Chicken Fricassee with Crustacean Sauce

Wash in plenty of water, then cook four dozen crawfish with white wine, an onion, parsley roots, thyme, bay leaf, a grain of pepper and salt; let cook over a brisk fire for five minutes, and after the first boil strain the broth through a fine sieve, then through a napkin; let it settle and pour the top off gently. Detach the tails from the crawfish bodies, pick out the meats, trim and keep them hot while covered. Chop up the tail parings and the claw meats, mix with an equal quantity of cooked chopped mushrooms, season and add a very thick bechamel (No. 409) reduced with a little chicken glaze (No. 398) so as to have a consistent preparation, then season with a coffeespoon of prepared red paper (No. 168); keep this in a bain-marie. Fasten a fried bread support on a dish. Put into a sautoir containing butter, two two-pound chickens each one divided into five pieces and parboiled in water, removing them at the first broil to drain, and fry in butter, keeping them white; season, dredge over a tablespoonful of flour for each chicken, moisten gradually with hot broth (No. 194a) and boil the liquid without ceasing to stir, letting it be in this state for eight to ten minutes; finish cooking the chickens over a slow fire. Use the crawfish hash to fill some hollow semicircular crusts; cover this with a layer of the reduced thick bechamel (No. 409) bestrew with grated parmesan and glaze under a salamander (Fig. 123); when the chickens are ready dress them on the dish leaning against the prepared support intercalating them with the crawfish tails; reduce the sauce by incorporating into it a few spoonfuls of the crawfish liquor and thicken with four egg-yolks and half a gill of cream, finishing with red butter (No. 580). Strain some of this over the chickens and serve the remainder in a sauce-boat; surround the chickens with the filled crusts after they are baked and browned.