Uploaded February 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
The French name of this dish translates to “grandmother hen” – an old bird who has lived a good long life and now will benefit from a good long cooking time. Living as we do in the age of the mechanized chicken farm, most people find it much easier to acquire a pack of thighs than a whole bird. We use 4 thighs for this recipe.
For best results, plan on cooking this a day before serving it. At the end of the cooking process, the chicken pieces and the new potatoes are removed from the broth, which is then allowed to cool or freeze, so that the fat may be skimmed off. At this point the various components could even be vacuum-sealed and stored long-term to be finished within 6 months or so.
To serve, the potatoes are finished by frying in butter and oil. and the mushrooms are sauteed and optionally deglazed with the cooking wine or with cognac. Then a velouté sauce is made by thickening some of the braisage with a roux. It takes about as long for the potatoes to fry as it takes to do everything else: the mushrooms, and then the sauce, so two pans makes it go much faster.
Makes enough for 4 people, 4 chicken thighs.
Equipment:
• Dutch oven or other covered cooking vessel suitable for fricassee
• two non-stick skillets
• pie tin or other shallow dish for dredging chicken in flour
• mixing bowl or similar to hold sautéed mushrooms
• containers for broth, chicken pieces and potatoes to be stored in overnight.
Ingredients:
4 ea chicken thighs
1/4 cup AP flour
1 ea shallot
1-2 ea carrots ~1/2 lb
1-2 rib celery
1 ea onion regular storage onion
3/4 lb pearl onions or small cippoline onions
3/4 lb new potatoes
1/2 lb mushrooms 8 oz
5-10 stems parsley
5-10 stems thyme
1 ea bay leaf
5 oz white wine
1 qt chicken stock
1/4 lb butter at least
to taste salt, pepper, white wine, etc.
Procedure:
1. Get the Dutch oven hot over a medium flame, and melt some butter in it with a little bit of high-temp cooking oil.
2. Meanwhile, dredge the pieces of chicken in flour.
3. Place dredged chicken into the hot butter and allow it to cook until it forms a brown crust and comes away from the pan easily. Too hot a flame will cause the chicken to burn.
4. While the chicken cooks, chop the mirepoix: onion, carrot, celery and shallot.
5. Once the chicken is done on its first side, turn it over and let it brown on the other side also.
6. Once the chicken has browned nicely on both sides, remove it to a plate, or possibly the pie tin (after setting aside the remaining flour for use in the roux).
7. Place the chopped mirepoix into the grease left behind by the chicken. If for some reason there isn’t much, add more butter.
8. Allow the mirepoix to sweat over medium heat with the lid on, about 5-10 minutes, until it is translucent and softening.
9. Add the wine and the stock and bring it to a simmer.
10. Place the chicken pieces and any juice which has collected into the simmering pot.
11. Cover and simmer for about an hour. This depends on the chicken pieces; if they’re very different in size they may need to go in at different times in order all to be done at the same time.
12. Add the new potatoes and the pearl onions after the chicken has cooked for long enough that it will be done in about half an hour.
13. Let the pot simmer another 30 or so minutes.
14. Test a potato with a fork – it should be just yielding but not falling apart or mushy. If so, turn off the heat.
15. Remove the potatoes and the chicken pieces from the broth and let them cool, and store them separately from the broth.
16. Allow the broth to cool, and if possible to freeze, to make it easier to remove the fat.
17. At serving time, it is possible to reheat the portions in some of the braisage: a thigh, 4-5 each of onions and carrot pieces, in a small saucepan with enough braisage to not-quite-cover.
18. Take enough potatoes for the number of servings you want, and cut them 8 ways (into “cubes”) and fry them in butter with some high-temp oil added, or in duck fat. Optionally, the chicken thighs may be re-warmed in the pan with the potatoes, flipping halfway through to re-crisp them on both sides.
19. Chop and sauté 2oz of mushrooms per thigh, in butter. Optionally deglaze with cognac – this is delicious but don’t do it every time, so things stay interesting. Experiment with instead using white wine or white vermouth.
20. Either remove the mushrooms from the skillet once they are done, or simply create the roux around them, by adding 2 Tbsp of butter and 3 Tbsp of flour.
21. Allow the roux to foam for a bit, but not get to the crumbly stage before adding 2-6 oz of the braisage, mixing rapidly.
22. Chop parsley and thyme for garnish.
23. Arrange the large carrot chunks and pearl onions in the bottom of a bowl as described above, chicken atop veg, garnished with gravy, mushrooms, fried potatoes and chopped herbs.
