Julia Child's Chicken Fricassee

I was inspired to make another Julia Child dinner because her birthday recently passed on August 15. I wanted to honor her for her birthday and attempt to make another French dish that Eric and I would love.  I wanted something traditional and hearty for our Sunday dinner at home, and when I read the passage on Chicken Fricassee it was a nice combination of braising and sauteing. Chicken Fricassee seemed to be an easier recipe to tackle versus my attempt at Boeuf Bourguignon, both dishes had similar cooking techniques that I was very comfortable for preparing a wonderful Sunday dinner.

This is a classic chicken dish that is served with a wonderful buttery and aromatic sauce. The wonderful white-braised onions is unbelievably tasty and really adds to the dish. (Don't skip that step!) Please take note, that dish does take a lengthy time to prepare. Eric came into the kitchen while I was preparing dinner, and said "Wow you are using all 4 burners for this?" I kinda laughed it off because it doesn't happen too often, and I told him to be ready to wash because I used lots of pots and pans, too. Set aside some time to prepare this for your next family Sunday dinner because it is truly one remarkable meal. I served the Chicken Fricassee with steamed basmati rice and nice glass of Cabernet Sauvignon from Rutherford Ranch. Happy Birthday Julia Child, you are still lovingly missed! Bon appétit!

Julia Child's Chicken Fricassee (Fricassee De Poulet A L'Ancienne)
Adapted from Mastering the Art of French Cooking: Volume 1
Ingredients:
3 pounds of chicken (mixture of drumsticks and thighs - or you can cut up a fryer chicken)
4 tablespoons of butter
2 medium-sized carrots, diced finely
2 celery stalk, diced finely
1 medium white onion, diced finely
Salt & white pepper
3 tablespoon flour
3 cups of chicken stock, boiling hot
1 cup of dry white wine
Small herb bouquet: (2 parsley springs, 2 thyme sprigs, and 1 bay leaf - tied in a cheesecloth)
2 egg yolks
½ cup heavy whipping cream
Dash of fresh nutmeg
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
2 tablespoon butter, room temperature
1 tablespoon of Italian parsley, chopped

White-Braised Onions (Oignons Glacés à Blanc) Recipe below
Fresh Stewed Mushrooms (Champignons à Blanc) Recipe below

Preparation:

Prepare the white-braised onions - this step takes about 45 to 50 minutes. By the time the onions are finished cooking - your chicken fricassee should be finished as well. Recipe below.

Heat a large dutch oven on medium-high heat, and add the butter. Sauté the mirepoix (carrots, celery and onions) and cook until tender - about 5 minutes. Push mirepoix to the far end of the pot, and make room for the chicken. Turn the heat up on high.

Pat the chicken pieces down with a paper towel, and place in the dutch oven - skin side down. Cook the chicken for 3 to 4 minutes or until golden yellow. Flip the chicken and brown the other side. Lower the heat and cover the dutch oven. Let it cook for 10 minutes.

Remove the cover and season the chicken with salt, white pepper and flour. Make sure the chicken is well-seasoned, rotating the chicken pieces to season it. Mix the mirepoix with the chicken and let it cook for another 4 minutes.

Turn off the heat, and add the boiling hot chicken stock and wine to the pot. The liquid should start to thicken in color and mix well. Add the herb bouquet to the middle of the dutch oven, and make sure the liquid covers the chicken and add additional chicken stock or water if needed. Taste for seasoning and salt/pepper if needed.

Cover the dutch oven and cook at a low simmer for 25 minutes. While the chicken cooks away on the stove, prepare the stewed mushrooms and steamed rice. (Prepare rice to your liking. This is my foolproof way of making rice. In a small pot, add 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter, 1 teaspoon of salt and one cup of rice. Add 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil, and cover and bring the heat down to a low simmer. Cook for 15 to 17 minutes, and fluff rice when done).

Remove the cover from the dutch oven, and increase heat to high. Let the sauce reduce and it should be thick enough to coat a spoon. Taste for seasonings, add salt/pepper if needed.

