No. 1914

Chicken with Rice—Braised

Poulet Braise au riz

Draw a chicken weighing three pounds, break the breastbone and fill the inside with a good dressing composed of beef marrow and raw ham, a handful of bread-crumbs, one egg-yolk, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Sew up the opening on top and truss with the legs inside; bard nicely, and lay it in a saucepan proportionate to its size, with the giblets, a garnished bunch of parsley, (No. 123) two cloves, and some ham parings. Moisten to about its height with stock (No. 194a) from the stock pot retaining all the fat and let boil up briskly for five to six minutes; remove the saucepan on one side of the range to finish boiling the liquid slowly for half to three-quarters of an hour. Place half a pound of well-washed and lightly blanched rice into another saucepan, wet it with two-thirds of the chicken broth after straining it through a fine sieve; in case there be not sufficient add a little broth; cook eighteen to twenty minutes on a hot fire; it should be softened and sufficiently dried; remove and finish by stirring in with a fork, a piece of butter, also a dash of nutmeg. Dress the rice on a dish, lay the chicken on top after draining and untrussing it, then serve. A small handful of grated parmesan cheese may be added to the rice if desired. Serve separately the remaining third of the stock reduced to a half-glaze.

← No. 1913 Chicken with Noodles, Macaroni, Ravioles, or Chicken No. 1915 Chicken with Tarragon—Braised →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes a stockpot always on the range and a cook who can read "barded" and "half-glaze" without help. The dish itself is simple: a stuffed chicken poached in rich stock, the stock then used to cook the rice and finished as a sauce.

The hinge: temperature, not the clockHalf to three-quarters of an hour at a bare simmer will not reliably bring a stuffed 3 lb bird to a safe temperature. Cook until the thigh and the centre of the stuffing both read 165F; expect longer than the book allows, and test rather than trust.
"Draw" and "bard"Drawing is removing the innards, already done on any supermarket bird — keep the giblets, they go in the pan. Barding is wrapping the breast in sheet fat; thin-sliced pork back fat or a couple of layers of unsmoked streaky bacon do the job and keep the breast from drying in the broth.
Beef marrowAsk a butcher for marrow bones and scoop the raw marrow out, or buy it pre-scooped frozen. About 3–4 oz is right for a bird this size. It melts into the crumbs and gives the dressing its richness; suet is a poor substitute, butter a passable one.
Raw ham and ham parings"Raw ham" here means dry-cured, uncooked ham — prosciutto, serrano or speck. The parings are the scraps and rind, thrown into the braising liquid for savour and then discarded.
The cross-referencesNo. 123 is Ranhofer's garnished bunch of parsley, his bouquet garni; No. 194a is the stockpot stock he calls for here. Good unsalted chicken stock stands in for both purposes, and "retaining all the fat" matters — the fat is what enriches the rice.
Rice quantitiesHalf a pound is about a cup and a quarter of long-grain rice. Two-thirds of the strained braising liquid should come to roughly 2 1/2 cups; measure it and top up rather than guess. Eighteen to twenty minutes covered on a low flame, not "a hot fire", or the bottom scorches before the grain softens.
Half-glazeThe remaining third of the liquid is boiled down until syrupy enough to coat a spoon. Skim it as it reduces and salt only at the end, since reduction concentrates whatever salt the stock and ham already carry.
YieldA 3 lb bird with half a pound of rice serves four generously as a main course.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York across two spells, roughly 1862-1876 and 1879-1896, and The Epicurean (1894) is essentially his professional system set down in print — the endless cross-references to numbered stocks, garnishes and sauces are how a brigade kitchen actually worked, each cook drawing on preparations already standing on the stove. Poulet braisé au riz is a straightforwardly French treatment: the bird poached in stock from the stockpot, retaining all the fat, rather than roasted, the cooking liquid recovered twice over, once to cook the rice and once as sauce, so nothing is wasted. The optional parmesan and the marrow-and-ham stuffing might be read as pointing toward the Italian side of nineteenth-century French cookery. Beef marrow was a standard richening agent in period kitchens and appears throughout The Epicurean; it has largely disappeared from home cooking since.