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The half-mourning chicken


Ingredients:8 people
  • Bresse chicken
    1
  • carrots
    3
  • leeks
    3
  • celeriac, flat-leaf parsley
  • onions
    2
  • cloves
    1
  • poultry wings
    1 kg
  • bouquet garni
    1
  • coarse salt and peppercorns
  • truffle
    1
  • fine salt and white pepper


Preparation:
  • Preparation time:30 minutes


The very tender, fine and white flesh of this sumptuous poultry constitutes, thus cooked, a festive dish worthy of the great bourgeois tables of the Lyonnais. It is the blades of black truffle, slipped under the skin, which justifies this name.

Difficulty:[usr 4]

Prepare the cooking broth the day before serving. Peel and slice the carrots, leeks and 2 stalks of celery; wash a few parsley stalks; peel the onions, cut 1 into quarters and prick the other with the clove. Put all these ingredients in a large pot, add the poultry giblets, the bouquet garni, 15 g of coarse salt and 15 peppercorns.

Bring 5 liters of water to a boil, skim, lower the heat and cook very gently for 2 hours. Leave to cool and refrigerate.

The next day, gut the poultry, salt and pepper the inside, then return the cleaned liver, heart and gizzard to the cavity. Bridle the poultry. Then incise the skin on the thighs and along the flanks with a small sharp knife.

Peel the truffle (reserve the peels for a sauce, a stuffing or to flavor eggs), cut it into regular strips, then push them into the incisions of the skin. Then wrap the chicken in muslin and tie it tightly.

Strain the chicken broth and pour it into a large pot. Add the chicken and slowly bring to the boil. Leave to cook gently for 2 hours.

Take the chicken out of its broth and unwrap it, place it on the serving platter. Cut it up and serve with pickles and coarse salt.

You can offer chard or cardoon cream as a garnish.

The half-mourning chicken

Source:Les Cuisines Régionales de France. The Lyonnais. Editions du Fanal.