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Stewed Chickens

Take two chickens, cut off the feet and beat the breast bones until flat, but without breaking the skin, and dredge them over with a little flour. Put a large lump of butter into a stewpan and make it hot, then put in the chickens and fry them until brown. Cut one pound of gravy beef and half a pound of beefsteak into thin slices, drain the butter out of the pan containing the fowls and cover them with the slices of beef; put in a few slices of carrot and onion, a bunch of sweet herbs, two or three cloves, a small piece of mace and a dust of pepper; pour over one quart of boiling water, cover the stewpan closely, and stew the contents for a quarter of an hour. Take out the chickens but continue boiling the meat until a rich brown gravy is formed. When the gravy is ready, strain it through a fine hair sieve, return it to the saucepan again with the chickens, add about a teaspoonful of red wine and keep it over a slow fire until the chickens are hot through again. If desired, a few mushrooms may be added, but they must be put in after the gravy is strained. Boil some thin slices of ham until slightly crisped. Put the chickens on a hot dish, pour the gravy around them. Serve garnished with the ham and sliced lemons.

Stewed Chickens, Cardinal Style Soak two chickens in a basin of cold water for about an hour; take them out and let them drain, then lift up the skin from the breasts and legs as much as possible without tearing it, and fill the cavity with forcemeat of fowl, colored with lobster spawn to a deep red; truss the fowls as if for boiling, cover them with thin layers of fat bacon, put them in a stewpan with some chopped vegetables, cover with stock and simmer gently. Care must be taken that they do not boil fast or the force will burst the skin of the fowl, and so look unsightly when served. Dish with an ornamental croustade of fried bread in the center of the dish, garnish with quenelles of fowls, both red and white, glazed truffles, cockscombs, crayfish tails and button mushrooms, and on each side of the croustade put a larded sweetbread. Serve with cardinal sauce and garnish with ornamental silver skewers set in the croustade. Stewed Chicken, Matelote Style Singe a fowl, draw and cut up in pieces, rub it with butter and flour and brown in an oven. Put four tablespoonfuls of butter in a fryingpan and in it fry a carrot, a parsnip and an onion all cut in slices. Place the fowl in a stewpan with the vegetables and one quart of white stock. In the butter in which the vegetables were fried brown two tablespoonfuls of flour, and stir this in with the fowl; mash the liver and add the chicken, with one tablespoonful of capers, and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer slowly for three-quarters of an hour, add a quarter of a pound of mushrooms cut into small pieces, and simmer for a quarter of an hour longer. Serve garnished with mashed potatoes.

Stewed Chicken, Milanese Style Pluck, singe and draw a chicken, remove the bones and dust the inside with a little salt and pepper. Have a stuffing prepared in the meantime as follows: Chop the yolks of eight hard boiled eggs and mix them with six ounces of minced and pounded raw, lean ham and an ounce and a half of pork, and pass the mixture through a coarse sieve; add two shallots, one tablespoonful of parsley, a little thyme and bay leaf, all chopped fine and two ounces of breadcrumbs; make this into a paste with two eggs and add a dozen uncooked oysters. Sew the fowl up to prevent the stuffing from coming out, tie up in a well-buttered cloth, and put it in a saucepan with sufficient boiling stock to cover, and cook gently on the side of the fire for thirty minutes or so, according to the size of the bird. Take it out and when it is cool, remove the cloth, roll the chicken in flour, dip in beaten egg, cover with breadcrumbs, put in a saucepan with enough boiling fat to cover it and fry for about ten minutes. Serve garnished with fried parsley, with a little veloute sauce in a sauceboat.

Stewed Stuffed Chickens, Godard Clean and prepare two chickens, stuff them with forcemeat, truss, put them into a saucepan of white stock and boil until tender. Place in the center of a dish a croustade of fried bread, untruss the fowls and put one at each end of the dish, leaning against the croustade. Garnish with truffles, cockscombs and button mushrooms, glazing the truffles and washing the cockscombs and mushrooms with white sauce reduced with mushroom liquor. Put three skewers, decorated with truffles, mushrooms and cockscombs in the croustade, and serve. Stewed Chickens, Villeroy Take a couple of chickens, draw and singe; remove the breast-bones and stuff them with a mixture of butter, lemon juice (the juice of half a lemon will be enough), salt and pepper to taste; tie them up in shape with string and put into a saucepan of water. Pour a little marechale sauce into another pan; also three or four tablespoonfuls of tarragon vinegar; place this pan on a sharp fire and let the liquor reduce quickly to half its original bulk, then add six tablespoonfuls of veloute sauce, sprinkle a little salt and pepper over to taste; add the yolks of two eggs and mix thoroughly. In the meantime place some slices of lemon and bacon over the chickens in the saucepan and put a few slices around them, place the pan over a good fire and cook for half an hour, when the meat should be done. Lay the chickens on a dish, having previously removed the string and drained them, add a lump of butter to the sauce, work it well, pour it over them, and serve.