15 May 2016

A chicken in a pot

It was so chilly yesterday morning that I decided to cook a typically wintertime dish for my lunch. I had bought a 3 lb. chicken at the supermarket on Friday, without a definite idea for cooking it. I had vegetables. I had broth and wine. So into a big stock pot it went, making me a nice poule au pot for my main meal. Well, a poulet au pot, really. There are leftovers for soup or sandwiches.


A poule is an old hen — what we used to call a "stewing hen" in North Carolina and is known as une poule au sol here. Stewing hens need long, slow cooking to tenderize the meat. That makes for a very tasty broth, with the right seasonings and vegetables. What I had was a poulet, which is a "spring chicken" and doesn't require such a long cooking time. Still, I simmered the poulet for about 2½ hours on low heat. The cooking liquid was about a pint of chicken broth, a quart of water, and half a bottle of dry white wine (Sauvignon Blanc).


With the chicken I put in cut-up vegetables — two large carrots, four celery stalks, five garlic cloves, six small onions, and eight mushrooms — along with some salt, bay leaves, allspice berries, and black peppercorns. I just put everything in a big pot and let it simmer, without first browning the chicken or the vegetables. The important thing is to keep the liquid at a very low simmer so that the chicken doesn't fall apart. It helps to have it tightly trussed up, and they are sold that was in French supermarkets.


The chicken, vegetables, and broth are delicious right out of the pot. You can add cream to the poaching liquid if you want, and you can thicken it with a flour roux or a cornstarch slurry if you like it that way. To give it a special goodness, you can take the chicken out of the liquid, put it on a baking dish or pan, and brush it with olive oil or melted butter. Sprinkle it with salt and pepper and other spices (smoked paprika is good) or herbs and brown it in a hot oven for a few minutes before cutting it up and serving eating it.

18 comments:

  1. Even though I already had my breakfast, this makes me hungry. The chicken and the vegetables look scrumptious.

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    1. Je me suis intéressé à la définition du terme « poule au sol ». Il semble que cela veut dire des poules qui sont élevées dans un bâtiment mais pas dans des cages. Elles peuvent se promener sur ce qu'on appelle « le plancher des vaches » mais dans le bâtiment, et pas plus de sept poules au mètre carré là-dedans. Elles ont aussi des perchoirs. Mais ce ne sont pas du tout des poules élevées en plein air.

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    2. Donc, les poules seraient élevées dans des conditions moins inhumaines qu'aux État-Unis?

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  2. Very tasty looking.

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    1. Yes, tasty. I'm making a cream sauce (gravy) for today's iteration. Then tomorrow I'll have a good chicken sandwich with lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise. After that, maybe soup. Walt will get back on Wednesday so I have to figure out something to cook that day before I go pick him up at a local train station. Slow-cooker something, I guess.

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    2. Carolyn, do you have a way to listen to music off the internet with decent sound quality? I connect my tablet's audio output to an amplifier so I can listen through the stereo system. On the tablet, I can get radio on an app called Tune-in Radio. There's a radio stream called Nostalgie Chansons Françaises that I'm listening to this morning. One issue with it is that there's no DJ to tell you who you are listening to. If you have spent your life hearing all these songs on French radio and TV, as I have, it's fun to hear them again and even sing along.

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  3. Replies
    1. Thanks, Jan. I owe you an e-mail. Thanks for yours, and for the comments.

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    2. Don't worry, no hurry :-)!

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  4. woow looks really delicious and so juicy

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  5. It certainly does look delicious. I expect you know your majority readership and it is probably rather rude of me to mention, but pounds and quarts are quite meaningless to me, and you having lived in France for so long, surely you think in metric? If I am one of the minority of your readers who thinks in metric, then apologies. You must write for most people who read you blog.

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  6. i cant remember.. have you tried a stewing hen in the crock pot? just heavenly! i cook them over nite and the stock is like liquid gold. thanks for the tip about keeping the liquid to a simmer to keep it from falling apart...and then crisping in a hot oven. i'll have to give that a try. i'm not sure they sell older hens around in the stores. but some folks find them on craigslist from local farmers.

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  7. Thanks, Ken. E listens online to WETA in Washington with his tablet. I will give your station a try; listening to music would make a welcome change from the news in simple French. I probably couldn't sing along, but I could la la la along.

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  8. The weather is crazy. May 15th and we've had snow twice this morning. May 8th should be our safe-to-plant by date. I think I must make a meal something like yours!

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  9. This looks delicious. I didn't know about the difference in the chickens, or the idea of trussing the chicken so it doesn't fall apart.

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  10. Perfect. I have a chicken about that size in the freezer and was just wondering what to do with it. Into the pot it goes tomorrow. And I'll follow your suggestions about trussing and the crisping at the end.
    (I almost said "end-time directions," but I think that's not quite what you meant. :-) )

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  11. Your chicken looks delicious, I'll cook one like that next time instead of roasting on top of the vegetables, for a change.
    Your post reminds me of something my parents used to say, referring to a person who's getting on a bit as "no spring chicken, more like a boiling fowl". Or just simply "an old boiler".

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