Old-fashioned chicken fricassee

You know our guest well today. It is Miriam, The Winter Guest , who always appears with the most appetizing curiosity. This time he brings us an old-fashioned chicken fricassée, an ideal recipe for family meals, which without major complications will make young and old enjoy.

This chicken dish is a traditional French recipe, with simple ingredients and little complication, but well executed, it gives us a succulent dish, with a sauce to dip bread in and out.

The sauce is prepared with neither more nor less than a few vegetables poached in butter and olive oil, with which a roux is made, that is, flour is toasted in this fat, which then thickens the sauce. The recipe is traditionally accompanied by mushrooms from Paris, these tiny round mushrooms, but which I have substituted for regular mushrooms.

The magic of this dish lies in the perfect balance of soft flavors, so don't leave out any ingredient. The egg yolk that is added at the end to thicken the sauce a little more helps to give it a delicious taste.

Ingredients

1 kg chicken pieces (or breasts cut into cubes, which makes this dish very suitable for children), 100 g onion, 1 carrot, 30 g olive oil, 30 g butter, 1 1⁄2 tbsp. of flour, 1 bunch of herbs or bouquet garni (1 bay leaf, 1 sprig of thyme, 1 sprig of parsley), 200 g of sliced ​​mushrooms, 1 good glass of white wine, chicken broth, 1 egg yolk, salt and pepper to taste

Elaboration

Finely chop the onion and carrot, sauté them in a cocotte with the butter and oil, over low heat until the onion is transparent.

Salt the chicken pieces, raise the heat and add them to the sauce. We brown on all sides.

When all the chicken has changed color, lower the heat and add the flour. We give it a few turns so that all the chicken is well impregnated and fry for a couple of minutes, stirring well.

When the flour is already toasted, we pour the wine and mix. We salt the sauce, add the herbs wrapped in a tied gauze, so that they can be easily fished later, and we also add some chicken broth, until the chicken pieces are almost covered.

We cover the cocotte and stew for 20 minutes over low heat, slowly. After that time we add the cleaned and laminated mushrooms, and we continue to stew for another 10 minutes.

We taste the seasoning and rectify if necessary. Remove the cocotte from the heat and remove the bundle of herbs. Separate the yolk from the egg, beat it in a bowl and add, little by little and without ceasing to beat, some of the hot sauce from the fricassée. When the yolk is hot, add it to the cocotte and mix well. And that's it, we already have a delicious main dish perfect for a more or less fancy family meal. Easy to do and little laborious, don't you think?

Oh, and I'll tell you a little trick that I use to speed up the preparation and use a little less fat: Instead of browning the chicken pieces in the fat from the sauce, they can be browned on a high grill, so they take less fat. If then before frying the flour we leave only the minimum necessary fat, we will have a slightly lighter dish.