Serves: 4, prep: 15 minutes, cook: 50 minutes
Nagi Maehashi says: If I could bottle the sauce in this country-style French stew, I would! This is a dish taught to me by the super-talented chef Jean-Baptiste Alexandre. He was born, raised and trained in France, and now resides right here in my hometown of Sydney. So, it goes without saying, this recipe is par excellence! Creamy, silky and rich with the flavours of chicken, herbs and wine, you’ll be mopping your plate clean with bread. While this is terrific made with store-bought stock, if you can manage homemade, I highly recommend it as it will catapult this dish into wow territory!
Ingredients
4 x 250 grams skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs1
4 x 150 grams chicken drumsticks1
1 teaspoon cooking salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
60 grams unsalted butter
CREAMY MUSHROOM SAUCE
300 grams small-ish white button mushrooms, halved
2 brown onions, halved, then sliced 6mm thick
1 fresh bay leaf (or 1 dried bay leaf)
3 thyme sprigs (or ½ teaspoon dried thyme)
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
3 tablespoons (30 grams) plain flour
½ cup (125ml) chardonnay wine2
3 cups (750ml) low-salt chicken stock
¼ teaspoon cooking salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
2/3 cup (170ml) thickened cream
2 tablespoons roughly chopped parsley (optional)
Method
Pat the chicken dry with paper towels and sprinkle all over with salt and pepper. Melt the butter over medium-high heat in a very large, deep frying pan3 (or similar) with a lid. Add the chicken thighs, skin-side down, and cook for 4-5 minutes until the skin is golden brown. Turn and cook the other side for 1 minute. Transfer to a plate. Add the drumsticks to the pan and brown them as best you can. I do three sides, about 2 minutes each.
Transfer from the frying pan to the plate with the thighs.
Add the mushrooms, onion, bay leaf and thyme to the pan.
Cook for 5 minutes until the mushrooms are lightly golden. Add the garlic and stir for 30 seconds.
Add the flour and cook for 1 minute. Add the wine, chicken stock, salt and pepper and stir, scraping the base of the pot to dissolve the brown residue stuck to the pan (the ‘fond’) into the sauce.
Return the chicken, skin-side up, to the pan with the sauce. Once the sauce comes to a simmer, adjust the heat so it’s bubbling gently (not rapidly) but constantly. This is medium-low on my stove. Cover with a lid and simmer for 10 minutes.
Remove the lid and let the fricassee simmer for a further 20 minutes.
The chicken will be cooked when the meat’s internal temperature is 75°C or slightly higher.
Transfer the chicken to a plate, leaving the sauce in the pan. Add the cream to the sauce and stir. Once the sauce comes back up to a simmer, taste it and add more salt if desired.
Return the chicken to the sauce, then remove the pan from the stove. Sprinkle with parsley (if using) and serve!
Traditionally, fricassee is served over creamy mashed potato or white rice. It’s also ideal with short pasta like penne, ziti or macaroni.
Notes
The chicken needs to be skin-on, bone-in thigh and leg pieces so they don’t overcook and dry out. If you are dead set on making this with boneless breast, brown it as per the recipe, then simmer the sauce with the lid off for 15 minutes (to reduce), then add the breast and simmer with the lid on for 6 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 67°C. For boneless thigh, do the same except the internal temperature should be 72°C.
Any dry white wine will work here, though chardonnay is my preference because it adds good flavour. For a non-alcoholic substitute, replace with more chicken stock.
A large pot also works. The shallow casserole pot I use is 29cm wide and 6cm deep (3.4 litres). No lid? Just use foil.
LEFTOVERS Fridge 4 days, freezer 3 months.
This is an edited extract from RecipeTin Eats Dinner by Nagi Maehashi (Pan Macmillan), $50. Photography by Nagi Maehashi.