Chicken Fricassee - New Year, New Food

One of my goals for this year is to try at least one new recipe every 2 weeks. That may not seem like much, but considering I eat lunch and dinner at work almost every week day it only leaves the weekends for my fun experimenting. The reason for this is that I have a very large binder full of recipes I have been collecting since roughly 2007, most of which I have yet to try. I'm hoping that I can really start going through them and as I do I will choose what I want to keep/repeat and what can go.

Week 1/2: Chicken Fricassee. For those who aren't familiar with this dish, don't be alarmed, I wasn't either until I clipped it out of a magazine. It's a traditional French dish, halfway between a saute and a stew. One of my favorite things about it? One dish. In a home without a dishwasher these things come into play.

First you brown the chicken in the pot.

Then you remove the chicken and add the mirepoix (a French term which essentially means celery, onion, and carrots).

After allowing the mirepoix to soften you add the mushrooms.

Then you add the white wine, chicken broth, and put the chicken back into the pot along with the tied herbs.

Then you remove the chicken and herbs, allow the sauce to reduce a little, add the liaison (a thickener made of egg yolks and heavy cream). Add lemon juice and tarragon, and serve.

Somewhere around the middle of making this I realized how wrong it would be to make a traditional French dish without having homemade French bread as well, so naturally I whipped up some quick french bread rolls. For everyone's information quick and French bread might as well be an oxymoron since they take approximately 2 hours. 

 

The verdict: Delicious. Tip for anyone who considers making this - I would de-bone my individual piece of chicken next time before putting it in the bowl because it is rather hard to do while it's soaking in the sauce.

So far I am enjoying my new project. 2 new recipes down and they both turned out well. Good food. Plus cooking is such a joy and stress reliever. No matter how tough a day or week I have I can always trust that when I walk into my kitchen it all melts away like butter on a pan.