Chef Juliette
Bouillabaisse à la Marseillaise
Marseille's great fish stew, saffron-gold and garlic-scented, proves that a hard boil can be the careful choice: it binds olive oil into broth before the whole pot meets bread.
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Consommé Monte Carlo
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 587, Consommé Monte Carlo, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
Crystal-clear consommé, tender chicken quenelles, buttered lettuce, and crisp profiterolles served apart: a lesson in protecting clarity while keeping every garnish true to its own texture.
Soups & Stews
French
Dinner Party
Special Occasion
Make Ahead
1 hr
Active Time
45 min cook•1 hr 45 min total
YieldAbout 2 quarts (6 to 8 servings)
Consommé Monte Carlo (a clarified chicken soup with chicken dumplings, buttered lettuce ribbons, and crisp choux puffs) teaches a severe little lesson: once clarity is won, every garnish must be cooked elsewhere and added without disturbing it. That is the one true thing to know before touching a pan. Quenelles bring tenderness, lettuce brings buttery green softness, and the little puffs stay dry beside the tureen so the consommé remains itself.
The original entry assumed a saucier beside a consommé pot, stock never off the fire, and a pastry station able to send hazelnut-size choux at the instant of service. A home kitchen needs one processor, one poaching pot, one saucepan, and an ordinary oven; the oven replaces the pastry station's holding heat, and no salamander is needed. Continuous brigade holding is scaffolding and goes. This batch doubles the entry's one-quart proportions into a useful two-quart tureen, keeping its ratio exactly: 60 quenelles, two lettuce hearts, and 24 little puffs. One cook, one stove, one evening.
What stays is the dish: true consommé, quenelles poached at a tremble, lettuce cisel (cut into fine ribbons) and stewed in real butter, chervil pluches, and crisp puffs served quite apart. The bowl should look like amber glass scattered with ivory and green. The step that matters most is the final pour: drain every garnish thoroughly, bring the consommé to a clean boil, and unite them only in the warmed tureen.
Consommé Monte Carlo belongs to the codified French grand-kitchen repertory rather than to a regional household soup; its name points to Monte Carlo in Monaco and the cosmopolitan hotel table that prized named consommé garnishes. The combination traveled into formal home menus because each part could be prepared ahead, while the tureen still arrived with ceremony and precision. The small puffs are served apart for a practical reason, not pomp: once they enter the broth, crispness vanishes and clarity is cluttered.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
boneless, skinless chicken breast
Quantity
6 ounces (170 g)
very cold and cut into ½-inch cubes
large egg white
Quantity
1
very cold
cold heavy cream
Quantity
½ cup (120 ml / 120 g)
fine salt for the forcemeat
Quantity
¾ teaspoon (3.75 ml / 4.5 g)
ground white pepper
Quantity
⅛ teaspoon (0.6 ml / 0.25 g)
water for poaching
Quantity
8 cups (1.9 L / 1.9 kg)
fine salt for the poaching water
Quantity
1 tablespoon (15 ml / 18 g)
tender butter lettuce hearts
Quantity
2 hearts (about 10 ounces / 280 g) prepared as Chiffonade (No. 215)
unsalted butter
Quantity
3 tablespoons (45 ml / 43 g)
very clear, well-seasoned chicken consommé
Quantity
8 cups (1.9 L / 1.9 kg)
hazelnut-size, unfilled soup profiterolles
Quantity
24 Profiterolles for Soups (No. 218), made with Ordinary Pâte à Choux (No. 2373)
chervil pluches, the tender leaf shreds
Quantity
2 tablespoons (30 ml / 4 g)
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| boneless, skinless chicken breastvery cold and cut into ½-inch cubes | 6 ounces (170 g) |
| large egg whitevery cold | 1 |
| cold heavy cream | ½ cup (120 ml / 120 g) |
| fine salt for the forcemeat | ¾ teaspoon (3.75 ml / 4.5 g) |
| ground white pepper | ⅛ teaspoon (0.6 ml / 0.25 g) |
| water for poaching | 8 cups (1.9 L / 1.9 kg) |
| fine salt for the poaching water | 1 tablespoon (15 ml / 18 g) |
| tender butter lettuce hearts | 2 hearts (about 10 ounces / 280 g) prepared as Chiffonade (No. 215) |
| unsalted butter | 3 tablespoons (45 ml / 43 g) |
| very clear, well-seasoned chicken consommé | 8 cups (1.9 L / 1.9 kg) |
| hazelnut-size, unfilled soup profiterolles | 24 Profiterolles for Soups (No. 218), made with Ordinary Pâte à Choux (No. 2373) |
| chervil pluches, the tender leaf shreds | 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 4 g) |
Equipment Needed
- •Food processor with chilled bowl and blade
- •5 to 6-quart saucepan for poaching
- •Two teaspoons or demitasse spoons for shaping
- •Instant-read thermometer
- •Fine-mesh sieve and rinsed muslin
- •2½ to 3-quart lidded soup tureen
- •Rimmed baking sheet
Instructions
- 1
Make the forcemeat
Chill the food-processor bowl and blade for ten minutes. Pulse the chicken with the salt and white pepper until finely ground and tacky. Reserve one teaspoon of the egg white, then process in the remainder until smooth. With the machine running, add the cold cream in a thin stream and stop as soon as the farce mousseline de volaille, the chicken mousseline forcemeat, looks glossy and holds a soft peak. Heat breaks this emulsion, so return it to the cold at once.
