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Stewed Chicken with Asparagus
Cut up a chicken into quarters, put it into a saucepan with a little butter to fry; when it begins to steam, dust over with flour and fry to a pale brown; sprinkle over one teaspoonful of chopped parsley and a little salt. Take a couple of bunches of asparagus, break off the tender parts, wash them well in salted water, boil slightly in more salted water and drain them; put a lump of butter and one tablespoonful of cream into a saucepan over a slow fire, place half the asparagus on top, dust with pepper and then arrange the pieces of chicken over it; cover it with the remainder of the asparagus, put a few small pieces of butter on top, pour over one breakfast cupful of cream and stew gently until done. Turn the whole out onto a dish, garnish with croutons of fried bread, and serve.
A cream braise in which the asparagus does double duty as bed and blanket, insulating the chicken from the pan. The points below cover the vessel, the vague cup, and the doneness question the original leaves open.
- The hinge: keep it at a bare simmerCream held at a rolling boil for the half-hour or so this needs will break and turn grainy. Keep the surface barely trembling, lid on; a low oven will hold a steadier heat than a burner that runs hot.
- "Saucepan" means a wide, heavy panFor this dish read "saucepan" broadly -- two bunches of asparagus and four chicken pieces layered in courses want a 12-inch sauté pan or a shallow braiser with a lid, not a tall stockpot. The layering is the point; crowding it upright defeats it.
- One breakfast cupfulA breakfast cup ran larger than a teacup, usually 8 to 10 fluid ounces. Start with a cup of heavy cream plus the tablespoon called for earlier and add a splash more only if the pan threatens to go dry.
- Chicken size and timingA 1900 stewing fowl was older and tougher than a supermarket bird. A 3 1/2 to 4 lb chicken quartered will be done in 30 to 40 minutes of gentle stewing; take it to 165F at the thickest part of the thigh.
- "Boil slightly" the asparagusTwo to three minutes in well-salted water, then drain. It goes on to stew with the chicken, so anything more and the bottom layer will be a puree by the time the meat is cooked.
- Flour and browningThe flour dusted over the frying chicken thickens the cream later, so let it cook a minute or two in the fat to lose its raw taste before any liquid goes in. Pale brown, as written — hard color will muddy a white braise.
- Turning it out"Turn the whole out onto a dish" means inverting the layers onto a warm platter so the asparagus that was on top ends up beneath. A wide spatula and a shallow serving dish make this survivable; lifting it out in layers is no crime.
- YieldServes four, one quarter each, with bread or plain boiled potatoes. Fry the croutons and add them at the last moment or they soften.
Oscar Tschirky ran the Waldorf's dining rooms from 1893 and his 1896 book was assembled as much from the professional repertoire of the period as from his own invention, which is why so many entries read like translated French kitchen notes — the chicken is browned, floured and finished with cream in the manner of a *fricassée à la crème*. Asparagus in this quantity marks the dish as a spring luxury and as hotel cooking: two bunches trimmed to the tender parts alone. The croutons of fried bread are a garnish often seen in the period with dishes served in a pale sauce, there to give the plate something crisp to lean on.