Home › Entrees › Chicken Timbales II
Chicken Timbales II
2 tablespoons butter 1/4 cup stale bread crumbs 2/3 cup milk 1 cup chopped cooked chicken 1/2 tablespoon chopped parsley 2 eggs Salt Pepper Melt butter, add bread crumbs and milk, and cook five minutes, stirring constantly. Add chicken, parsley, and eggs slightly beaten. Season with salt and pepper. Turn into buttered individual moulds, having moulds two-thirds full set in pan of hot water, cover with buttered paper, and bake twenty minutes. Serve with Bechamel Sauce.
A simple bread-and-egg panade custard, baked in a water bath. It stands or falls on the oven being gentle and the moulds being pulled the moment they set.
- Oven temperatureThe recipe gives none; it says only "bake twenty minutes." A moderate oven, in the region of 325-350F, is the usual modern equivalent for a baked custard. Any hotter and the egg curdles at the edges before the centre sets, leaving a weeping, grainy timbale.
- The water bathSet the moulds in a pan and pour in hot water to come halfway up their sides. Water that boils hard will overcook the custard; keep it at a bare shiver, and if it starts to bubble add a splash of cold.
- Buttered paperA round of buttered parchment laid loosely over the tops does what it says — keeps the surfaces from drying and browning. Foil works, but do not seal it tight.
- Doneness, not clockTwenty minutes suits 4-oz moulds; larger ones need 25-30. They are done when the centres are just firm to a light touch and a knife inserted at the edge comes out clean. Let them stand five minutes before unmoulding or they slump.
- Stale bread crumbsCrumbs from the soft inside of a day-old loaf, drier than fresh but not the sandy commercial kind and not panko. Very fresh soft crumbs absorb differently and give a wetter mixture.
- Cooked chickenChop it fine — 1/4 inch or smaller — or the custard will not hold together when turned out. Poached or roast breast and thigh both work; a cup is roughly 5 oz.
- SeasoningThe original leaves salt and pepper open. Chicken, bread and milk are all bland, so about 1/2 teaspoon salt is a reasonable starting point, plus a grating of nutmeg if you like.
- YieldDepends on mould size; the mixture comes to something over a pint, enough for four to six individual moulds filled two-thirds full as directed.