Poach a teaspoonful as a test. If it frays or slumps, set the bowl over ice for fifteen minutes and pulse again briefly; if it remains loose, pulse in the reserved teaspoon of egg white. Test once more before shaping the full batch. - 2
Poach the quenelles
Bring the water and poaching salt to 175 to 180°F (79 to 82°C), where the surface barely trembles. Dip two teaspoons in the water and use them to shape 60 small quenelles de volaille, about one teaspoon each. Lower them into the water in batches of 12 to 15 and poach for four to five minutes, turning once, until they float and reach 165°F (74°C) at the centre. A hard boil makes them coarse and ragged. Lift them out with a slotted spoon and drain them thoroughly on a rack or clean towel.
- 3
Stew the chiffonade
Melt the butter in a wide sauté pan over medium-low heat without letting it colour. Add the prepared Chiffonade (No. 215), already cisel into fine, even ribbons, and turn until every strand gleams. Cover and stew gently for five minutes, then uncover and cook until supple but still green, about three minutes more. Do not brown it. If the lettuce releases a puddle, raise the heat briefly to evaporate it, then drain the chiffonade in a fine sieve; loose cooking liquid would dull the consommé.
- 4
Crisp the profiterolles
Heat the oven to 325°F (165°C). Set the 24 Profiterolles for Soups (No. 218), made with Ordinary Pâte à Choux (No. 2373), on a baking sheet and dry them for six to eight minutes, until crisp clear through. If their centres still feel soft, switch off the oven and leave them inside for five minutes with the door slightly ajar. Keep them unfilled: this entry calls for crisp little choux served separately, and a filling would soften them.
- 5
Warm the tureen
Fill a 2½ to 3-quart soup tureen and the serving bowls with boiling water and leave them for five minutes. Drain and dry them just before assembly. This quiet bit of preparation replaces the brigade's heated service cupboard and prevents cold porcelain from stealing the consommé's heat.
- 6
Heat the consommé
Pour the chicken consommé into a clean saucepan and bring it promptly to a full boil without prolonged reduction. Do not whisk or stir sediment up from the bottom. If fat beads appear, lift them away with the edge of a clean paper towel; if suspended specks disturb the clarity, pass the consommé once through a rinsed fine cloth into another clean pan. Ça se rattrape. A fundamentally cloudy stock cannot be corrected at this final moment, so the finished consommé must begin truly clarified.
- 7
Fill the tureen
Arrange the drained chicken quenelles and buttered lettuce in the warmed tureen. Pour the boiling consommé over them in one steady stream, without stirring, then scatter in the chervil pluches. Cover the tureen and carry it straight to the table so the garnishes warm through without cooking further.
- 8
Serve the puffs apart
Pass the profiterolles separately and very hot, allowing three or four per person. Do not float them in the tureen. Their dry, crisp shell beside the delicate consommé is the final contrast, and the source is quite right to defend it. À table!
Chef Tips
- •Begin with true chicken consommé, not merely pale stock. It should be clear enough to see the bowl of a spoon through it and should set softly when chilled; clarification is the technique the name promises.
- •Choose tender butter lettuce with pale, supple inner leaves. The specific Monte Carlo method stews its chiffonade in butter before service, even though other clear soups cook lettuce directly in the broth. Here the entry governs, and the butter is part of the garnish.
- •The separate soup-puff formula discusses filled versions, but this entry names no filling and insists upon crispness. Leave these little choux hollow, dry them thoroughly, and pass them on their own plate.
- •Serve this as a first course before roast poultry or veal. A dry Champagne or a mineral Chablis has enough freshness for the quenelles without trampling the delicate consommé.
Advance Preparation
- •Make and clarify the chicken consommé up to three days ahead. Chill it promptly, remove every trace of set surface fat, and reheat only at service.
- •The quenelles can be poached one day ahead. Cool them promptly, cover, and refrigerate; drain them again before they enter the warmed tureen.
- •The little choux puffs can be baked up to two days ahead and kept airtight once completely cool. Recrisp them in the oven immediately before serving.
- •Prepare the lettuce ribbons several hours ahead and refrigerate them between barely damp towels, but stew them in butter close to service so their colour stays lively.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 310g)
Calories
175 calories
Total Fat
13 g
Saturated Fat
8 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
4 g
Cholesterol
55 mg
Sodium
1200 mg
Total Carbohydrates
5 g
Dietary Fiber
1 g
Sugars
2 g
Protein
12 g
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