Chicken
There are many fine but rather useless distinctions made among fowls, according to their age and quality. There is the infant-the spring chicken, or poulet à la Reine; the boy pullet, or poulet de grain; the young gentleman, or coq vierge; the young lady, or poularde; the capon, the hen, and the old cock. Among these the poulette, or girl chick, is rarely, if ever, mentioned; but her name is given to the Poulette sauce, which is always much favoured with boiled fowls of every description, with many other kinds of white meat, and with fish. Her brother the pullet, or poulet, gives his name to most of the preparations of fowl, young or old, male or female. It was to give honour to the pullet that Napoleon fought the battle of Marengo; it is the pullet that is always supposed to be immolated in a fricassée; and the name of chicken broth is given by courtesy to the dissolution of the toughest old cock, whose crow has many a year been heard from farm to farm, and almost from shire to shire.
Chicken Chicken Broth will be found described as Fowl Broth in the article on Soup. Add to it rice and finely chopped parsley.
The Queen's Chicken Broth (Potage à la Reine)-the queen being Marguerite of Valois. This was in the old receipt, and in the style of the sixteenth century-a fowl or fowls half-roasted first, then boiled, then boned, the flesh hacked to pièces, brayed in a mortar with rice, and diluted with milk or cream of almonds. It was a sort of blancmanger as then made, but without sugar. Modern taste will hardly now tolerate the almond milk in soupnot because it is in any way bad, but because the palate is curiously dependent on habit and association, and almonds are associated with luscious preparations overpowered with sugar, which are not to be thought of at the beginning of dinner. But whoever wishes for the true chicken broth of Queen Margaret can always add to it almond milk or cream. As for half-roasting the fowls first, that was very common in the olden time, and the roast flavour thus produced was deemed essential to fowl in almost all its forms. In modern cookery it is a principle that white soup should be white, and that it loses its character, ceasing to be white, when the roast flavour proper to brown cookery is, however slightly, added to it. In the present day, the Queen's chicken soup is to be made with a couple of chickens boiled for an hour in a gallon of beef broth, veal broth, or in simple water, with a sparing supply of vegetables-two carrots and two onions. The broth is then to be strained and freed from fat; the chickens are to be skinned, boned, their flesh (picked clear of fat) to be chopped and brayed in a mortar with half a pound of boiled rice ; after which the mash of chicken and rice is to be added to the strained broth, and all passed through a tammy. Warm it up, and add to it nearly a pint of hot cream, which, according to the old receipt, should partly at least be almond cream. 66 Chicken Spatchcock is the name for a broiled chicken. It is precisely the same word as spitchcock," the name for a broiled eel; and both are a corruption of " spitstuck," referring to the fact that the chicken or the eel to be broiled must, like a kidney, be stuck on a little spit or skewer, to spread it out. (See the word itself further on.) The chicken is to be split open at the back, spread upon a skewer, sprinkled with salt and pepper, rubbed with butter, and then grilled the inside surface first of all taking the fire.
Roast Chicken. - See that when the fowl is trussed the nefarious habit of keeping back the liver is departed from. The liver wing is always the best part of a roast fowl. Very young chickens being dry in flesh, are often barded; but full-sized and well-fed fowls do not require it. Let them be dusted with flour, and basted frequently with butter. A large capon takes an hour, or even more, to roast; a chicken about half the time. They are usually served with a garnish of cresses which have been sprinkled with salt and vinegar. The garnish, however, would be more welcome if it were less frequent.
Boiled Chicken or Fowl.-In the English way the fowl is boiled, or rather stewed, in plain salt and water. In the French way it is rubbed with lemon-juice, slices of lemon are laid upon its breast, slices of bacon are tied over all, it is put into the pot surrounded with carrots, onions, and a faggot of sweet-herbs, and it is boiled or stewed or brazed in broth or double broth. With boiled fowl the livers and gizzards are not served; but the English mode of boiling the fowl is so simple that it is always insipid unless accompanied with some salt meat-tongue or bacon-to create a contrast. The sauce that goes with it and is poured over it is a blanquette or white sauce. It may be the maître d'hôtel sauce known in England as parsley and butter sauce; it may be the poulette sauce, which is a kind of mock Allemande; or it may be Béchamel. To one and all Chicken the name of Blanquette rightly applies, though as a rule it is not so often given to a whole fowl as to pieces of fowl served in the white sauce.
Chicken with rice (Poulet au riz). - Boil the chicken in the French way for half an hour with a faggot of potherbs in broth. Boil a quarter of a pound of rice apart, either in water or in broth. From the one remove the faggot; and drain the rice, which is then to be added to the chicken and cooked with it for a few minutes. Serve the rice on a dish well moistened with the liquor of the chicken; put the chicken on the top of it, and add a ladleful of the best gravy.
