Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Whisk Wednesdays—Fricassée de Poulet à l'ail et à la Sauge (Chicken Fricassée with Garlic and Sage)

Fricassée de Poulet à l'ail et à la Sauge (Chicken Fricassee with Garlic and Sage)
"Eh, What's up Doc?'
We're making comfort food. A fricassée (pronounced 'frik-a-see' by English-speaking people or 'frik-a-say' by French-speaking people) makes me think of an Alsatian grandmère in a farm kitchen cutting her chicken, fresh from the coop, into pieces with a sturdy knife while her petite-fille watches on a stool next to her ready to help. Although there's not much to help with in this recipe.

Fricassée is lighter than a stew and perfect for Spring. It turns out Abraham Lincoln loved chicken fricassée, and I'm a fan now too.

After cutting up the chicken, you sauté the meat in olive oil and brown the meat on both sides. Then, add the garlic (without bothering to peel them as I did) and let the garlic soften a bit. Sprinkle everything with salt, pepper and sliced sage and add the wine. The wine helps deglaze the pan and scrape up all the tasty bits stuck to the pan. Let the wine come to the boil and then throw it in a 400˚F oven to stew for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, cover for another 15-20 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Strain the sauce, making sure to push all the softened garlic through the strainer (leaving the garlic peels behind), and reduce by half.

Recipe

Serves 6

Fricassée de Poulet à l'ail et à la Sauge (Chicken Fricassee with Garlic and Sage) mise en place
4 ½-pound chicken
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
20 cloves garlic, unpeeled
1 bunch fresh sage, sliced fine
1 cup dry white wine

You can find the recipe for Fricassée de Poulet à l'ail et à la Sauge (Chicken Fricassee with Garlic and Sage) in the book Le Cordon Bleu at Home. To see how the rest of the Whisk Wednesdays group fared with their recipe, click here (or check out the sidebar) and then click on each blogger!

Fricassée de Poulet à l'ail et à la Sauge (Chicken Fricassee with Garlic and Sage)Tasting Notes
Easy. Delicious. Economical. The chicken was so tender; the sauce, thick and garlicky after being reduced, easily coated the pieces. After feeding the camera, I grabbed a piece with my fingers and hungrily ate a breast with my hands, licking my fingers at the end. It was by far the best chicken I've ever had. The recipe contains only six ingredients and used only one pot, so it's not only tasty but easy on the dishwasher too!
"Let's start the fire and fricassée him."
— Bugs Bunny in Rabbit's Kin (1952)
Next Class
We're taking a "Spring Break" next week. We'll be back the following week with Cailles à la Normande (Quail with Cream and Apples) pages 212-213. {You can substitute Partridge if you like.}

. . . . . . . . . .

Running total: $1,129.99 + $6.75 (chicken) + $6.04 (other ingredients) = $1,142.78
($2.13 per serving)

Butter used so far: 9 pounds, 22 tablespoons

. . . . . . . . . .
::Whisk Wednesdays::
We're cooking our way through a cooking school curriculum using the Le Cordon Bleu at Home cookbook. The "classes" are based on the Le Cordon Bleu curriculum found online and used as a guideline. Not all the items in the curriculum are in the cookbook, but most are. Where the items are not in the book, we try to find a suitable substitution. Find out more here.
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  • 24 comments:

    Michelle said...

    Looks great Shari! No Eggplant Gratin? It was so good, you've got to try it.

    Joie de vivre said...

    This IS comfort food! I love your butter total. I think I'd rather not know mine. :)

    Karen said...

    With a name like Fricassee de Poulet a l'ail et a la sauge, I thought this would be more complicated! Easy, easy, easy! I'm going to try this one.

    Melissa said...

    That is one HECK of a dish! Beautiful! I love cooking with you...wish I could get it to look even remotely like yours!

    CookiePie said...

    Sounds fantastic! And I just got back from Trader Joe's with a box of chicken drumsticks :)

    Meeta K. Wolff said...

    i love fricassee - although I make it a bit different to this recipe, i have to try this version!

    Elyse said...

    This sounds absolutely delicious! I love the flavor combinations going on here. And anytime you're deglazing with wine, I'm totally there with you!!

    Jan said...

    Shari that chicken looks so good!
    I love your photos - they are excellent, as always.

    Anonymous said...

    Shari
    It looks so good. I'm so glad about the "spring break" as I will make this next week. I love the way you told the story. So inspiring. My grandfather was from a part of Italy that bordered France, so I have a "french and Italian" identity. This dish fits for me.

    Maria said...

    Love the first photo!

    Cathy said...

    Wow, you've sold me. The "best chicken you've ever had" most definitely caught my attention. And you say it's easy and economical as well -- it sounds just about perfect to me!

    Manggy said...

    A glowing recommendation if I've ever seen one! (though sage tends to be a touch more expensive back home for me :) Looks delicious-- great action shot with the sauce too :)

    pam said...

    This sounds wonderful! Finally one of these recipes that even I can attempt!

    Anonymous said...

    wow this looks DELICIOUS!!

    Anonymous said...

    wow so fancy! i wish i lived with your family; it'd be like eating at a restaurant every day!

    Unknown said...

    this is a great recipe... thanks for sharing... :)

    Dharm said...

    This really is comfort food! I could eat half the chicken myself!!

    NKP said...

    Look at all that garlic! I am in heaven. This is definitely one I would like to make soon... and I think I have a little chicken in the freezer.

    Anonymous said...

    You know that a person knows what they're doing when they have the sense and courage to go simple: Chicken, sage & garlic - how could you better that?

    Great photos too.

    Irene said...

    That, my friend, is a lot of garlic! I think we can take it, yeessss. It certainly looks very very delicious!

    Sara said...

    This chicken looks delicious. I love fresh sage, and I'm always looking for more ways to incorporate it into my cooking.

    Anonymous said...

    This looks so delicious. My sauce turned out like yours for once...yahoo! I peeled the garlic also as I read that we were going to be straining it later and I figured the garlic skins would just get in the way further from letting that garlic juice drip down...I'm glad I did, it was lovely with that bit of roasted garlic flavor. I would make this again, too. Mark loved it.

    Claudia said...

    Looks lovely! Love the sage. Wish I could pick it from my garden. Simple enough for a weekday - thanks!

    Anonymous said...

    would it be inapropriate to just drink that sauce?