Madame Douazan's Poule au Pot
This centuries-old dish remains one of the simplest and most traditional methods of cooking chicken. Its patron is King Henri IV, who, concerned at the general poverty of his people, declared that under his reign even the poorest family should be able to have pouLe au pot every Sunday. Many people still use this sixteenth-century recipe
Ingredients
- 4.5 lb free-range chicken
- 1 1/2 pint water
- 1/2 pint white wine
- 8 shallots peeled
- 2 bay leaves
- 3 sprigs of thyme
- 6 cloves
- sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 12 small potatoes
- 4 carrots cut into 5 cm lengths, or 12 baby carrots
- 1 turnip cut into wedges, or 6 baby turnips
- 3 leeks cut into 5 cm lengths, or 6 baby leeks
- 4 sticks of celery cut into 5 cm lengths
- 1 small cabbage cored and cut into wedges
for the stuffing:
- 7 oz lean pork meat minced
- 3 1/2 oz thick-cut bacon diced
- 3 1/2 oz chicken livers roughly chopped
- 1 Egg
- 2 cloves of garlic crushed, peeled and chopped
- 4 shallots diced
- a bunch of flat-leaf parsley chopped
- 2 oz breadcrumbs made from a dried loaf
- sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- First prepare the stuffing. Put the pork, bacon and chicken livers in a bowl. Add the egg, garlic, shallots, parsley, breadcrumbs and seasoning and mix everything together. You get a really good, even mix if you do this with your hands.
- Heat the oven to 180°C/gas 4.
- Trim the chicken cavity of any excess fat and fill with the stuffing. Close up the neck and tail end of the chicken with a poultry needle and thread or by weaving cocktail sticks through.
- Place the chicken in a large casserole dish and add the water and wine, shallots, bay leaves, thyme, cloves and seasoning. Cover with a lid and cook in the preheated oven for 1 1/2 hours.
- When the hour and a half has elapsed, add the potatoes, carrots and turnip to the chicken in the pot, immerse them in the cooking juices and cook the casserole for a further 15 minutes. Then remove the pot from the oven.
- Carefully lift out the chicken and rest it on a wire rack to drain off excess cooking juices. Return these juices to the pot, place the pot over a moderate heat on the hob, add the leeks, celery and cabbage, cover with a lid and simmer for 10 minutes.
- While the vegetables are simmering, remove and discard the skin from the chicken, and carve the meat and stuffing.
- Scoop the vegetables out of the cooking stock and serve them in individual, deep bowls with the chicken and the stuffing, and a generous ladle of the cooking stock.
Calories: 974 kcal
Carbohydrates: 112 g
Protein: 51 g
Fat: 34g
Saturated Fat: 10 g
Trans Fat: 1 g
Cholesterol: 218 mg
Sodium: 435 mg
Potassium: 2919 mg
Fiber: 18 g
Sugar: 18 g
Vitamin A: 9839 IU
Vitamin C: 162 mg
Calcium: 231 mg
Iron: 10 mg