Chicken with tarragon (Poulet à l'estragon). - Boil the chicken as above, but with the addition of tarragon to the seasoning. When the chicken is to be served, strain and skim the liquor, and strew into it and over the chicken in the dish a spoonful of chopped tarragon.
In the foregoing receipts the chicken or fowl is supposed to be whole; in the following it is dismembered.
Chicken Cutlets. - The white parts of the fowl being often used in dishes by themselves, what is to be done with the legs? Remove the thighbone, but leave the drumstick. Let the legs thus prepared be slowly brazed in some seasoned stock; let them be taken out and pressed between two dishes until cold; they are then to be egged, breadcrumbed, fried; and serve with a Béchamel sauce, together with a vegetable garnish.
Horly of Chicken. - The fillets marinaded and fried. See Horly.
Epigram of Chicken. - See Epigrams.
Supreme of Chicken. - The fillets of several fowls are taken and separated from the minion fillets. The fillets are to be trimmed into something of a cutlet or pear shape, removing skin and nervous tissue; the minion fillets may Chicken be contised, as the French cooks say that is, inlaid with truffles or with tongue. They are to be lightly tossed in butter, taking care not to colour them. The butter is to be poured off, and Supreme sauce put in lieu of it, in which the fillets are to be tossed, but not allowed to boil. At the same time have as many slices of tongue as there are fillets; stamp them with a round cutter to range in size with the fillets, and heat them in some double broth. Then prepare a dish with button mushrooms heaped in the centre, with truffles, or with any other garnish which may be desired. Arrange round it alternately the fillets and the slices of tongue. On the top array the minion fillets. Pour some Supreme sauce round the dish, taking care not to mask the pieces of tongue.
Friteau of Chicken. - Cut up two fowls, and marinade them for a couple of hours in oil, lemon-juice, chopped parsley and onion, pepper and salt. Then take out the pieces, wipe them dry, dip them in milk, flour them well, fry them in hot fat to a golden colour, drain them, dish them on a napkin, garnish them with fried parsley, and serve them with tomato sauce.
Fricassée of Chicken is but a boiled chicken cut to pieces and heated up in a Poulette sauce, to which the Poulette Relish of mushrooms, and sometimes parsley, sometimes shalots or button onions, has been added. (See Poulette Sauce.) This is all that is essential to the receipt, but the dish is a favourite, and may be enriched to any extent, both in the way of taste and of ornament.
Chicken à la Marengo the chicken after battle-the warrior's chicken. The chicken of the battle betrays hastiness of preparation, and turns the fault into victory. It is fried in oil, and this oil is afterwards worked into But whereas all other sauces must be carefully freed from the appearance of oils and fats which have not incorporated with them and this is often a tedious process sauce.
Chiffonnade -the chicken of the battle is sent to table with the superfluous oil floating loose about the dish and on the surface of the sauce. It is not every one who can stand this, but those who have their appetites and digestions prepared for it by a great field day, declare that the battle of Marengo was well fought as a preliminary to the chicken of the name. This chicken is cut up as for fricassée, and is fried for twenty minutes or thereabouts, until it takes a good colour, in half a tumblerful of oil seasoned with pepper and salt. Those who object to oil may use clarified butter instead. When the chickens are nearly cooked, add to them a clove of garlic, a couple of shalots, and a faggot of sweetherbs. At the end of twenty or twenty-five minutes, take out the pieces of chicken and keep them hot. Add to the sauce a tablespoonful of tomato purée, a ladleful of Spanish sauce or good gravy, and a very small pinch of sugar. Stir it boiling over the fire for a few minutes, pass it through the pointed strainer, and finish it with a little lemon-juice. Arrange the chicken in a dish, pour the sauce over it, and add a garnish of fried bread and of eggs fried in oil. Chicken Sauté or Tossed is in principle the same as the foregoing. Cut up the chicken, and fry it in butter, pepper, and salt for twenty or twenty-five minutes, till it becomes of a golden tint. The legs may be cooked for a few minutes before the other pieces are put into the pan, as they take longer time. Add at the last, as for the chicken à la Marengo, a clove of garlic, two shalots, and a faggot of sweet-herbs. Then stir into the pan a spoonful of flour, together with a glass of Marsala and a little broth, and toss it on the fire till it boils. Arrange the chicken on a dish, strain the sauce over it, and add to it a garnish of mushrooms with a sprinkling of lemon-juice.