In a small bowl, add the egg yolks and heavy cream and whisk it together. Temper the hot liquid sauce with the egg mixture a couple spoonfuls at a time. Be careful to not let the eggs scramble, and when the mixture is up, add the egg liquid mixture into the dutch oven. Mix well and the sauce should be a beautiful golden liquid.

Bring the dutch oven to a boil and taste for seasonings. Salt and pepper if needed. Add the lemon juice and a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg. Turn down the heat to a low simmer and add the white-braised onions and stewed mushrooms into the dutch oven, and stir well. Add 2 tablespoons of softened butter and chopped fresh Italian parsley and stir again. Serve the chicken fricassee with a plate of steamed rice and garnish with additional Italian parsley if desired.

White-Braised Onions(Oignons Glacés à Blanc):
Note: Quickest way to remove the skins, add to a pot of boiling water and shock them for 5 to 10 seconds. Quickly remove them and run cold water over them. Trim the top and bottoms, and skins should peel off quickly. Or use freezer onions, too.
18 to 24 peeled white onions
½ cup of chicken stock or dry white wine
2 tablespoons butter
Salt & pepper to taste
Small herb bouquet (2 parsley sprigs, 2 thyme sprigs and 1 bay leaf tied in a cheesecloth)

In a medium skillet on low heat, add the onions, butter, chicken stock, seasonings and herb bouquet. Cover and let it simmer for 45 to 50 minutes. If any liquid evaporates, add more if needed. The onions should sweeten and tender over the cooking process and should not break its shape. Set aside when ready to use. (This is the most heavenly way to prepare onions...I could eat them like this everyday of the week if I could!)

Fresh Stewed Mushrooms(Champignons à Blanc):
8 ounces of fresh baby bella mushrooms, chopped and quartered
juice of half lemon
1 tablespoon butter
½ cup water
Salt & pepper

Bring the water, butter, lemon juice to boil in a small saucepan. Add the mushrooms and stir them around to make sure the liquid covers them. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Set aside until ready to use.

Review: What a marvelous and highly enjoyable French Sunday dinner, and even though Julia claims it to be a straight-forward and easy dinner to prepare...with all the steps included - it literally took me about 2 hours. I consider myself pretty fast and efficient in the kitchen, but it was really all worth the effort and time. The most important key to preparing this dish is your mise en place, making sure all your key ingredients are chopped up and ready to go. The end result was a beautiful chicken dish topped with a delicious and buttery-rich mushroom/onion sauce that is still lingering on the tips of my tongue. DELISH! I bet Julia would be proud of my accomplishment.

Potatoes Sautéed in Butter

I couldn't decide which way I wanted to prepare the potato to go along with the Boeuf Bourguignon. I immediately thought that about mashed potatoes, because the sauce from the Bourguignon would act like gravy on top of it and it would have been easier to prepare.  But as suggested by Julia, she lists boiled potatoes to traditionally accompany the dish. You want something simple to balance the substantial cut of beef, and butter and potatoes is ideal. I'll take your word for it Julia, and oh my goodness butter does make everything better. This side dish proves it!

Potatoes Sautéed in Butter
Adapted from Julia Child - Mastering the Art of French Cooking
Ingredients:
2 pounds "boiling" or baby potatoes, peeled
3 to 4 tablespoons clarified butter or 2 tablespoons of butter & 1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons of minced thyme and more butter for garnish
Preparation:
1. Prepare the potatoes, boil them for 15 minutes until boiling hot. Remove and drain. Pat dry with a towel.
2. Add enough butter and oil to the skillet to film it by 1/16 inch and set over moderately high heat. When the butter foam in the butter and oil mixture begins to subside, put the potatoes in the skillet. Leave them for 2 minutes, regulating heat so butter is always very hot but not coloring. Then shake the skillet back and forth to roll the potatoes and to sear them on another side for 2 minutes. Continue thus for 4 to 5 minutes more until the potatoes are a pale golden color all over, indicating that a seared, protective film has formed over them, so that they will not stick to the pan.
3. Then sprinkle the potatoes with salt and roll them again in the skillet.
4. Lower heat, cover the skillet, and cook the potatoes for about 15 minutes, shaking them every 3 to 4 minutes to prevent their sticking to the skillet, and to insure an even coloring. *It's a beautiful golden brown, and smells like buttery heaven.*
5. The potatoes are done when they yield slightly to the pressure of your finger and have a nice, fairly even, golden brown color.
6. Then off heat, add 2 tablespoons of softened butter, and herbs, sprinkle with a little bit of salt and pepper and roll the potatoes in the skillet.

