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CHICKEN (a la Marengo)
Cut a fine chicken into neat joints, season it with salt and cayenne, and fry it till done in about half a tumblerful of oil or clarified butter. When half cooked, add a clove of garlic, two shallots, and a faggot of sweet herbs. Drain the meat from the fat, and mix with the latter a table-spoonful of flour, and, very gradually, sufficient good stock to make the sauce of the consistency of thick cream. Stir it till it is thick and smooth. Put the chicken on a hot dish, strain the sauce over it, and serve. Remember that the fat must not be skimmed from the sauce. If liked, mushrooms or fried eggs may be taken to garnish the dish. Time, about twenty-five minutes to fry the chicken. Sufficient for four or five persons.
A straightforward sauté with a pan sauce built in the frying fat. Two things in the original are easy to miss: the aromatics go in partway through, and the fat stays in the sauce.
- Half a tumblerfulA Victorian tumbler held 8 to 10 fluid ounces, so this is roughly 1/2 cup of oil or clarified butter. That is a shallow fry rather than a deep one, and it is deliberate: the fat becomes the body of the sauce.
- A fine chickenNo weight is given; a medium bird cut into serving joints is what is meant. Jointing the whole bird rather than using breast alone gives the sauce more gelatin.
- Faggot of sweet herbsA bouquet garni: parsley stalks, thyme and a bay leaf tied with string so it can be pulled out. It goes in whole and is caught when the sauce is strained.
- Do not skim the fatThis is the instruction the recipe stops to underline. The oil, flour and stock are meant to emulsify into a glossy, rich sauce; skimming leaves a thin, floury gravy. Whisk the stock in gradually to keep it from breaking.
- Twenty-five minutesThat is about right for dark meat, but breast pieces will be done in 15 to 18 minutes. Pull them out early and hold them warm rather than letting them dry while the thighs finish. Cook to 165F at the thickest part.
- Garlic and shallots go in lateAdded at the halfway point they perfume the fat without scorching, which is what happens if they start in a hot pan with the chicken. Keep the clove of garlic whole or lightly crushed so it can be strained out.
- Consistency of thick creamThe recipe gives no quantity, only 'sufficient'. Add the stock in stages until it thickens; the sauce will look broken before it comes together.
- The fried egg garnishNot decorative whimsy but part of the traditional Marengo. Fry the eggs with crisp lace edges in a separate pan and set them on top just before serving, along with the mushrooms if used.
- YieldFour to five, as stated, served with rice, plain boiled potatoes or bread to take up the sauce.
Chicken Marengo is traditionally traced to the Battle of Marengo in June 1800, where Napoleon's cook is said to have improvised a dish from a scavenged bird, oil, garlic and whatever else was to hand — the story is a durable one but rests on later anecdote rather than contemporary record. What survives from the legend is the shape of the dish: no butter-and-cream finish, but olive oil, garlic, and the fat left frankly in the sauce. The crayfish and fried egg of the fuller French versions are what remains of the improvised-scraps idea; Cassell's keeps the egg as an option and drops the shellfish — the name and the method retained, the more expensive flourishes quietly trimmed.