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Creamed Chicken Patties
2 cups cold cooked chicken cut in dice 2 cups white sauce 1/8 teaspoon celery salt 1/4 cup mushrooms cut in slices Make white sauce by scalding two cups milk and adding two tablespoons butter and two tablespoons flour. When thoroughly cooked add chicken, seasonings and mushrooms. Heat thoroughly and serve in patty shells. Creamed chicken may be served over triangles of toast if preferred. Serves 6 to 8.
A simple chafing-dish filling that depends almost entirely on the sauce. The written method — scalding the milk, then adding butter and flour to it — will give lumps unless you reverse the order.
- Make the roux firstMelt the 2 tablespoons butter, stir in the 2 tablespoons flour, cook a minute or two without colouring, then whisk in the scalded milk off the heat. Adding raw flour to hot milk, as written, sets lumps immediately.
- Sauce thicknessTwo tablespoons each of butter and flour to two cups of milk is a thin white sauce that will soak through pastry. For patty shells, use 3 tablespoons of each per cup of milk so the filling holds its shape on the plate.
- Cook the flour out"When thoroughly cooked" is the recipe's only guide; give the sauce several minutes of gentle simmering after it thickens. A shorter cook leaves a raw, pasty flour taste that celery salt will not cover.
- MushroomsThe recipe does not say whether canned or fresh are meant; canned mushrooms, already cooked and drained, were widely used. With fresh, slice and sauté in butter until the liquid has evaporated before adding them, or they will thin the sauce.
- SeasoningOnly celery salt is specified. The sauce needs salt, white pepper and a scrape of nutmeg; a spoonful of sherry or a squeeze of lemon at the end lifts what is otherwise a very mild dish.
- Patty shellsThese were bought or home-made vol-au-vent cases of puff pastry. Frozen puff pastry shells are the direct equivalent — bake them empty, fill just before serving, or the bottoms go soft.
- The chickenTwo cups of diced cooked chicken is about 10 oz, the meat from a small poached bird or a supermarket rotisserie chicken. Add it at the end and heat through only; it is already cooked and will string if it simmers.
- YieldSix to eight as written, which is generous per shell for a luncheon but modest as a main course. Doubling the recipe is straightforward if the sauce is made in a wide pan.