No. 1869

Chicken, Marinade Sauce—Fried

Poulet Friteau a la Sauce Marinade

Cut off the stumps and pinions from two chickens each one a pound and a half in weight, singe, draw and free them well of their pin feathers, cut them both into five pieces, two legs, two wings and the breast, suppress the second joint bones from the legs and the wish bone from the breast. Lay the pieces in a vessel to season and marinate in oil and lemon juice with sliced onions and parsley leaves; a quarter of an hour before serving, drain off the chickens, wipe them nicely on a cloth, dip in cold milk, roll in flour and plunge one piece at the time in hot frying fat, observing that those taking the longest to cook must be the first ones to be put in; fry them to a nice color, but not too rapidly, as fast as one piece is done, take it out and drain it on a cloth, salt over and dress in a pyramid on a folded napkin. Send to the table accompanied by a sauce-boatful of marinade sauce (No. 496), or else a poivrade sauce (No. 522), or a green sauce (No. 473).

← No. 1868 Chicken Fricassee with Curry Chicken No. 1870 Chicken, Medicis—Fried →

For the Modern Kitchen

A late-nineteenth-century fried chicken: marinated in oil and lemon, dipped in milk rather than egg, and served dry with a sharp sauce alongside. Most of the work is butchery and heat control.

The birdsTwo chickens of a pound and a half each are small broilers, well under the size of a modern roasting bird. One 3 to 3½ lb supermarket chicken cut into five pieces gives roughly the same quantity of meat, though the pieces will be larger and need longer in the fat.
Stumps, pinions, singeingThe pinion is the last wing joint, cut away here; the stumps are the leg ends left after the feet are removed. Singeing burns off remaining hairs over a flame, and drawing means removing the innards — neither is necessary with a modern dressed bird, though a check for pin feathers is still worth a minute.
Boning the jointsSuppressing the second joint bone means removing the thigh bone, and the wishbone comes out of the breast. Both make the pieces easier to eat and help them cook evenly; a small boning knife and five minutes will do it.
Marinating timeRanhofer gives no duration, only that the pieces are drained a quarter of an hour before serving. One to three hours in the refrigerator is sensible. Longer than that in lemon juice and the surface of the breast turns opaque and mealy.
Dry before flourThe wiping on a cloth is the hinge of the recipe. Oil-slick chicken will not take an even coat, and residual marinade in the flour spits violently in hot fat. Wipe, dip in cold milk, then flour immediately before frying.
Fat temperature"Not too rapidly" points to a moderate frying heat rather than a fierce one — in modern terms somewhere in the region of 325–350°F. Higher and the flour browns before the thighs are through; the instruction to start the slowest pieces first assumes a single pot and a staggered finish. Cook to 165°F at the bone.
The accompanying saucesAll three cross-references are sharp: marinade sauce and poivrade are sharpened with vinegar and pepper, and green sauce is a herb sauce. Any tart, herbal sauce serves the same purpose — the chicken itself is seasoned only with salt after frying.
YieldTen pieces, serving four generously as a main course. The pyramid on a folded napkin is period presentation; the napkin absorbed fat, and a wire rack does it better.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York for over thirty years, and The Epicurean (1894) is his attempt to set down the whole French repertoire as it was cooked for American diners. Poulet friteau — friteau being a culinary term for a fried item, as with fritot — is the deep-fried treatment of a young bird, and the marinade of oil, lemon, onion and parsley is the standard French marinade instantan\me chicken to frogs' legs to salsify.", "x":1}