Fricassee

TIME1 hour MAKES4 servings PORTION
0.5x 1x 2x 3x

Fricassee is a cooking method that sits halfway between a sauté and a stew1, in that it involves stewing or braising of meat and vegetables in stock (like a stew), however the braising liquid is not added from the beginning — but instead the meat is sautéed in onions and butter (being careful to avoid any caramelization!) before stewing with white wine and stock, and thickening with egg yolks.

As far as I can tell, while fricassee is typically thought of as traditional French cuisine (and indeed, it first appears in the French medieval cookbook La Viander), it has long been a staple of English cuisine (appearing in The Good Huswifes Jewell in 15862) and American cuisine (a favourite dish of Abraham Lincoln).

Over time, the dish has evolved and adapted — Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine replaces the butter with schmaltz, while Spanish and Caribbean renditions opt for red wine and tomato-based sauces.

Given the rich history of the dish, feel free to adapt based your tastes or what you have on hand. Swap out the chicken for lamb, or rabbit; brown the meat for a tasty frond and darker sauce (as is common nowadays!) or don’t — each will be equally delicious.

This fricassee is thickened both with a flour roux (the more modern method3) and a egg yolk liaison (a mixture of egg yolks and cream) to achieve the traditional velvety thickened texture without too much fuss — however you can leave out the liaison if you like.

INGREDIENTS

Feel free to use any protein that is suitable for braising4 and vegetables you wish, including mushrooms, potatoes, yam, etc.

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  • 60g (4 tbsp) butter
  • 1 onion (finely diced)
  • 2 garlic cloves (finely diced)
  • 40g (1/4 cup) flour
  • 1 tbsp dijon mustard (optional)
  • 150ml white wine
  • 600ml chicken stock

Bouquet garni

  • 1 bay leaf
  • 3 sprigs thyme
  • 2 sprigs rosemary

Finishing

  • 2 egg yolks
  • 100ml cream
  • 1 tbsp parsley (chopped)
  • 1 tbsp chives (chopped)
  • 1/2 lemon (juiced)
  • Nutmeg (freshly grated)
  • Salt and pepper to taste

STEPS

  1. Season the chicken with salt, and leave for 20 minutes to dry brine.

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  1. Turn the heat down to medium-low, and add the flour, cooking and stirring continuously for a few minutes (it will get quite thick). Stir while slowing adding in the wine, followed by the stock and optional dijon mustard — the process should feel like making a bechamel or a gravy, with lumps appearing that slowly disperse.

  2. Increase the heat to medium-high. Return the {{protein}} to the pan, followed by {{vegetables}} if not already added. Once it reaches a simmer, cover with a lid and cook until the {{protein}} is cooked through (you can simmer on the stovetop over medium-low heat, or in the oven at 160ºC, for about 20-30 minutes).

  3. Once the {{protein}} is cooked through, remove from the pan and the pan from the heat. Mix the cream and the egg yolks, and slowly pour into the sauce while stirring 5 Finish with the nutmeg, lemon juice, herbs, and salt and pepper to taste.

NOTES

  1. As described by Julia Childs, Simone Beck, and Louisette Bertholle in their seminal cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking ↩︎
  2. With recipes for “fricase of lambes head and purtenance” (head and organs), tripe, and “neates feet” (cow shin bones) ↩︎
  3. Thickening with flour instead of an egg yolk liaison seems to be first recorded in Hannah Glasse’s The Art of Cookery. In fact her cookbook has a wealth of fricaſey recipes, including both white and brown fricassee, and proteins such as tripe, lamb, sweetbread, veal, chicken, tongue, cod, and pigeon. She even includes three ways of making rabbit fricassee! ↩︎
  4. For example, dark chicken meat, rabbit, veal, lamb, beef, etc. ↩︎
  5. The residual heat of the sauce is sufficient to thicken, however you can return the pan to the stovetop over low heat to keep the fricassee warm. ↩︎

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