No. 837

Attereaux of Chicken a la d'Antin

Attereaux de Poulet a la d'Antin

Braise the chickens and leave them to cool in their stock; remove the fillets, pare them of their fat, and take away all the skin and bones; cut them up into three-sixteenths of an inch thick slices, and then into one inch squares. Cut up some mushrooms the same size and thickness, and as much truffles; put all of these in a dish and cover with allemande sauce (No. 407), having it well reduced; mix into this sauce some chervil chopped finely and cooked colorless in butter, also some fresh mushrooms, truffles, and a little chopped parsley and tarragon. When the ingredients are almost cold, thread first a square of chicken, then one of mushroom, and one of truffle; cover evenly with the remainder of the sauce, having it nearly cold; let cool off completely, pare them of uniform shape then roll in bread-crumbs, dip in beaten egg smoothing the bread-crumbs neatly with the blade of a knife, and fry in hot frying fat until they attain a fine color, and the heat has penetrated them throughout. Dress on a folded napkin with fried parsley on top.

← No. 836 Attereaux of Beef Palate Hot Side Dishes No. 838 Attereaux of Fat Livers →

For the Modern Kitchen

An attereau is a small skewer of cooked garnish bound in stiff sauce, chilled solid, breaded and deep-fried. Everything depends on the sauce setting hard enough to hold the shape.

The hinge: reduce the sauce further than feels rightThe allemande must be reduced to the consistency of a thick paste that sets firmly when cold, not a pouring sauce. If it stays soft in the refrigerator, the coating will burst in the fryer and the skewer will unravel.
Allemande sauceAllemande is a velouté finished with an egg-yolk liaison and generally sharpened with lemon; whatever Ranhofer's No. 407 gives you, it needs reducing hard for this use. Any thick velouté enriched with yolks will do; hold it below a simmer once the yolks go in or it will curdle.
Chill in stagesThread the skewers while the mixture is barely warm and still workable, coat them, then chill until rigid before paring and breading. The recipe's instruction to pare them to a uniform shape is far easier once the sauce is cold and firm.
Breading orderThe original says crumbs, then egg, then smooth the crumbs — it can be read as the standard sequence of crumb, egg, crumb, with a final pass of fine dry crumbs pressed flat with a knife blade.
TrufflesFresh black truffle at the volume implied here is now a luxury purchase. Preserved truffle peelings, or simply a larger proportion of well-browned mushroom with a few drops of truffle oil, keep the texture and the colour contrast.
Braising the chickenA bird braised in stock and cooled in its liquid gives firm, sliceable breast meat; poaching and cooling in the broth works the same way. The meat must be fully cold before slicing to three-sixteenths of an inch — roughly 5 mm.
Frying temperature375°F. Hotter and the crumbs colour before the centre warms through; cooler and the coating absorbs fat and the sauce softens and leaks. Two to three minutes is enough since everything inside is already cooked.
SkewersOrnamental metal hatelets were used for this kind of grand-service dish; short bamboo skewers, soaked, are the practical substitute, trimmed so they do not scorch in the fat.
Yield and serviceThe recipe gives no yield, and calls for chickens in the plural; a single bird will make a dozen or so skewers. The folded napkin is a period presentation that also blots fat — a rack or paper does the same job.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York, and The Epicurean (1894) is essentially that restaurant's working repertoire set down in print. Attereaux belong to a class of grand-service dishes in which a fine salpicon is bound in reduced sauce, set hard, breaded and fried, a technique shared with croquettes and cromesquis. The suffix à la d'Antin follows the nineteenth-century French habit of attaching aristocratic names to garnishes; the duc d'Antin was a figure of Louis XIV's court, and no connection between the man and the dish is documented. What the recipe really records is a kitchen with cold braised chicken, trimmed truffle and reduced velouté on hand and a need to turn them into something that arrived at the table looking deliberate.