Poule au Pot
This recipe is the brainchild of Henry IV of France who,
despite having 56 mistresses, was happily married to his second wife, Marie de
Medici, who was addicted to eating globe artichokes for their supposed
aphrodisiac qualities, and having ended religious wars and rebuilt French
commerce and industry, turned what remained of his energies to improving the
lot of the peasants of France.
This is his recipe, which de dictated saying,
If I
were granted more years to live I would make it so every family in the Kingdom
could have a chicken for dinner each Sunday.
Poule au pot is cooked in a large pot, in boiling water for
90 minutes. It takes 2 litres of water, and the result is copious quantities of
brilliant stock, amazing flavoured sauce, plus cooked vegetables and chicken
with a flavour you wouldn’t believe.
Boiling is so much more
efficient than roasting, allowing us to stuff the bird safely, something
frowned upon in more conventional cooking. The downside: roasted chicken skin,
which I love, but to be honest, there are so many wonderful flavours in this
meal I didn’t miss it that much.
The meat
A 1.8 Kg chicken and a few slices of belly pork, around
about 500 g, which are both boiled together.
The vegetables
There are
two sets of vegetables for this dish. The first is to flavour the stock and the
second to serve at table. The first consists of all those vegetables at the
bottom of the fridge, the old onion, the green tops of leeks, some cabbage,
overly large and split carrots.
The second are whatever you want from potatoes to turnips.
Once the chicken is cooked, the whole lot is removed from the stock, and the
new vegetables are allowed to cook in the stock until they are tender.
Forcemeat
The origin of the word forcemeat comes from the action –
you force the meat into the cavity, in other words to stuff.
Ingredients
300 g
breadcrumbs
2 garlic
cloves
100 g
gherkins
1 tbs
Dijon mustard
3 rashers
bacon
100 g
belly pork
1 chopped
onion
1/4 tsp
Pepper
This
stuffing is based around breadcrumbs, and all the ingredients are minced in a
food processor.
Force all the stuffing into the cavity, really pushing it
home with the spoon. Then pull the skin from the vent into position and it is
time to truss the bird.
Cooking the poule au pot
Place the
chicken into a large stock pot. Liberally cover the bird with cold water and
add all your collected vegetables. The more the merrier really. If you have
enough garlic, cut the whole bulb in half and add both halves, as well as about
500 g belly pork.
Bring to
the boil and cook for 90 minutes on a low but steady simmer.
Around about an hour into the cooking, test for seasoning.
The sauce
Take about a third of the stock and reduce by about half
by gentle simmering. Add about 30 ml white wine. You can thicken with a little
cornflour if you prefer, or if you wish to be terribly English, make a full on
gravy.
No comments:
Post a Comment