24. In our video it is also pictured with our à la minute creation, crostini monsieur.
Music: bensound.com/royalty-free-music
The French name of this dish translates to “grandmother hen” – an old bird who has lived a good long life and now will benefit from a good long cooking time. Living as we do in the age of the mechanized chicken farm, most people find it much easier to acquire a pack of thighs than a whole bird. We use 4 thighs for this recipe.
For best results, plan on cooking this a day before serving it. At the end of the cooking process, the chicken pieces and the new potatoes are removed from the broth, which is then allowed to cool or freeze, so that the fat may be skimmed off. At this point the various components could even be vacuum-sealed and stored long-term to be finished within 6 months or so.
To serve, the potatoes are finished by frying in butter and oil. and the mushrooms are sauteed and optionally deglazed with the cooking wine or with cognac. Then a velouté sauce is made by thickening some of the braisage with a roux. It takes about as long for the potatoes to fry as it takes to do everything else: the mushrooms, and then the sauce, so two pans makes it go much faster.
Makes enough for 4 people, 4 chicken thighs.
Equipment:
• Dutch oven or other covered cooking vessel suitable for fricassee
• two non-stick skillets
• pie tin or other shallow dish for dredging chicken in flour
• mixing bowl or similar to hold sautéed mushrooms
• containers for broth, chicken pieces and potatoes to be stored in overnight.
Ingredients:
4 ea chicken thighs
1/4 cup AP flour
1 ea shallot
1-2 ea carrots ~1/2 lb
1-2 rib celery
1 ea onion regular storage onion
3/4 lb pearl onions or small cippoline onions
3/4 lb new potatoes
1/2 lb mushrooms 8 oz
5-10 stems parsley
5-10 stems thyme
1 ea bay leaf
5 oz white wine
1 qt chicken stock
1/4 lb butter at least
to taste salt, pepper, white wine, etc.
Procedure:
1. Get the Dutch oven hot over a medium flame, and melt some butter in it with a little bit of high-temp cooking oil.
2. Meanwhile, dredge the pieces of chicken in flour.
3. Place dredged chicken into the hot butter and allow it to cook until it forms a brown crust and comes away from the pan easily. Too hot a flame will cause the chicken to burn.
4. While the chicken cooks, chop the mirepoix: onion, carrot, celery and shallot.
5. Once the chicken is done on its first side, turn it over and let it brown on the other side also.
6. Once the chicken has browned nicely on both sides, remove it to a plate, or possibly the pie tin (after setting aside the remaining flour for use in the roux).
7. Place the chopped mirepoix into the grease left behind by the chicken. If for some reason there isn’t much, add more butter.
8. Allow the mirepoix to sweat over medium heat with the lid on, about 5-10 minutes, until it is translucent and softening.
9. Add the wine and the stock and bring it to a simmer.
10. Place the chicken pieces and any juice which has collected into the simmering pot.
11. Cover and simmer for about an hour. This depends on the chicken pieces; if they’re very different in size they may need to go in at different times in order all to be done at the same time.
12. Add the new potatoes and the pearl onions after the chicken has cooked for long enough that it will be done in about half an hour.
13. Let the pot simmer another 30 or so minutes.
14. Test a potato with a fork – it should be just yielding but not falling apart or mushy. If so, turn off the heat.
15. Remove the potatoes and the chicken pieces from the broth and let them cool, and store them separately from the broth.
16. Allow the broth to cool, and if possible to freeze, to make it easier to remove the fat.
17. At serving time, it is possible to reheat the portions in some of the braisage: a thigh, 4-5 each of onions and carrot pieces, in a small saucepan with enough braisage to not-quite-cover.
18. Take enough potatoes for the number of servings you want, and cut them 8 ways (into “cubes”) and fry them in butter with some high-temp oil added, or in duck fat. Optionally, the chicken thighs may be re-warmed in the pan with the potatoes, flipping halfway through to re-crisp them on both sides.
19. Chop and sauté 2oz of mushrooms per thigh, in butter. Optionally deglaze with cognac – this is delicious but don’t do it every time, so things stay interesting. Experiment with instead using white wine or white vermouth.
20. Either remove the mushrooms from the skillet once they are done, or simply create the roux around them, by adding 2 Tbsp of butter and 3 Tbsp of flour.
21. Allow the roux to foam for a bit, but not get to the crumbly stage before adding 2-6 oz of the braisage, mixing rapidly.
22. Chop parsley and thyme for garnish.
23. Arrange the large carrot chunks and pearl onions in the bottom of a bowl as described above, chicken atop veg, garnished with gravy, mushrooms, fried potatoes and chopped herbs.
24. In our video it is also pictured with our à la minute creation, crostini monsieur.
Music: bensound.com/royalty-free-music
