicum (bell pepper)cut into ⅜-inch (1 cm) dice | ⅔ large, about ⅔ cup (160 ml / 100 g) |
| dried currants | 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 21 g) |
| sultanas (golden raisins) | 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 21 g) |
| fine sea saltdivided | 1½ teaspoons (7.5 ml / 9 g) |
| freshly ground black pepper | ½ teaspoon (2.5 ml / 1 g) |
| prepared pilaw ricekept hot for serving separately | 4 cups (950 ml / 680 g) |
Equipment Needed
- •12-inch (30 cm) heavy sauté pan with lid
- •Tongs
- •Instant-read thermometer
- •Two warmed serving bowls
Instructions
- 1
Ready the ingredients
Have the prepared pilaw rice hot and covered; it goes to the table separately. Pat every chicken piece dry, then season with 1 teaspoon of the salt and all the pepper. Keep the chopped onion, capsicum, currants, sultanas, flour, and consommé beside the stove. Once the flour enters the pan, the liquid must follow promptly.
Ask the butcher to joint the bird into small pieces through the natural joints. The pieces cook more evenly, and you keep the source's modest, generous way of making one fowl feed the table. - 2
Fry chicken and onion
Melt the mutton fat or clarified butter in a heavy 12-inch (30 cm) sauté pan over medium-high heat. Brown the chicken in two batches so the pan never crowds, about 3 to 4 minutes per side, then set the pieces aside. Lower the heat to medium, return all the chicken, and add the onion. Fry for about 5 minutes, turning the pieces, until the onion softens and begins to color against the browned fond on the pan floor. Do not chase crisp skin; the gentle cooking ahead will soften it.
- 3
Singer with flour
If the chicken has released a great deal of fat, spoon away the excess, leaving about 2 tablespoons and every bit of the brown film beneath it. Singer, to dust with flour: sprinkle the flour evenly over the chicken and onion, then turn the pieces until no dry pockets remain. Cook for 2 minutes. The flour should lose its raw smell and form a pale, slightly pasty coating. It will look alarming. It is exactly right.
- 4
Moisten the sauce
Pour in one-third of the consommé and stir firmly around and beneath the chicken, scraping the fond from the pan. Add the remaining consommé in two more pours, stirring each addition smooth before the next. If the sauce forms lumps, lift the chicken into a bowl and take the pan off the heat. Whisk the sauce smooth with another splash of consommé, then return the chicken. Ça se rattrape. Bring the sauce only to a bare simmer.
- 5
Braise with fruit
Add the diced capsicum, currants, and sultanas, pressing them into the sauce. Cover with the lid slightly ajar and cook at the gentlest simmer for 25 to 35 minutes, turning the chicken once. Remove breast pieces when they reach 165°F (74°C); let the leg pieces continue until they are at least as hot and yield easily beside the bone. If the sauce tightens before the chicken is tender, loosen it with 2 tablespoons of hot water. If it remains thin after the chicken is done, lift out the pieces and reduce the sauce uncovered for 3 to 5 minutes, until it coats the back of a spoon.
- 6
Serve in two dishes
Return any held chicken pieces to the pan off the heat and turn them through the sauce. Taste, then add some or all of the remaining salt as the consommé requires. Transfer the chicken, capsicum, fruits, and every spoonful of sauce to a warmed deep serving bowl, the home equivalent of the timbale. Fluff the pilaw rice and bring it in its own bowl. Let each person spoon the chicken and sauce beside the rice at the table. À table!
Chef Tips
- •Rendered mutton fat gives the dish a faint savory depth that clarified butter cannot copy exactly. If your butcher can supply clean mutton or lamb fat, render it gently and strain it. If not, use clarified butter with confidence; it tolerates the frying heat while keeping the sauce clean.
- •Use unsalted white consommé or chicken stock. A salty carton becomes harsher as the sauce reduces, while an unsalted stock lets you finish the seasoning after the currants and sultanas have given up their sweetness.
- •Keep both dried fruits. Currants bring dark acidity, while sultanas bring a softer honeyed note; together they reproduce the entry's 1½-ounce proportion. Do not soak them, because the consommé will plump them as the chicken cooks.
- •The red capsicum must be mild and fleshy, not a hot pepper. Dice it evenly so it softens without disappearing, leaving small ruby pieces through the pale golden sauce.
Advance Preparation
- •The chicken can be jointed and the onion, capsicum, currants, and sultanas measured earlier in the day. Keep the chicken covered in the cold and the vegetables separate until cooking.
- •The braised chicken can be made one day ahead. Cool it promptly, refrigerate it covered, and reheat gently until every piece reaches 165°F (74°C). The sauce will thicken as it rests, so loosen it with a spoonful of stock if needed.
- •The pilaw rice can finish just before the chicken starts and remain covered for about 40 minutes. Fluff it before serving; for longer storage, cool it quickly, refrigerate it, and reheat it thoroughly rather than leaving it at room temperature.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 525g)
Calories
925 calories
Total Fat
50 g
Saturated Fat
17 g
Trans Fat
1 g
Unsaturated Fat
31 g
Cholesterol
210 mg
Sodium
1550 mg
Total Carbohydrates
66 g
Dietary Fiber
2 g
Sugars
9 g
Protein
53 g
Where cooking meets culture.
Culinary guides, cultural storytelling, and the editorial depth that makes cooking meaningful.
Discover Culinary ExplorerMore from Poultry (Volaille) - Various Preparations of Fowl
Browse the full collection
Chef Juliette
Giblet Pie
Pâté d’abatis turns modest poultry giblets into a generous supper: browned in butter, bound with a light consommé sauce, cooled completely, then sealed beneath puff pastry that rises crisp and gilded.
Chef Juliette
Ballotines et Jambonneaux
Four boned chicken legs become compact ballotines, packed with good sausage meat, sewn into their own skin, browned deeply, and braised until the filling stays juicy and the pan sauce gleams.
Chef Juliette
Boudins de Volaille à la Richelieu
Boudins de Volaille à la Richelieu turn a cold chicken mousseline around truffled salpicon, then poach, crumb, and bronze it in clarified butter, with glossy Périgueux sauce served separately.