No. 1856

Chicken Fillets or Breasts a la Valerri

Filets ou Ailes de Poulet a la Valerri

Prepare twelve fillets by removing the thin skin covering them; remove the minion fillets to streak with red beef tongue; turn each one of these around a large Spanish olive, replacing its stone by quenelle forcemeat (No. 89), pushed through a cornet; on top of this forcemeat set a small truffle ball. Lay these in a buttered sautoir, cover with a sheet of buttered paper, and poach them in a slow oven, just when ready to use. Saute the large fillets lightly with butter and lemon juice, and lay them under a weight, then divide them in two through their entire thickness. Range half of them very closely together, and pour over a layer of soubise (No. 723), having it a quarter of an inch thick, set the other twelve halves on top of these halves, and leave till cold, then pare them all evenly into half heart-shapes; dip each separate double piece in well reduced but partially cold allemande sauce (No. 407), and let cool off again, then dip in eggs, roll in bread-crumbs, and fry in clarified butter; drain, trim with favor frills (No. 10), and dress in a circle; fill up the center with mushrooms sauted in butter and fine herbs, pour over some half-glaze (No. 400) and Madeira, and set the minion fillets on top of these mushrooms. Serve separately a sauce-boat of half-glaze sauce (No. 413).

← No. 1855 Chicken Fillets or Breasts a la Valencay Chicken No. 1857 Chicken a la Villeroi →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a composed restaurant dish built from four of Ranhofer's cross-referenced base preparations, and almost all the work happens before service. Read it as two separate components: breaded medallions of layered breast, and stuffed tenderloins wrapped around olives.

The hinge: chill the layers hardThe paired breast halves sandwiched with soubise must be genuinely cold and firm before you cut the half-heart shapes, or they will slide apart in the egg and crumb. The recipe weights the fillets earlier, before splitting them; at this stage it only says to leave them till cold, so refrigerate the assembled layers for several hours, or overnight.
Minion filletsThe filet mignon of a chicken breast is the tenderloin, the small strip that pulls away from the underside. Twelve fillets means six birds' worth of breast; they yield twenty-four halves and twelve finished medallions, though Ranhofer gives no serving count.
"Streak with red beef tongue"This is inlaid larding: narrow strips of cooked, cured tongue threaded through the surface of the tenderloin with a larding needle for a striped effect. Cooked ham or a strip of cured tongue from a deli counter gives the same look; the step is decorative and can be skipped.
Slow ovenRanhofer gives no temperature; "slow" is usually read today as somewhere around 300-325F. The paper-covered sautoir is a shallow oven-poach rather than a roast, and the stuffed tenderloins are small, so check them early -- roughly 12 to 15 minutes -- and take them to 165F internal.
SautoirA straight-sided shallow saute pan. Any heavy skillet that will hold the pieces in one layer works; the buttered paper on top is the period's version of a loose lid.
The referenced saucesSoubise (No. 723) is an onion puree bound with bechamel or rice, used here stiff enough to act as glue. Allemande (No. 407) is veloute enriched with egg yolks and cream, reduced until it coats and sets on cooling. Half-glaze (No. 400/413) is demi-glace. A plain thick veloute can stand in, but without the yolks it will not set as firmly on cooling.
Frying in clarified butterClarified butter is much the safer choice, since the milk solids in whole butter scorch before the crumbs colour. Keep it around 350F; the fillets were only lightly sauteed beforehand, so fry until golden and make sure the meat is cooked through.
Favor frillsPaper cutlet frills (No. 10), the fluted collars once fitted to the bone end of a chop. Purely ornamental, and easily left off.
Truffle and olivesLarge Spanish olives means brined queen olives; pit them yourself so the cavity stays intact for the piped forcemeat. A ball cut from a preserved black truffle is the garnish, and a small round of dark mushroom is the sensible modern stand-in.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894) records the kitchen of Delmonico's in New York, and this entry shows how that kitchen worked: nothing is described from scratch, everything points to a numbered base preparation, and a single garnish name signals a whole assembly to the cooks. Dishes titled a la Valerri and Villeroi belong to the nineteenth-century French practice of naming a garnish after a person or place and then filing it alphabetically, which is why the chicken chapter reads like a dictionary. The Villeroi entry beside it names the same technique used here: coating cooked meat in a stiff reduced sauce, letting it set, then breading and frying, a method generally traced to eighteenth-century French service and prized because the sauce is sealed inside the crust. That such labour went into a plate of breast meat is the point of the book; Delmonico's brigade had the hands, and the dining room had the money.