Chef Juliette
Oriental Sauce
Sauce Orientale concentrates lobster-rich American Sauce with curry, then folds in cream away from the fire: a glossy, gently spiced derivative made for lobster, crayfish, and firm fish.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Chivry Sauce
Created by Chef Juliette
Chivry Sauce turns poultry velouté glossy and herb-green through a brief infusion of chervil, tarragon, parsley, chives, and young pimpernel, followed by measured reduction and cold green butter.
Sauces & Condiments
French
Dinner Party
Special Occasion
20 min
Active Time
35 min cook•55 min total
YieldAbout 2 quarts (1.9 L)
Sauce Chivry (a silky poultry sauce infused with tender herbs) teaches the discipline of extraction. The one true thing to know is this: young pimpernel gives a cool, delicate fragrance, while mature pimpernel and a long infusion give bitterness. Take it young, cover it briefly, then strain without squeezing.
The original expected a saucier at the stove, poultry stock never off the fire, and velouté and Green Colouring Butter (No. 143) waiting as house preparations. A salamander has no work here. At home, a covered saucepan, a fine sieve lined with damp clean linen, and a whisk give the same result. The large service rhythm is brigade scaffolding and can go; the covered infusion, reduction by one quarter, and cold butter finish are the dish and must stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.
When it is right, Chivry is pale ivory-green, glossy enough to coat a spoon, and fragrant without tasting leafy. It belongs over boiled or gently poached poultry, whose quiet flavor gives the herbs room to speak. The step that decides everything is ending the covered infusion after ten to twelve minutes, sooner if the pimpernel begins to show even a faint bitter edge.
Sauce Chivry belongs to the codified Parisian grande cuisine family of velouté derivatives, built at the saucier's station and served with gently cooked poultry. From that station it passed into bourgeois dining rooms, where a mild boiled or poached bird welcomed the freshness of garden herbs. Its easily misunderstood ingredient is pimprenelle, or young salad burnet, prized before flowering for its cucumber-like fragrance and rejected once maturity makes it bitter.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
unsalted poultry stock
Quantity
3 1/8 cups (750 ml / 750 g)
chervil pluches
Quantity
1/2 cup loosely packed (120 ml / 12 g)
tender picked shreds
tarragon leaves
Quantity
1/4 cup loosely packed (60 ml / 8 g)
picked from the stems
flat-leaf parsley leaves
Quantity
1/3 cup loosely packed (80 ml / 15 g)
picked from the stems
young pimpernel or salad burnet
Quantity
3 small heads (about 15 g)
tender and unflowered
chives
Quantity
1/4 cup loosely packed (60 ml / 12 g)
finely snipped
finished poultry velouté
Quantity
6 1/3 cups (1.5 L / 1.5 kg)
unsalted or lightly seasoned
Green Colouring Butter
Quantity
2/3 cup (160 ml / 150 g) Green Colouring Butter (No. 143)
chilled and cut into small cubes
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| unsalted poultry stock | 3 1/8 cups (750 ml / 750 g) |
| chervil pluchestender picked shreds | 1/2 cup loosely packed (120 ml / 12 g) |
| tarragon leavespicked from the stems | 1/4 cup loosely packed (60 ml / 8 g) |
| flat-leaf parsley leavespicked from the stems | 1/3 cup loosely packed (80 ml / 15 g) |
| young pimpernel or salad burnettender and unflowered | 3 small heads (about 15 g) |
| chivesfinely snipped | 1/4 cup loosely packed (60 ml / 12 g) |
| finished poultry veloutéunsalted or lightly seasoned | 6 1/3 cups (1.5 L / 1.5 kg) |
| Green Colouring Butterchilled and cut into small cubes | 2/3 cup (160 ml / 150 g) Green Colouring Butter (No. 143) |
Equipment Needed
- •2-quart (1.9 L) saucepan with a tight-fitting lid
- •5-quart (4.7 L) heavy-bottomed saucepan or saucier
- •Fine-mesh sieve
- •Clean linen or two layers of cheesecloth
- •2 1/2-liter heatproof measuring jug
- •Balloon whisk
- •Digital scale
Instructions
- 1
Prepare the herbs
Pick through every herb before heating the stock. Keep only tender chervil pluches, tarragon and parsley leaves, fresh chives, and young unflowered pimpernel. Rinse them only if necessary, then dry them thoroughly; water clinging to the leaves weakens the infusion. Bruise the pimpernel lightly between your fingers but do not chop the herbs into paste.
Taste one pimpernel leaf raw. It should be tender and gently cucumber-like. If it is coarse, flowering, or already bitter, it does not belong in Chivry. - 2
Infuse the stock
Bring the poultry stock to a full boil in the smaller saucepan. Remove it from the heat, immediately add all the herbs, and cover tightly. Infuse for ten to twelve minutes, tasting at eight minutes if the pimpernel is unfamiliar. The fragrance should be fresh and distinct but never medicinal. If a faint bitter edge appears early, strain at once; catching it now rescues the batch, while further steeping only fixes the bitterness in place.
