Fondue de Poulet a la Creme

Since Julia Child's birthday is Saturday, August 15th, Champaign Taste is holding an event for all to make a Julia Child recipe by midnight today and she'll post the entries on Julia's birthday. Of course I wanted to participate, having just seen "Julie & Julia" and then buying Julia's cookbook, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". Which is what I turned to yesterday to find the perfect recipe to make for the event. Let me tell you, this was not an easy task. I knew I was going to do something with chicken but each chapter has so many recipes! I finally settled on Fondue de Poulet a la Creme (Chicken with Cream and Onions).

This recipe is on the easier side, as far as Julia's recipes are concerned, which was kind of what I was looking for since it was a work night after all. I had a whole chicken defrosting in the fridge which would need to be cut up. I let the husband take care of that one as I'm not one to hack up chickens. He seems to know better what he is doing as far as that goes.

After the chicken (2-3 1/2 lbs.) is cut up, I rinsed the four sections and dried them. 3 tablespoons of butter are placed in a pot and once heated, the chicken is placed in. Julia says the chicken should be stiff but not browned and this little task is very hard to accomplish. Chicken likes to brown when its in a hot pan so constant turning was a must. This should be done for about 5 minutes and then the chicken should be removed from the pot to another platter. 1 1/2 cups of thinly sliced onions should then be added to the pot, cover and cook for about 5 more minutes.

Once the 5 minutes is up, the chicken should be placed back in the pot and sprinkled with 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp curry powder and 1/8 tsp white pepper (I used black because that is what I had on hand). Then you add 3/4 cup of dry white wine (there were other wine suggestions but I can't remember them and this is what I used) and cook till the liquid has almost evaporated.

While this was cooking, I heated 3 cups of heavy cream to a boil in a saucepan. Once the liquid had almost evaporated, the cream was added and the pot was covered again. The chicken should then be cooked, covered, for 30-35 minutes or until the chicken is done.

When the chicken is cooked through, you remove it from the pot to a platter and keep warm while making the sauce. To make the sauce you first skim the fat off the top of the liquid left in the pot. Stir, boiling, until the liquid lightly coats the back of a spoon. Remove from heat, add drops of lemon juice, salt and white pepper to taste. Then add 3-4 tablespoons of heavy cream to thin out.

Now my sauce never got very thick so I only added 3 tablespoons of heavy cream. I don't know if this sauce was supposed to be thick but mine was pretty runny. But oh so delicious! The sauce was definitely the best part.



We had the dish with mashed potatoes (which I drizzled with more sauce) and salad. Very tasty meal, rich and creamy. Husband liked it and so did the friend I had over for dinner. I'll definitely be making it again. It took a while to cook, but it wasn't necessarily hard to do. Besides the whole chicken and heavy cream (which I purchased for Julia's recipes), I normally have all the ingredients on hand. I would think boneless skinless chicken breast would work as well, just with less cooking time. I might try that next time!