Recipes for Two | 9. Chicken Fricassée

A perfect dish for a December table, "Chicken Fricassée" is a French dish that is easy to make at home. Fricassée is a dish where meat is simmered in a white sauce made with heavy cream. Despite using few ingredients and requiring little effort, it is a wonderful dish with a complex, satisfying flavor.

The rich, creamy depth of heavy cream, which is different from a flour-and-butter white sauce, gives it a luxurious feel all on its own.
Pour yourself a glass of the white wine you used in the cooking, and enjoy a quiet moment with this warm dish.

Please enjoy it with that special someone who is in your heart right now.

Chicken Fricassée [Ingredients] Serves 2

While it is nice that this Fricassée can be made in a single frying pan, its rich flavor is truly that of authentic French cuisine. For the sake of deliciousness, it is sometimes important to forget the conventional wisdom that you must first have bouillon for stews, or that you shouldn't brown the ingredients because it's a white sauce.

How to make Chicken Fricassée

1. Slice the onion thinly (5mm) along the grain, and remove the stems from the mushrooms and slice them 6-7mm thick.
Cut the chicken thighs into 4-5cm cubes and lightly sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper. Since the chicken will shrink slightly when simmered, the trick is to cut the pieces a little larger than you think you need.

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat and place the chicken in it, skin side down.
Once you put it in, don't touch it too much; let it cook for 2-3 minutes until the skin side has a nice golden color, then flip it over, sear the other side briefly until the color changes, and remove it from the pan.

Since Fricassée is a "white sauce stew," you might think you shouldn't brown the ingredients, but the savory aroma created by browning the meat is the best seasoning. Here, we will brown the meat well and let it dissolve into the cooking liquid to bring out the umami.

2. In the same pan, add the onion and mushrooms and sauté. Once they become soft, lower the heat slightly and sauté slowly for 3-5 minutes until the onion becomes translucent and gives off a sweet aroma.

You can use other types of mushrooms like shimeji or king oyster mushrooms, but the unique aroma and appearance of mushrooms are reliable ingredients that instantly give a dish a Western feel.

3. Return the chicken to the pan, turn the heat to medium, and add the white wine to bring it to a boil. Be sure to add all the chicken juices that have seeped out as well.
Add the water and heavy cream, stir to combine, cover with a lid, and simmer for about 15 minutes over a heat that keeps it gently bubbling.

The important thing with this dish is to be careful not to use too much water.

When we hear the word "stew," we tend to think we need plenty of stock or soup, but since tender chicken thighs cook in a short time, the secret to making this Fricassée delicious is to simmer it with a small amount of liquid. Without diluting the richness of the heavy cream, it will finish as a stew that is sufficiently thick and special, relying only on the natural flavors of the ingredients.

While it is simmering, if you place the serving plates in a warm spot to heat them up, you can enjoy the stew piping hot just as it is served.

4. Once the simmering time is up, taste it and adjust the seasoning with about 2 pinches of salt, and it is done.
If the sauce is still too thin, simmer it a little longer without the lid until it thickens.

You can enjoy it as a meal with white wine and bread, or serve it with buttered rice or pilaf.
Buttered rice is a simple dish made by mixing a small amount of butter into warm rice, and it is delicious enough as is. If you have some parsley for color, it's perfect.

The smooth richness of the heavy cream is luxurious, but the acidity of the white wine keeps it from feeling heavy, resulting in a gentle flavor. Oily dishes stay warm longer, making them perfect for enjoying a slow, relaxed time. Let's worry about the calories tomorrow.

That's all for today. Thank you for reading until the end.