- 3
Strain without pressing
Set a fine-mesh sieve lined with damp clean linen or two damp layers of cheesecloth over a heatproof jug. Pour in the infusion and let it drain naturally. Do not twist or press the herbs, because pressure extracts bitterness and pushes fine leaf matter into the sauce. If flecks pass through, strain the liquid a second time through fresh damp cloth.
- 4
Reduce the velouté
Warm the poultry velouté in the large heavy saucepan, whisking until completely smooth, then add the strained herb infusion. Bring the sauce to a controlled boil and reduce it by one quarter, from about 2 1/4 liters to roughly 1.7 liters, whisking often and reaching into the corners of the pan. It is ready when it naps the back of a spoon in an even veil. If the bottom catches, do not scrape it up; pour the clear upper sauce immediately into a clean pan and continue reducing there.
- 5
Mount with green butter
Remove the sauce from the heat and wait until the active bubbling stops. Whisk in the cold Green Colouring Butter (No. 143), a few cubes at a time, adding each portion only when the last has disappeared. Keep the sauce below a simmer from this point onward, because boiling releases the butter and dulls the herb-green color. If an oily rim appears, stop adding butter and whisk a teaspoon of cold water in a clean bowl, then gradually whisk the sauce into it. Ça se rattrape.
- 6
Serve with poultry
Taste the finished Chivry before adding any seasoning, since both the velouté and the reduction may already carry enough salt. Hold it over the gentlest heat for no longer than thirty minutes, whisking occasionally, and spoon it generously over boiled or poached chicken, capon, or poularde. The sauce should cling softly and pool around the bird rather than sit on it like paste. À table!
Chef Tips
- •Pimpernel here means salad burnet, Sanguisorba minor. Buy leaves that are small, tender, and unflowered. Mature leaves turn bitter, and reduction makes that bitterness louder.
- •If genuinely young pimpernel cannot be found, save Chivry for another evening. Sauce Estragon is the honest poultry-sauce cousin to cook instead; leaving pimpernel out does not produce the same sauce.
- •Pluches are the tender picked shreds of chervil. Do not mince them. The covered infusion needs their fragrance, while the finished sauce should remain smooth and free of chopped leaves.
- •Treat Green Colouring Butter (No. 143) as the finished referenced preparation it is. Have it cold and cubed before starting the final step; its butter provides gloss and body as well as color.
- •Use unsalted or lightly seasoned stock and velouté. Reduction concentrates salt along with flavor, and a sauce that begins perfectly seasoned may finish harsh.
- •Allow 2 to 3 tablespoons of Chivry per serving. It is particularly suited to poached chicken breast or a whole gently poached bird, with a restrained white Burgundy alongside.
Advance Preparation
- •The poultry velouté can be prepared up to three days ahead, cooled promptly, covered, and refrigerated. Bring it back to a gentle simmer before adding the strained infusion.
- •Green Colouring Butter (No. 143) can be prepared ahead and kept chilled, or frozen in measured portions. Cut the required amount into cubes while it is cold.
- •For dinner-party service, infuse, strain, and reduce the sauce base up to four hours ahead. Cool it promptly and refrigerate, then return it to a controlled boil before mounting it with the cold butter just before serving.
- •If the whole batch is not needed immediately, divide the reduced base before adding the butter. Refrigerate or freeze the unmounted portion, then finish each reheated portion with its proportional share of Green Colouring Butter (No. 143).
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 60g)
Calories
70 calories
Total Fat
6 g
Saturated Fat
4 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
2 g
Cholesterol
20 mg
Sodium
55 mg
Total Carbohydrates
2 g
Dietary Fiber
0 g
Sugars
0 g
Protein
1 g
Where cooking meets culture.
Culinary guides, cultural storytelling, and the editorial depth that makes cooking meaningful.
Discover Culinary ExplorerMore from The Small Compound Sauces - Small White and Compound Sauces
Browse the full collection
Chef Juliette
Poulette Sauce
An old lesson in sauce families: Sauce Allemande takes mushroom liquor, then butter, lemon, and parsley, becoming a glossy Poulette for sheep's trotters, leeks, cauliflower, and anything needing gentle richness with a bright edge.
Chef Juliette
Ravigote Sauce
Sauce ravigote turns a calm velouté lively with white wine, vinegar, shallot butter, and three fresh herbs, a sharp green finish made for boiled poultry and the pale richness of white abats.
Chef Juliette
Regency Sauce
Sauce Régence turns a finished velouté into a deep, silken accompaniment through mushroom, truffle, and concentrated glaze, proving that gentle reduction, not ornament, gives a derivative sauce its authority.