No. 1877

Chickens' Legs, Puree of Jerusalem Artichokes—Fried

Cuisses de Poulets Frites a la Puree de Topinambours

Remove the first joint bones, season and fry the legs in butter with finely shredded carrots, onions and leeks, adding parsley, thyme and bay leaf. Moisten with stock (No. 194a) and white wine and let simmer slowly until thoroughly done, then turn them on a deep dish, covering them entirely with their stock and leave them to cool off in this; dip each piece in beaten eggs, then roll in bread-crumbs and fry to a fine color. Dress them in a circle over a puree of Jerusalem artichokes (No. 704) serving with a separate half-glaze sauce (No. 413).

← No. 1876 Chickens' Legs in Papers Chicken No. 1878 Pilau of Chickens →

For the Modern Kitchen

A two-stage dish: the legs are braised in an aromatic stock, chilled in that stock until the gelatin sets them firm, then crumbed and fried. Ranhofer's cross-references send you to three other recipes in the book, all of which have straightforward modern equivalents.

The hinge: chill them completelyThe legs must go cold and firm in their own stock before breading, ideally several hours or overnight in the refrigerator. Warm braised legs shed their coating in the fryer and fall apart when turned.
"Remove the first joint bones"Ranhofer's phrase is ambiguous; it is usually read as taking out one of the two leg bones (most likely the drumstick) and leaving the other as a handle, though you may bone both joints for a flat cutlet. Trim the exposed knuckle so the crumb has a clean edge to grip.
The cross-referencesNo. 194a is one of Ranhofer's stocks; ordinary chicken stock serves. No. 704 is his puree of Jerusalem artichokes. No. 413 is half-glaze, that is, demi-glace: a well-reduced brown sauce, sometimes finished with a little madeira or sherry. A well-reduced brown chicken stock is a fair substitute.
Braising timeAbout 40 to 50 minutes at a bare simmer, uncovered enough to keep it gentle. "Thoroughly done" here means the meat pulls easily from the bone, well past the 165F food-safety mark; that softness is the point of the method.
FryingThe second fry is only for color and crust, since the meat is already cooked. Deep or shallow fry at 350–375F for two to three minutes a side. Hotter and the crumb browns before the interior warms through.
Jerusalem artichokesSold now as sunchokes. Peel or scrub, simmer in salted water or milk until tender, and puree with butter and cream; they are watery, so drain well or the puree will not hold a mound. They contain inulin rather than starch and are notoriously gas-forming for some people.
The aromatics"finely shredded" carrot, onion and leek means a fine julienne. The recipe simply covers the legs with their stock; straining it first will give a smoother set surface.
YieldThe recipe gives no yield. As a rough guide, two legs per person as a course; four legs, about a pound of sunchokes and a cup or so of demi-glace should serve two.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer wrote The Epicurean (1894) out of some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York. The technique of braising meat, setting it cold in its own gelatinous stock, then crumbing and frying it is the same one behind French pieds de porc panés and the crisp-outside, yielding-inside croquette family generally. Jerusalem artichokes, topinambours in French, are a North American sunflower tuber that traveled to Europe in the seventeenth century and are often said to have been more familiar on French tables than on American ones. The name has nothing to do with Jerusalem and is usually traced to a corruption of the Italian girasole, though that derivation is traditional rather than firmly documented.