Review: My new favorite way to eat potatoes! Very delectable and a buttery heaven.

Buttered Peas

This was a beautiful side dish to accompany the wonderful Boeuf Bourguignon. It's a very simple and fundamental process to enjoy the beautiful vegetable. I did one minor cheat for this recipe, I used frozen peas, which are sweeter and frozen at the beginning stages of within harvest. Fresh peas aren't available until later in season around June or so. There's nothing wrong using frozen peas just as long as you find good frozen peas, but I found organic sweet peas found at my local farmers market.

Buttered Peas
Adapted from Julia Child - Mastering the Art of French Cooking
Ingredients:
3 pounds of very tender, sweet, youn, fresh green peas (3 cups, shelled) or 1 pound frozen peas
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 to 1 tablespoon sugar (depending on sweetness of peas)
Salt & pepper
6 tablespoons butter, formed into little shells or cut into pieces
Preparation:
1. Drop the frozen peas into rapidly boiling salted water. Bring the water to the boil again as quickly as possible. Boil slowly, uncovered, for 4 to 8 minutes, testing the peas frequently by eating one. They will have more taste and be greener if they are drained to the point where they are tender but still retain a suggestion of texture. But this is a matter of personal taste, and they maybe boiled a few more minutes if you wish.
2. Drain the peas immediately. Place in the saucepan with the seasonings and roll them gently over moderate heat for a moment or two to evaporate all their humidity. Correct seasoning. Turn the peas into a hot vegetable dish, arrange the butter over them, and serve at once.

Review: It paired beautifully with the Boeuf Bourguignon. It was simple, light and delicious. If you don't like buttered peas, then you could serve it with green beans, too.

Boeuf Bourguignon

I absolutely love and adore Julia Child. I love how funny and witty she was, her grandiose love and devotion to her husband, Paul, and for love of good food, for her countless little quibbles and quotes about how "everything is better with butter" and for what a great role she has played in American cuisine. You can't help but love Julia Child. She once had said that "the only time to eat diet food is while you're waiting for the steak to cook." Hilarious! She was wiser beyond her cooking times, and now an iconic symbol of French cooking. For myself, I am better having a little bit of Julia Child in my life. I had picked this iconic recipe to enjoy for our 2nd wedding anniversary dinner, and knew that just like Julia - it would be a labor of love to create and prepare this dish.

I've been waiting on the day that I would own this cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. My awesome boss, had recently bought it for me this past birthday. I was tickled pink to own this book and knew it would be like uncovering the lost secrets of Julia Child's kitchen. The book itself is huge, 700 pages for the 1st volume and another 650 for the 2nd volume. If I was Julie Powell, and had to cook the book, all 365 recipes in 365 days...I would flip the effing switch! I do love the format the book reads, Julia Child was very intelligent - it's like she was speaking to you as you read the recipe. The ingredients appear as you use them, without you going back a couple pages or so. Prepare yourself for this recipe, give yourself a good four hours or so, and make this dish. Your husband, friends, and family will love you for making it. I can't wait to make it again for another momentous occasion. Without further adieu, here's the recipe. I included the original formats from the publishing company, Knoft Double Day. Bon Appétit!

Boeuf Bourguignon
Adapted from Julia Child - Mastering the Art of French Cooking, PDF of original recipe

Ingredients:

6 ounces of center-cut bacon

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 pounds lean stewing beef, cut into 2-inch cubes

1 cup carrots, sliced

1 onion, diced

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

2 tablespoon flour

3 cups of red wine, use Pinot Noir or Chianti - use one you would drink

2 to 3 cups beef stock

1 tablespoon tomato paste

2 cloves mashed garlic

1/2 teaspoon thyme

a crumbled bay leaf

18 to 24 small white onions, brown-braised in stock - Recipe below

1 pound quartered fresh mushrooms sautéed in butter - Recipe below

Required tools: 9 to 10 inch dutch oven (casserole) & a slotted spoon

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2. Sauté the bacon in the oil over moderate heat for 2 to 3 minutes to brown slightly. Remove to a side dish with a slotted spoon. Set casserole aside. Reheat until fat is almost smoking before you sauté the beef.

