No. 1854

Chicken Fillets or Breasts a la Toulouse

Filets ou Ailes de Poulet a la Toulouse

Pare twelve raw chicken fillets; take off the minion fillets, cut in the large fillet a deep gash lengthwise without separating the pieces, turn the meat over so that the gashed part is now outside and fill in the inside with a well mixed quenelle forcemeat (No. 89) and foies-gras that has been passed through a sieve half of each, having as much as would make an inch and a half diameter ball; envelop well this dressing in the flesh of the fillet, shaping them into pretty ovals and well rounded on the top (Fig. 364); put in more or less forcemeat, according to the size of the fillet so that when they are finished they look all alike; lay on top of each of these a small minion fillet streaked by cutting six incisions and placing in each one a thin slice of truffle proportioned to the size of the minion fillet. Cover the bottom of sautoir with clarified butter, lay over the chicken fillets at equal distances apart, pour over more melted butter and cover with a strong buttered paper; cook them in a slow oven for twelve to fifteen minutes, drain, trim with favor frills (No. 10) and dress in a circle; pour into the center a Toulouse garnishing (No. 766).

← No. 1853 Chicken Fillets or Breasts a la Sadi-Carnot Chicken No. 1855 Chicken Fillets or Breasts a la Valencay →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a composed restaurant dish from Ranhofer's Delmonico's kitchen, and it assumes a brigade with forcemeat, truffles and garnish already at hand. The technique is straightforward once the cross-references are unpacked.

The hinge: butterfly, don't detachThe "deep gash lengthwise without separating the pieces" is a butterfly cut into the thick side of the breast. The recipe then has you turn the meat over so the gashed side is outermost and wrap the flesh round the filling, shaping it into an oval.
Fillets and minion filletsTwelve fillets means six chickens' worth of breast halves. The minion fillet (filet mignon) is the small tenderloin strip that lies under each breast; here it is scored six times, each incision inlaid with a truffle slice, and laid on top as decoration.
Quenelle forcemeat No. 89A pounded, sieved quenelle forcemeat; check the numbered recipe for its exact make-up, which will be some combination of pounded raw meat with panada and/or butter and cream. A modern food processor puree of chicken breast, egg white and heavy cream, seasoned and chilled hard, does the same job. Keep everything cold or it will break.
Foies-grasFoie gras pushed through a sieve, in equal parts with the forcemeat (the recipe says only "half of each" and does not say whether by weight or volume). It is expensive and, in some jurisdictions, no longer sold; a good chicken-liver or duck-liver parfait is the practical substitute. The stuffing ball should be about an inch and a half across, roughly 1 oz.
Sautoir and buttered paperA sautoir is a straight-sided shallow saute pan. Buttered paper laid directly on the fillets is a cartouche; parchment does the work of the old kitchen paper and keeps the surface from colouring or drying.
Oven and doneness"Slow oven" is not defined in the book; in modern terms it corresponds to somewhere around 275-325F. Twelve to fifteen minutes suits fillets of this size, but the stuffing is raw forcemeat, so check the centre of the thickest parcel: 165F throughout. Larger supermarket breasts than Ranhofer's will need longer.
Favor frillsNo. 10 is a paper frill, purely decorative, clipped over the end of a bone or the top of a garnish. Skip it without loss.
Toulouse garnishingNo. 766 is the classic garniture Toulouse: poached chicken quenelles, cockscombs and kidneys, mushroom caps and truffles bound in a velvete or sauce supreme. Cockscombs are not obtainable at retail; quenelles, button mushrooms and a good supreme sauce carry the dish.
YieldTwelve fillets serve twelve as a plated course, or six generously. Dress them in a ring on a warm platter and put the garnish in the well at the centre.

A Little History

"A la Toulouse" is one of the nineteenth-century garnitures generally traced to a place name, though the attribution is traditional rather than settled, and codified in Paris kitchens: white poultry meat, quenelles, mushrooms and truffles bound with a pale cream sauce, usually served in a vol-au-vent or, as here, inside a ring of set pieces. It appears in The Epicurean (1894) because Charles Ranhofer was cataloguing the full Delmonico's repertoire for a New York clientele that expected French grande cuisine, and dishes like this one, where a boned breast is opened, stuffed with foie gras forcemeat, reshaped into an identical oval and capped with an inlaid tenderloin, are exacting in their uniformity. The cross-referencing is the book's method: forcemeats, garnishes and frills are numbered once and called on throughout, which tells you the volume was written for cooks working in a staffed kitchen rather than for a household.