Fricassée de Poulet a l'Ail et l'Ail Confit

Fricassée de Poulet a l'Ail et l'Ail Confit

I should have made this last night. Instead I made another recipe, misreading a step, and well, coming up with something that had it's good points, but needs tweaking.

The recipe below is from Patricia Wells' "The Provence Cookbook."

Fricassee of Chicken with Garlic and Sweet Garlic Confit
  • 1 fresh chicken, cut into 8 pieces
  • sea salt
  • freshly ground pepper
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 20 cloves garlic, peeled and halved
  • 1 1/2 cups white wine (Viognier is recommended)
  • sweet garlic confit

Make the confit first. Peel cloves from four heads of garlic (not as bad as it sounds!). Cook the garlic in a saucepan covered with two cups of milk. Bring to a simmer and drain. Return garlic to saucepan and cover with two more cups of milk. Cook over medium heat until garlic is soft. Drain and refrigerate. You can make this ahead of time.

Now for the fricassee: Season the chicken on both sides with salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil and butter in a heavy skillet. Brown the chicken, about five minutes on each side. If you use eight pieces, you can do this in batches. I used four breasts, so I was able to do it all at once. When chicken is turning golden, remove and set aside.

Add the garlic cloves to the fat. Reduce heat and add the chicken. Cover and cook for at least 20 minutes, turning the chicken with tongs for even browning and cooking. Once the chicken is cooked, remove it from the pan, cover with foil and set aside.

Drain skillet of fat, keeping the garlic cloves in the skillet. Add the wine and the garlic confit. This will deglaze the pan. Cook, uncovered, making a purée from the garlic and wine. Pour the purée over your chicken and serve.

I served it with roasted peppers and the rest of the Viognier, some very heady wine.

This is classic chicken. It tasted the way chicken ought to taste. Tomorrow I'll make a chicken salad with hard-boiled eggs and olives.

The wine We used Pepperwood Grove Viognier, which tastes of melon and peach with an unusual vanilla-custard finish. My husband tasted pear, I tasted lemon.

Comments

Anonymous said…
French Chicken in America sounds great Mimi.

This recipe sounds wonderful !

Chicken is my favourite meat - next to fish. There are so many wonderful and varied ways to cook and serve it.

Lookin good !
Katie said…
I know what you mean about the garlic - it's like it gets into your pores! But the 'fragrance' is normally not noticed by those that share the dish. LOL
Besides, it's always worth it! I love garlic and the confit sounds incredible.
Nice colors in the photo.
You had me with the garlic confit... that just sounds unusual and right! I very much want to try this one. What effect does the milk have? i always wonder if there is such a thing as too much garlic and haven't found it yet.
For better or worse, chicken or fish is the meat most likely to be on our plates.
Chicken and garlic -- nothing bad about that! One trick I learned from Barefoot Contessa for peeling that much garlic is to separate the cloves and blanch them in boiling water for a minute. The skin comes off easily.
Anonymous said…
This recipe looks simply marvelous. You can't go wrong with chicken. I'm working on my thinking blogger post, Mimi, but you were right when you said it's difficult to choose.

Mary
www.ceresandbacchus.com
Unknown said…
Fi, someone once said somewhere that chicken is like a blank canvass. There are endless ways to fix it.

So, Katie, mon mari will be the only one who does not notice...I'll spritz n some Chanel before I go anywhere. How very French!

Tanna, the garlic smelled very sweet while it was cooking in the milk. I did not understand why I had to empty the first two cups of milk, though, and start again.

Great idea, Lydia. Patricia Wells says her trick is to peel with a glass of wine at hand.

Mary, I almost gave up on that thinking stuff. LOL. It's easier to peel garlic.
Alanna Kellogg said…
I get to meet her next month!!!! She's doing promotion of the new book and a friend is doing the styling for an event here in St. Louis.
Unknown said…
Oh, Alanna, how cool is that? What fun!
Anonymous said…
Looks really tasty and you are making me feel very hungry.
Anne
Unknown said…
Anne, I wasn't sure about the photo at first, but I guess it does look pretty tasty!
Yummm...this looks absolutely delicious, Mimi. I'll have to try it.
Unknown said…
Let me know if you like it, Laura!
breadchick said…
Mimi, this had me drooling for garlic roasted chicken at 6am in the morning...

French Poulet in America huh? I kinda like the sound of that!
Anonymous said…
I'm a garlic junkie - although not a fan of peeling - but this sounds so fabulous. I can almost taste it now. Always looking for yummy new ways to prepare chicken, so merci Mimi!
Unknown said…
This one will keep vampires and werewolves away, I promise, Ronnie!

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