No. 1911

Chickens a la Stuyvesant—Poele

Poulets Poeles a la Stuyvesant

Have two good chickens weighing three pounds each; truss them for entree (No. 178) and cook them as explained under the heading to poeler (No. 12); when done properly, drain, untruss and cut them up into five or six pieces, dress them in a pyramid form on a layer of forcemeat three-quarters of an inch thick, poached on the same dish intended for the table, and surround with a circle of channeled mushrooms (No. 118), new carrots cut pear-shaped and blanched, then cooked in stock (No. 194a) with a little sugar; throw some very small cooked green peas over the whole, also a printaniere sauce (No. 546) and send to the table with some of the same sauce served separately.

← No. 1910 Chickens a la Leonia—Boiled Chicken No. 1912 Chickens, English Style—Boiled →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a Delmonico's assembly recipe: nearly every step points to a numbered entry elsewhere in Ranhofer's book, so the page is a plan of construction rather than a set of instructions. The points below translate the technique and the vocabulary.

Poêler is the hingeTo poêler is to cook the birds in a covered pot with plenty of butter, often on a bed of aromatic vegetables, basting frequently, so that they steam and baste rather than roast dry; Ranhofer's own entry (No. 12) is the authority for his version. A heavy Dutch oven with the lid on in a moderate oven is roughly the equivalent, but the book gives no temperature and no timing, so any figures are modern guesswork.
Chicken sizeRanhofer's three-pound chickens are presumably dressed weight on a young bird. A modern 3 to 3 1/2 lb chicken is the closest match; noticeably larger birds are harder to cook evenly in a covered pot.
Trussing and carvingTrussing for entree (No. 178) holds the bird in a compact shape through the cooking, with the legs drawn tight against the body and the wings pinned. Five or six pieces would ordinarily mean the legs, the wings and the breast divided, though Ranhofer does not specify the division.
The forcemeat baseA three-quarter-inch layer of forcemeat, unspecified here, is spread on the serving dish and poached on it, so the platter must be able to take heat and be warmed gently until the forcemeat is set. It functions as an edible platform for the pyramid of chicken.
Channeled mushroomsChanneled, or turned, mushrooms are firm white caps cut with shallow spiral grooves using the tip of a paring knife, then cooked in butter, lemon and water to keep them white. Purely decorative; whole small caps cooked the same way lose nothing but the flourish.
Pear-shaped carrotsYoung carrots trimmed to small tapered ovals, blanched, then finished in stock with a pinch of sugar until glazed. This is the same operation as modern glazed carrots, done with a knife first.
Printaniere sauceThe recipe keys this to No. 546 in The Epicurean, a velouté-type sauce finished with butter; that entry should be consulted for what Ranhofer intended. A well-reduced chicken veloute mounted with butter will stand in.
YieldTwo three-pound birds cut into five or six pieces each serve six to eight as a main course, given the forcemeat and vegetable garnish.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) records the repertoire of Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York for more than thirty years, and its naming habits are those of a restaurant that flattered its clientele: dishes a la Stuyvesant, a la Leonia. Stuyvesant is one of the oldest names in Dutch New York, and attaching it to a poeled chicken places the dish squarely in the world of Gilded Age private dining rooms rather than in any regional tradition. The technique itself is thoroughly French. Poeler occupies a middle ground between roasting and braising, and it suited a young bird meant to reach the table whole-flavored and moist, in a form that could be carved and rebuilt into an architectural presentation. The pyramid on a poached forcemeat base, ringed with turned vegetables, belongs to the manner of service in which the kitchen did the carving, and the platter arrived already composed.