Chicken Casserole
Lizzie Tomney
Take a medium sized chicken, singe and draw and prepare it, put in casserole whole, add a good lump of butter, onion, salt and pepper. Steam gently on top of range two hours, then add mushrooms and vegetables to taste; brown and serve hot.
About as simple as Creole cookery gets — a whole chicken gently steam-braised in a covered pot until it nearly falls from the bone.
- “Draw” the chickenTo draw a bird is to remove its innards; buy any chicken already cleaned and you can skip this step entirely.
- A good lump of butter“A good lump” ≈ 1 to 2 Tbsp butter — enough to enrich the steam and start a little browning.
- Low and slow on the stovetop“Steam gently on top of range two hours” means a bare simmer, tightly covered — keep the heat low so the bird poaches in its own juices rather than frying.
- When to add the vegetablesMushrooms and vegetables go in later so they don’t turn to mush; give them the last 30–40 minutes.
- Check for doneness“Brown and serve” once the thigh reads 165°F (74°C) and the meat pulls easily from the bone.
The dish takes its name from its vessel: casserole is French for a saucepan or stewpot, a word that traces back through Provençal and Latin to old terms for a pan or ladle. For centuries “a casserole” meant the pot, not the food; only later did the name migrate to whatever was cooked inside it. Slow-cooking a whole bird in a sealed pot is close kin to the French poule au pot — the hen-in-a-pot that Henri IV supposedly wished into every peasant’s Sunday — and it remains one of the oldest, most forgiving ways to guarantee tender meat.
From page 30 of the 1904 edition.
Original page from the book
