Old-Fashioned Chicken Fricassee

Our guest today you know well. It's Miriam, The winter guest, who always appears with the most appetizing curiosity. This time she brings us an old-fashioned chicken fricassée, an ideal recipe for family meals that, without much complication, will delight adults and children.

This chicken dish is a traditional French recipe, with simple ingredients and little fuss, but when well executed it gives us a succulent dish with a sauce for dipping bread and not stopping.

The sauce is made with nothing more than a few vegetables sautéed in butter and olive oil, with which a roux is made — that is, flour is toasted in this fat which then produces the thickening of the sauce. The recipe is traditionally accompanied by Paris mushrooms, those small round mushrooms, but I have substituted them with common mushrooms.

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

Ingredientes

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

Preparation

Finely chop the onion and carrot, put them to sweat in a casserole with the butter and oil over low heat until the onion is translucent.

Season the pieces of chicken, increase the heat and add them to the sofrito. Brown on all sides.

When all the chicken has changed color, reduce the heat and add the flour. Stir a few times so all the chicken is well coated and sauté for a couple of minutes, stirring well.

When the flour is toasted, pour in the wine and mix. Salt the sauce, add the herbs wrapped in a tied cloth so they can be easily fished out later, and also add some chicken stock until the chicken pieces are almost covered.

Cover the casserole and stew for 20 minutes over low heat, slowly. After that time add the cleaned, sliced mushrooms, and continue stewing for another 10 minutes.

Taste for seasoning and adjust if needed. Remove the casserole from the heat and take out the herb bundle. Separate the egg yolk, beat it in a bowl, and, little by little while whisking constantly, add some of the hot fricassee sauce. When the yolk is warmed through, add it to the casserole and mix well. And that's it, you have a delicious main course, perfect for a family meal that's more or less fancy. Easy to make and not very labor-intensive, don't you think?

Oh, and I'll tell you a little trick I use to speed up preparation and use a bit less fat: Instead of browning the pieces of chicken in the sofrito fat, you can brown them on a high grill so they absorb less fat. If then before sautéing the flour we leave only the minimum necessary fat, we'll have a slightly lighter dish.