Poule au pot with caper and shallot cream
Poule au pot with caper and shallot cream
Leave out the chicken livers from the stuffing if you prefer, but if so increase the amount of bacon by 50g (1¾oz). You don’t have to serve the cream sauce and it isn’t authentic, just something I do myself. A pot of Dijon mustard suffices, or go Italian and serve with Salsa verde
Ingrediënten
FOR THE STUFFING
- 15 g ½oz unsalted butter
- 150 g 5½oz bacon, chopped
- 1 small onion finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves finely chopped
- 2 chicken livers chopped
- 60 g 2oz fresh breadcrumbs
- 1 small egg lightly beaten
- handful of chopped parsley
- good grating of fresh nutmeg
- finely grated zest of ½ lemon
FOR THE CHICKEN
- 1.4 kg 3lb 3½oz chicken
- 3 leeks
- 1 celery stick
- 3 sprigs of thyme
- small bunch of parsley stalks
- 2 bay leaves
- 8 black peppercorns
- 1 onion quartered
- 12 slim carrots peeled
- 1.5 litres 2 pints 13fl oz chicken stock, or water
- about 12 small waxy potatoes
FOR THE SAUCE
- juice of ½ lemon
- 300 ml ½ pint double cream
- leaves from 2 sprigs of tarragon chopped
- 2 tsp finely chopped parsley
- 3 tbsp capers rinsed
- 2 small shallots finely chopped
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Instructies
- To make the stuffing, melt the butter in a frying pan and add the bacon and onion.
- Sauté until the onion is soft and pale gold.
- Add the garlic and chicken livers and cook for a couple of minutes more.
- Put into a bowl, add all the other ingredients and season well.
- Remove the fat from round the cavity of the chicken and stuff it, sewing it up with a poultry needle, or using a couple of skewers to keep it secure.
- Tie up the chicken legs to keep the shape neat (not essential but it does look better).
- Remove the coarser outer leaves from the leeks and cut off the dark tops and trim the bases.
- Cut into 6cm (2½in) lengths and wash thoroughly to remove any trapped soil.
- Cut the celery in half and tie it in a bundle with the thyme, parsley stalks and bay leaves to make a nice fat bouquet garni.
- Put this into a pot with the chicken, peppercorns, quartered onion, carrots and stock or water.
- Bring to the boil, then immediately reduce the heat, cover and cook really gently for 1½ hours.
- Fifteen minutes before the end of cooking time, add the leeks and boil the potatoes (I like to cook the potatoes separately or they make the broth cloudy).
- Remove the onion and the bouquet garni.
- To make the sauce, add the lemon juice to the cream – it will thicken as you stir it in – then add everything else.
- Check for seasoning and balance.
- A whole chicken that’s been poached – without browning – isn’t a thing of beauty, so I tend to remove the meat and put it on a platter with the vegetables and stuffing and provide a big jug of the broth (or you can prepare a single plate for each person).
- I like it best served in soup plates (there’s room for the broth).
- Offer the creamy sauce, or whatever sauce you want to serve, and some Dijon mustard on the side.
