No. 1873

Chickens Legs a la Saulniere—Bigarrures

Bigarrures de Cuisses de Poulet a la Saulniere

Bone the legs of some young chickens leaving on only half of the drumstick, season with salt and pepper, and fill the insides with chicken forcemeat (No. 89), mixing in with it one-third of cooked forcemeat (No. 73), and some chopped parsley; lard those taken from the right with medium lardons (No. 3, Fig. 52), and stud those taken from the left with truffles, covering these with thin slices of fat pork. Cook them in two low saucepans lined with fat pork and moistened with a mirepoix and white wine stock (No. 419); cover over with sheets of buttered paper, and cook in the oven. Glaze those that are larded, and when done drain and decorate with paper frills (No. 10). Dress in a circle filling up the interior space with a financiere garnishing (No. 667).

← No. 1872 Jambalaia of Chicken Chicken No. 1874 Chickens' Legs, American Style-Deviled →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade with a larding needle, a truffle basket and a stock pot always on. The dish is straightforward once you see what it is: boned stuffed chicken legs, braised, half of them larded and glazed, half studded with truffle and left pale, then ringed around a rich garnish.

What "bigarrures" meansBigarrure is variegation — a two-colour or mottled effect. The whole point is contrast on the platter: the larded legs are glazed to a dark shine, the truffled ones stay ivory under their fat pork. If you make them all the same way you have lost the dish.
Boning the legsTake whole legs, cut the thigh bone out from the inside without breaking the skin, and leave the lower half of the drumstick bone in as a handle. Chicken thigh skin is forgiving; work with a small sharp knife and keep the seam on what will be the underside.
The forcemeatRanhofer's No. 89 is a chicken forcemeat and No. 73 a cooked forcemeat, combined here in the proportion the recipe gives — one-third cooked to the rest. A modern mousseline — breast meat, egg white and cream in a processor, kept cold — stands in for both, at roughly two thirds the volume of the leg cavity. Do not overfill; the forcemeat swells.
Fat pork and lardons"Fat pork" throughout The Epicurean is fresh pork fatback or unsmoked salt pork, sliced thin as a barding sheet and used to line the pan. Salt pork should be blanched first. The lardons are batons of the same fat threaded through the meat with a larding needle; thin strips of unsmoked bacon or a slice of fatback wrapped around each leg achieve nearly the same protection.
Mirepoix and white wine stockNo. 419 is Ranhofer's mirepoix and white wine stock — a braising liquid of diced vegetables and wine let down with stock. It should come only a third of the way up the legs — this is a braise, not a poach.
Oven and timeRanhofer gives no temperature; a covered braise of this kind wants 325F. Buttered paper cut to the pan is a cartouche, and it works better than a lid because it lets a little liquid reduce. Figure 30 to 40 minutes for stuffed legs, and go by an internal reading of 165F in the forcemeat rather than by the clock.
GlazingTo glaze, strain the cooking liquid from the larded pan, reduce it to a syrup, and brush it over those legs repeatedly in a hot oven until they shine. The truffled legs are deliberately left unglazed.
Financiere garnishingNo. 667 is a financiere garnishing — cockscombs and cocks' kidneys, quenelles, mushrooms and truffle bound in a Madeira-scented demi-glace. Cockscombs are hard to come by; a garnish of small quenelles, buttoned mushrooms, and chopped truffle or truffle paste in a reduced Madeira sauce keeps the spirit of it.
Paper frills and yieldThe frill is a cuff of cut paper slipped over the exposed drumstick bone so it can be picked up — decorative, and entirely optional. Two legs per person; eight legs make a full ring on a dinner platter.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years in the kitchens of Delmonico's in New York, and this recipe shows the house style at full stretch: a cheap cut treated as a canvas. Boned, stuffed poultry legs were sometimes called jambonneaux in French kitchens for their little-ham shape, and larding — sewing strips of fat through lean meat with a needle — was still standard practice for anything braised. What dates the dish most is not the technique but the garnish: financière, built on cockscombs and cocks' kidneys, ingredients that belong to another era of provisioning. The showmanship of setting glazed legs against truffle-studded ones around a ring of garnish is pure Delmonico's, a kitchen that expected the platter to be looked at before it was eaten.