Chickens, Hunter's Style—Sauted

Pick out three good chickens of about two and a half pounds each, draw, singe, then clean well and extract all the small pin feathers, cut them each up into seven pieces, the two wings, two legs, two pieces of the back and one of the breast bone; season with salt and pepper; melt six ounces of butter in a sautoir until it becomes a fine golden color, then lay in the pieces of chicken and toss them well; when they acquire a fine light brown on one side, turn them over to brown likewise on the other, cover the sautoir and finish cooking on a very slow fire or in the oven. When the meats are well done, drain off the butter and detach the glaze with a little stock (No. 194a). Fry colorless in butter a large pinch of chopped shallot, moisten with half a bottleful of red or white Burgundy wine, reduce to half, then add a pint of espagnole sauce (No. 414) and simmer the whole for a few moments, season well, and when the sauce is properly reduced, return the chickens to it, put it back on the fire to remove at the first boil and add three ounces of cooked, lean ham cut up in one-eighth of an inch squares, slice three onions across, having them two inches in diameter by three-sixteenths of an inch in thickness, remove the largest rings and roll them in flour, then fry a few at the time in plenty of fat; dress the chickens and use these rings to garnish the top, decorate the stumps of the legs and the pinions with paper frills (No. 10) and serve immediately.