Making Chicken Ragout

A while back I made chicken ragout, and photographed each step to share with you. But I never got round to posting it until now. Although it's been in the high seventies here in Long Beach, it's still winter, and this is a great winter recipe: it's hearty, warm, and provides plenty of leftovers.

I got it in my head that I wanted to cook a whole chicken (usually I just use breasts or thighs), and I thought that chicken ragout would be the perfect place to start. This is a recipe from a Dutch cookbook of my dad's, that he translated to English. The ingredients are:

1 whole chicken
8 oz mushrooms (my dad usually uses button mushrooms but I used oyster)
6 T butter
3/4 cup white wheat flour
1 quart buillon - from the chicken
2 chicken buillon cubes
1 onion
mace
thyme
black peppercorns
Worcestershire sauce
whipping cream

Step 1: Wash the chicken and remove the inside. Put the chicken in a pot and add just enough water to cover it. Add the spices (onion, mace, thyme, and peppercorns). Bring to a boil and simmer 1 hour.
Having never cooked a whole  chicken before, I was a bit worried about step one: "remove the inside." So I peeked inside the chicken and what I found was... the inside of a chicken, in a bag. Okay, removed. That was suprisingly easy.

Step 2: Take the chicken out of the pot, let it cool and remove the meat. Cut meat in pieces. Sift the buillon, keep a little over a quart and add the buillon cubes. 

Taking the chicken out of the pot... That was a little more difficult. I enlisted the help of my vegetarian roommate. After much struggle, the two of us managed to remove the chicken in (mostly) one piece. 

Step 3: Wash the mushrooms, boil for 5 minutes in chicken broth.

Step 4: Make the sauce with butter, flour, and buillon. Add to taste pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and whipping cream. Add the chicken and mushrooms to the sauce. 
To make the sauce, you start with a roux (there are lots of great videos online that will walk you through it if you've never made a roux before). Melt the butter over medium heat in a large pan and add the flour, whisking together together. Cook for a couple of minutes, whisking constantly, until the flour taste is gone. Be careful not to burn the roux. Add the chicken broth a little at a time, whisking after each addition. Be careful not to add to much broth – you want your sauce to be nice and thick.

And there you have it! Delicious chicken ragout. I like to serve mine in a little vol-au-vent (I used frozen puff pastry shells) the first night, and then eat the leftovers by themselves or with rice.

Breaded Chicken

Ever since I discovered this method of making chicken, I've been eating these about once a week. Breaded fried chicken is super fast, simple, and can go with almost anything.

Here's what you need:
2 thawed frozen chicken tenderloins per person (or use cut up breasts/thighs)
Flour
1 egg, beaten
Bread (we always keep the crusty end bits of bread in a bag in the freezer for this purpose)
Grated parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

First make the breadcrumbs: pulse bread in food processor until fine breadcrumbs have formed. Mix the breadcrumbs in a shallow bowl with some grated parmesan cheese and salt and pepper.

Pour enough olive oil in a large pan to coat the bottom. Heat the pan to medium-high. The oil needs to be hot enough to fry the chicken, otherwise your chicken will taste soggy and oily. Test by releasing a small drop of water onto the pan. If it makes that frizzly frying noise, the oil is hot enough.

Working with one tenderloin at a time, first coat in flour, then egg, then enough breadcrumbs so that the chicken is fully covered. Shake off excess breadcrumbs. When the tenderloins are coated, place them carefully in the pan. Cook for a few minutes on one side – until the breadcrumbs are dark golden brown and crispy. Flip over until both sides are dark and crispy. Cut through one tenderloin to make sure it's fully cooked with no pink spots. Transfer to plate and serve with lemon wedges and coarse sea salt.

Breaded chicken goes great with a big, fresh salad.