3. Dry the beef in paper towels it will not brown if it is damp. (Take your time to do this step) Sauté it, a few pieces at a time, in the hot oil and bacon fat until nicely browned on all sides. Add it to the bacon.

4. In the same fat, brown the sliced vegetables. Pour our the sautéing fat.

5. Return the beef and bacon to the casserole and toss with salt and pepper. Then sprinkle on the flour and toss again to coat the beef lightly with the flour. Set casserole uncovered in middle position of preheated oven for 4 minutes. Toss the meat and return to oven for 4 minutes more. (This browns the flour and covers the meat with a light crust.) Remove casserole, and turn oven down to 325 degrees.

6. Stir in the wine, and enough stock so that the meat is barely covered. Add the tomato paste, garlic, and herbs. Bring to simmer on top of the stove. Then cover the casserole and set in lower third of preheated oven. Regulate heat so liquid simmers very slowly for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. The meat is done when a fork pierces it easily. (If you're worried about over-cooking it, it won't happen - lower the heat to your oven to 300 degrees if you're worried about making it too tough.)

7. While the beef is cooking, prepare the onions and mushrooms. Set them aside until needed.

8. When the meat is tender, remove and strain the beef and vegetables from the pot with a slotted spoon and place in a large bowl; set aside.

9. Skim fat off the sauce. (If you're using good quality meat, you'll find no fat.) Simmer sauce for a minute or two, skimming off additional fat as it rises. You should have about 2 1/2 cups of sauce thick enough to coat a spoon lightly. If too thin, boil it down rapidly. If too thick, mix in a few tablespoons of stock. Taste carefully for seasoning. Add back the meat, vegetables, brown-braised onions & sautéed mushrooms. **Recipe may be completed in advance to this point**

10. For immediate serving: Cover the casserole and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes, basting the meat and vegetables with the sauce several times. Serve with buttered potatoes, noodles or rice, and garnish with parsley.

11. For later serving: When cold, cover, and refrigerate. About 15 to 20 minutes before serving, bring to simmer, cover and simmer very slowly for 10 minutes, occasionally basting the meat and vegetables with the sauce.  **Highly recommend serving the next day, because the dish only improves with time. It gains in flavor when reheated.**

For the brown-braised onions - The quickest, neatest, and least tearful way to peel small white onions is to drop them into a saucepan of rapidly boiling water and leave them for 5 to 10 seconds, just long enough for their skins to loosen. Drain. Run cold water. Trim the tops and bottoms, and remove the skin. In a medium pan, add the 2 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons of olive oil, just as it's bubbling - add the onions. Add 1/2 cup of beef stock or dry white wine or red wine and add the herb bouquet. (Composed of 4 parsley sprigs, 1/2 bay leaf, and 1/4 thyme tied in cheesecloth.) Cover and simmer for 40 to 50 minutes until onions are perfectly tender, and liquid has evaporated.

For the sautéed mushrooms - In a large skillet, about medium high heat, add 2 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. As soon as you see the butter foam, add the mushrooms. Toss and shake the pan for 4 to 5 minutes. During their sauté the mushrooms will at first absorb the fat. Cook until they have browned, and remove from heat.

Review: I've never been to Paris, but I truly enjoy the French cooking! Wow, this was an incredible and memorable meal. As recommended by Julia, I served this with buttered peas, boiled potatoes, french baguette, and bottle of lovely Hess Allomi Vineyard Cab because it's our anniversary wine and it went perfectly with the meal. The meat is so tender that you don't need a knife, and the taste of tenderly slowly braised beef just lingers in your mouth. You'll be oohing and ahhing the entire meal. Julia once said "You don't have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces - just good food from fresh ingredients." Thank you Julia Child from the bottom of my heart and always hungry stomach.