Chicken chasseur explained

Chicken chasseur
Alternate Name:French: Poulet chasseur, French: poulet à la chasseur, French: poulet sauté chasseur
Country:France
Main Ingredient:Chicken, mushrooms, tomatoes, onions or shallots, wine

Chicken chasseur is a French dish, known in France as French: poulet chasseur, French: poulet à la chasseur or French: poulet sauté chasseur. It consists of fried chicken served hot, with sauce chasseur, which is based on mushrooms, onions or shallots, tomatoes and wine, and may also contain stock and various herbs.

Etymology

French: Chasseur is the French for 'hunter', and sauce chasseur shares a multilingual connection with other cuisines. In The Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson writes that the phrase, meaning 'huntsmen-style', occurs in many languages: "Italians say alla cacciatora, Poles say bigos and the French chasseur." The term, according to Davidson, usually indicates the presence of forest mushrooms.[1] The Dictionnaire de l'Académie française dates the term chasseur to the 12th century; the dictionary refers to its culinary use, but does not give any indication of when it was first used in that context.[2] The earliest citation of the culinary use of the word in English given by the Oxford English Dictionary dates from the 1880s.

History

In 1865, Bailey's Magazine recorded a dish of poulet à la chasseur served in a Parisian restaurant and costing the equivalent of half a guinea a head.[3] In Le Figaro in 1870, Eugène Morand recorded a lunch eaten by a group of army officers at which—after two types of sausage, York and Bayonne ham, fried eggs, fillet steak, and macaroni with Parmesan—they concluded the savoury part of the meal with poulet à la chasseur[4] ("Ah! quel plaisir d'être soldat!", commented Morand).[4] The dish is mentioned in the American and British press during the later years of the 19th century.[5] [6]

Ingredients

Chicken chasseur is prepared using sautéed chicken, served with a chasseur sauce. All the following writers specify chopped or sliced mushrooms, and shallots or other types of onion, but vary as to the other ingredients of the sauce. Most recipes call for the addition of herbs: the most frequently specified are parsley and tarragon; others are basil, bay leaf, chervil, and thyme.

WriterOnionsTomatoesHerbsAlcoholStockOtherRef
data-sort-value="Beck"Beck, Bertholle and ChildShallots or green onionsFresh tomatoesBasil, parsley or tarragonWhite wine or dry vermouthBrown stockGarlic[7]
data-sort-value="Bocuse"Paul BocuseShallotsFresh tomatoesBay leaf, tarragon, thyme, parsleyWhite wineCelery leaves, garlic[8]
data-sort-value="Brazier"La Mère BrazierShallotsTomato puréeChervil, parsley, tarragonWhite wine[9]
data-sort-value="Carrier"Robert CarrierOnionsFresh tomatoesTarragon and thymeDry white wine and brandyChicken stock[10]
data-sort-value="Diat"Louis DiatShallotsTomato sauce Parsley and tarragonDry white wineBrown stock[11]
data-sort-value="Escoffier"Auguste EscoffierShallotsTomato sauceParsleyCognac and white wineDemi-glace[12]
data-sort-value="Grigson"Jane GrigsonShallotsTomato sauceChervil, parsley and tarragonDry white wineBrown stock[13]
data-sort-value="Montagne"Prosper MontagnéShallotTomato sauce Chervil, parsley and tarragonWhite wine and brandyVeal stock[14]
data-sort-value="Pomiane"Édouard de PomianeSmall onionsWhite wineBacon[15]
data-sort-value="Reynaud"Stéphane ReynaudShallotsFresh tomatoesBouquet garni, parsley, tarragonWhite winePotatoes[16]
data-sort-value="Saint-Ange"Madame Saint-AngeShallotsTomato pasteChervil, parsley and tarragonWhite wineBeef stock[17]
data-sort-value="Saulnier"Louis SaulnierShallotsFresh tomatoesParsleyWhite wine and brandyDemi-glace[18]
data-sort-value="Willan"Anne WillanShallotsTomato sauce or tomato pasteParsley or tarragonWhite wineBrown stock[19]

A dish with the English name "hunter's chicken" exists, but is unrelated to chicken chasseur. It consists of skinless and boneless chicken breasts wrapped in bacon, baked, and covered with barbecue sauce and melted cheese.[20]

See also

Sources

. Simone Beck . . . Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume One . 2012 . 1961 . London . Particular . 978-0-241-95339-6 .

. Paul Bocuse . Bocuse à la Carte . 1987 . New York . Pantheon Books . 978-0-39-456267-4.

. Brazier . Eugénie . Eugénie Brazier . Roger Moreau . Paul Bocuse . Bernard Pacaud . La Mère Brazier: The Mother of Modern French Cooking . London . Modern Books . 2015 . 2004 . 978-1-906761-84-4.

. Robert Carrier (chef) . Cooking for You . 1973 . London . Hamlyn . 978-0-60-037541-8.

. The Oxford Companion to Food . Alan Davidson (food writer) . 1999 . Oxford . Oxford University Press . 978-0-19-211579-9 .

. Louis Diat . French Cooking for Americans . J. B. Lippincott . Philadelphia . 1946 . 1036371103 .

. Auguste Escoffier . A Guide to Modern Cookery . 1907 . London . Heinemann . 9781580086059 . 560604921 .

. Jane Grigson . The Mushroom Feast . 1975 . London . Michael Joseph . 978-0-71-811253-0 .

. Prosper Montagné . Larousse gastronomique . 1976 . London . Hamlyn . 1285641881 .

. Édouard de Pomiane. 365 menus, 365 recettes . 1938 . Paris . Albin Michel . 459599806 .

. La bonne cuisine de Madame E. Saint-Ange . La bonne cuisine de Madame E. Saint-Ange . French . 2005 . 1927 . Berkeley . Ten Speed Press . 9781580086059 . 1285661274 .

. Louis Saulnier (writer) . Le répertoire de la cuisine . fourteenth . 1978 . 1923 . London . Jaeggi . 1086737491.

. Anne Willan . Cuisine succès: L'école de la cuisine . French . 1991 . Paris . Larousse . 978-2-03-506008-2.

Notes and References

  1. Davidson, p. 121
  2. https://www.dictionnaire-academie.fr/article/A9C1746 "chasseur, -euse"
  3. https://archive.org/details/bailysmagazineof10gilbuoft/page/336/mode/2up "What's What in Paris"
  4. Morand, Eugène. "Choses et autres", Le Figaro, 12 December 1870, p. 3
  5. "G. A. R. Reunion", The Nebraska State Journal, 20 September 1889, p. 5
  6. "Mayor's Banquet, Truro", Royal Cornwall Gazette, 2 November 1893, p. 8
  7. Beck, Bertholle and Child, pp. 390–391
  8. Bocuse, p. 67
  9. Brazier, p. 149
  10. Carrier, p. 154
  11. Diat, p. 78
  12. Escoffier, p. 18
  13. Grigson, p. 48
  14. Montagné, p. 262
  15. Pomiane, p. 147
  16. Reynaud, p. 238
  17. Saint-Ange, pp. 59–60
  18. Saulnier, p. 158
  19. Willan, p. 58
  20. https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/hunters-chicken-0 "Hunter's chicken"