Chicken Fricassee

There are other dishes that pair "fricassee" and a type of meat for the name of the dish, with veal, turkey and rabbit being examples, but "Chicken Fricassee" is likely the best known and the most common.* Some people pronounce it like "frik-ah-see," others pronounce it as if "frik-ah-say." Probably because of chicken being used most often, "fricassee" is likely thought by many to have a light colored sauce, and I'll admit, that's what I think of when I think of fricassee, as that's how my grandmother made it when I was a little kid. But there are some recipes for chicken fricassee that are darker in color, and some are reddish, even downright red. It depends upon the culture behind any given recipe. I've seen German recipes that add juniper berries** or capers (chicken fricassee in German is "Hühnerfrikassee"), while Hungarians add paprika, which of course will add a somewhat red or orange tint to the sauce, and dishes derived from Spanish background may be much more red, as they may well contain both paprika and tomatoes, and some recipes do not use cream or milk at all. If I remember right, my grandmother made chicken fricassee with carrots, asparagus and peas. In those times canned peas were common in household pantries in the U.S., as they still are, but they were a dull green, or olive type color, and my grandmother used frozen peas, which were bright green, and with a much better taste. I use boneless chicken, but you certainly can use whole bone-in chicken pieces, if you prefer. As you'll see in the ingredient list, I actually use boneless chicken breast, but I also list one whole wing. This gives a little of the added taste of skin-on and bone-in chicken. Rice or noodles are commonly served with chicken fricassee, but myself, I'm a mashed potatoes guy, and the delicious sauce screams for mashed potatoes to me.

 

The history of this dish is rather obscure, although some, including myself, assume it to be of French origin, with the French sounding name adding support to that assumption; see "Word History," below.

Ingredients (5 to 6 servings):

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast + 1 whole skin-on wing

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

2 tablespoons butter + 1 tablespoon olive oil (or vegetable oil or canola oil)

1 cup sliced mushrooms (I used cremini mushrooms, but I've used white mushrooms at times over the years too)  

1/2 cup diced or small chopped carrot (smaller is better, as larger pieces naturally take longer to cook)

1/2 cup chopped asparagus (about 1 to 1 1/2 inch pieces)

1 cup chopped white onion

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 1/2 cups chicken stock

2 1/2 tablespoons flour

1 bay leaf

1/2 cup heavy cream (or half and half)

2 egg yolks, tempered with small amount of sauce

(optional) 1 or 2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley, divided to sprinkle on the individual servings 

 

Note on salt: I salt the chicken pieces with the 1 teaspoon of salt, but I don't add any other salt directly to the dish, as the chicken stock has salt. 

In a skillet add the butter and oil over medium heat. Salt and pepper the chicken. When the butter is melted, add the chicken pieces to the skillet and saute until the chicken starts to get a little browning to it (we're not cooking the chicken through, at this point). Remove the chicken to a plate or platter, then add the chopped onion to the skillet and saute for about 1 minute before adding the carrot; saute for about 3 minutes, turning and stirring the vegetables often, then add the mushrooms, and mix all of the vegetables together. After another 2 minutes, add the asparagus and saute another 2 minutes (always turning and mixing the veggies around). Sprinkle the flour into the skillet and mix it into the veggies and butter/oil. Now add the white wine and the chicken stock and mix everything together well, add the bay leaf. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook at this level for another 2 minutes (that is after it starts to simmer), stirring a lot (the liquids should begin to thicken somewhat). Stir in the cream, then add the chicken pieces to the sauce and cook at a gentle simmer (adjust heat accordingly) until the chicken is tender (check the carrots too, as they can sometimes take some more cooking). Turn off the heat, or remove the pan from the heat. Add two egg yolks to a cup or a small bowl and use a spoon to break and beat the yolks briefly. Add a tablespoon of the sauce to the yolks and immediately beat it into the yolks, followed by another tablespoon of sauce with the same procedure, and then one more time of the same. GRADUALLY stir in the yolk mixture to the sauce, and keep stirring until the yolks are fully incorporated into the sauce. Remove the bay leaf. You can sprinkle some chopped parsley over the top of each serving, if desired.    

 

* I like Cajun Meatball Fricassee, too, and here's the link to the recipe: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2021/12/cajun-meatball-fricassee.html

 

** If you've never used juniper berries, they come from certain evergreen trees; thus, the "berries" are actually little "cones" from these trees, but they look a lot like blueberries, but dried. They are most famous for the flavor they give to gin, and they are not uncommon in certain dishes from German language and cultural regions, like Germany, Alsace (part of eastern France), Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, as well as in some Scandinavian, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian and Polish recipes. The German name for "juniper berries" is "Wacholderbeeren." 

 

I had my "Chicken Fricassee" over mashed potatoes with some cottage cheese on the side ... 

 

 

 

When I fixed Chicken Fricassee this time, I cut the chicken into smaller pieces ... 

WORD HISTORY:

Fricassee (Quash)-The term "fricassee" is thought to be a combination of words, with the first part coming from the French verb "frire," meaning "to fry." Indeed, English borrowed "fry" from the Latin-derived French word. The second part of "fricassee" is presumed to be from French "casser," also spelled "quasser," which meant "to break up, to cut up." This part of the word is closely related to "quash," a word formed by the merging of two separate verb forms with similar meanings and even spellings, one that goes back to Indo European "kwet," which had the notion of "to shake, to shake up, to excite or agitate." This gave Latin the verb "quatere" with the same general meanings, and its participle "quassus," produced Latin "quassare," which meant "to shake violently, to shake forcefully." This passed into Latin-based Old French as "quasser," which was also spelled "casser," and with the same meaning as the Latin parent, but also, "to weaken, to break apart." This was borrowed by English within the first couple of decades of the 1300s as "quaschen/quashen," which then simply became "quash," with the meaning "to smash, to crush, to defeat completely," but its meaning was then also influenced by the second verb. The second verb goes back to Indo European "kes," with the general meaning of "to cut." This gave Latin the verb "carere," meaning "to separate, to be separated (from);" thus also, "to be without, to be lacking in," and this gave Latin the adjective "cassus," meaning "empty, void, hollow," and this produced the verb "cassare," later as "quassare," which meant "to nullify, to make or declare void," and this passed into Old French as "quasser," and also as "casser" (as with the first verb), with the "to nullify, to void" meaning, and it was often used in legalistic matters, which brought it into English in the mid 1200s, but by the late 1500s, the word began to be used for, "to suppress, to halt something," from the notion of "nullify," and it is this meaning that is best known in English today ... "to put down, to suppress, to put a firm stop to something."