No. 1878

Pilau of Chickens

Pilau de Poulets

Cut up in four pieces each, two small chickens weighing no more than a pound and three-quarters apiece, obtaining two legs, two breasts, fry them for a few moments in butter, then moisten to their height with stock (No. 194a), adding a bunch of parsley garnished with aromatics, and seasoning with salt, pepper, and spices; cook the whole slowly, being most particular to remove the tenderest pieces as rapidly as they are done and transfer them into another saucepan; strain the stock, remove its fat, and pour the liquid over the meats with four gills of boiling stock added, and then throw in half a pint of Carolina rice for every quart of broth, and a little powdered saffron; cook the rice for ten minutes on a good fire then withdraw it to the corner of the stove to continue cooking for ten minutes longer; the rice should now be dry and tender; finish by taking it off the fire, and incorporating into it two ounces of fresh butter divided in small pats. Dress the stew in a deep dish or else a vegetable dish.

← No. 1877 Chickens' Legs, Puree of Jerusalem Artichoke Chicken No. 1879 Chickens a la Championne—Roasted →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's pilau is a braise and a rice pilaf cooked in the same broth, and the whole thing depends on not overcooking the white meat. Read the sequence before starting.

Pull the breasts earlyThe instruction to "remove the tenderest pieces as rapidly as they are done" is the hinge of the dish. Breast pieces are done in roughly 15 minutes of gentle simmering; legs and thighs want 30 to 35. Leave them in together and the breast turns to string while the rice is still raw.
Gills and pintsA gill is half a cup, so four gills of boiling stock is two cups. The ratio that matters is half a pint of rice (one cup) to every quart (four cups) of broth — generous for long-grain.
Carolina riceA long-grain white rice, the standard American table rice of the period, grown in the Lowcountry. Any long-grain white rice stands in; do not use short-grain or parboiled, which will not go "dry and tender" in twenty minutes.
The corner of the stoveOn a coal range this was the cool zone. On a modern hob it means the lowest possible heat with the pan covered — ten minutes of active boiling, then ten minutes of steaming undisturbed. Do not stir during the second stage.
Stock No. 194aRanhofer's cross-reference to a white broth. A good low-sodium chicken stock is the practical substitute; season at the end, since the liquid reduces into the rice.
"Spices"The recipe does not say which; a mixed blend of the quatre-épices type — nutmeg, clove and a little cinnamon — is a reasonable reading, since pepper is already listed separately. A small pinch is enough alongside the saffron.
SaffronSteep a good pinch of threads in a few spoonfuls of the hot stock and add that liquid with the rice.
Mounting with butterThe two ounces of butter go in off the heat, in small pats, forked through rather than stirred hard, so the grains stay separate and glossy.
Birds and yieldTwo chickens of 1 3/4 lb each are smaller than a standard supermarket broiler. Two 2 lb birds, or a single 3 1/2 lb chicken cut into eight, will do; the dish serves four.

A Little History

Pilau reaches English kitchens by a long route — Persian pilāw through Ottoman Turkish pilav, picked up by British writers in India and by the French as pilaf or pilau. By the time Charles Ranhofer set it down in The Epicurean (1894), drawing on his long service as chef at Delmonico's in New York, the word had settled into French professional cooking as a technique: meat braised in stock, the stock then used to cook rice to dryness in a measured ratio. The Carolina rice he specifies was the benchmark American grain of the nineteenth century, from the tidal plantations of South Carolina and Georgia. The saffron, the bunch of parsley and the butter forked in at the end place the dish nearer the Mediterranean line of rice cookery than the Indian one — no curry powder, no chilli.