No. 1837

Chicken Fillets or Breasts a la Chiselhurst

Filets ou Ailes de Poulet a la Chiselhurst

Raise the fillets from six two pound chickens; pare, suppress the skin, and lard six of them with small shreds of larding pork (No. 3, Fig 52) and the other six with slices of truffles the same size as the pork; pare the minion fillets and lard six with smaller pork lardons than those used for the fillets, and the other six with small pieces of truffles cut the same size. Lay them in two separate buttered sautoirs, the truffles in one and the larding pork in the other, having previously given the minion fillets the shape of a crescent. Cover over the truffled fillets with thin lardon of fat pork, and cook those larded with pork on a brisk fire while those with truffles are to be cooked more slowly. Dress in a circle alternating the two kinds, and fill the center with balls of truffle mingled with supreme sauce (No. 547). Place the truffled minions on top of the larded fillets and the larded minions on top of the truffled fillets: cover with a light supreme sauce, serving some of the sauce in a sauce-boat.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer is writing for a brigade with a larding needle, a truffle stock and a saucier already at work. Stripped of that, the dish is twelve chicken supremes, half studded with pork fat and half with truffle, sautéed gently and sauced.

What the recipe actually yieldsSix two-pound chickens give twelve breast fillets and twelve minion fillets (the tenders that lie beneath). Ranhofer gives no yield; twelve fillets of this size would plausibly serve ten to twelve as one course. Two-pound birds are small by current standards; six 3-4 lb chickens will give twelve breasts, each rather larger.
Minion filletThe filet mignon of the bird — the small inner tenderloin. Pull the white tendon before shaping, or the crescent curl will straighten as it cooks.
Larding, and whether to botherLarding means drawing thin strips of chilled fatback through the flesh with a larding needle so the lean meat bastes itself. Salt pork works if you blanch it first to draw off salt; supermarket bacon is smoked and cured and will dominate. Without a needle, the honest substitute is to bard — lay thin sheets of fat over the fillets — which the recipe already does for the truffled half.
SautoirA straight-sided sautE pan, not a casserole dish. Butter it and cook the fillets gently; this is a gentle butter-braise, not a hard sear.
Two speeds, and whyTwo speeds -- The pork-larded fillets go on a brisk fire, the truffled ones cook slowly under their sheet of pork fat. Ranhofer does not say why; truffle aroma is volatile and fugitive, and high heat wastes it.
TimingRanhofer gives none, and the period assumption of well-done poultry does these no favours. Trimmed breasts of this size need roughly 8-12 minutes over moderate heat, to 165F at the thickest point; the minion fillets need about half that, though the recipe pans them alongside the larger fillets.
Supreme sauceNo. 547 is Ranhofer's supreme sauce, in the classic form a chicken veloutE finished with cream, butter and a little mushroom essence, strained until it coats a spoon. Make it thin enough to nap rather than blanket — the recipe asks for a "light" sauce and sends more to the table in a boat.
Truffle ballsCut with a small parisienne scoop from peeled black truffle. At current prices, this is the line that decides whether the dish gets made; preserved truffle peelings folded into the sauce carry much of the effect, and a few drops of truffle jus do more than a large quantity of the oil.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef of Delmonico's in New York, and its chicken chapter runs to dozens of variations on the same pair of fillets, each distinguished by a garnish and a proper noun. The spelling here points to Chislehurst in Kent, best known in Ranhofer's working life as the place where Napoleon III lived out his exile at Camden Place and died in 1873, with the Empress Eugénie remaining there for years afterward; a dish built on truffles and larding pork for a deposed court, though the attribution is traditional rather than something Ranhofer troubles to explain. What the recipe really demonstrates is the house style: a symmetrical ring of alternating light and dark, each element mirrored by its opposite on top, arranged so that the plate reads as a pattern before anyone tastes it.