Chicken fricassee with cream is one of the varieties of a popular French cuisine dish that can be easily prepared even at home without spending money on all possible restaurants. Once you've mastered this recipe, you'll always have a tried-and-true dish on hand that's perfect for any romantic dinner. Literally speaking, fricassee is a meat stew cooked in white sauce. If everything is standard with the sauce, since it is prepared on the basis of cream, then you can experiment a little with the meat. The experiment is that tender chicken meat can be replaced with rabbit or calf meat.
For today's version of fricassee, we will need chicken fillet, flour, cream, nutmeg, basil, oregano, pepper and salt. As you can see, the list of products is quite small, and all of them are accessible and inexpensive. The entire cooking process takes about 20 minutes, which is why this dish can easily be classified as a “quick dish.”
The special softness of the finished meat is achieved thanks to a little trick, which is that the chicken must be rolled in flour before frying. This small nuance was missed in many online recipes I saw, so I am sharing the perfect version of this dish with my readers.
Chicken fricassee can be served as a separate dish or in addition to vegetables and any side dish. If you decide to pamper your household with such a delicious dish for an everyday lunch or dinner, then it would be appropriate to serve boiled macaroni or pasta as a side dish. Although in its “pure form” the dish will also fully satisfy all tasters.
How to cook properly
To prepare fricassee, chicken or turkey is mainly used. The dish should also include heavy cream or crème fraîche (the French equivalent of sour cream), as well as white wine.
The term "fricassee" refers to the way the meat itself is prepared. Therefore, other types of meat and even fish and shrimp are often prepared using this method.
Currently, under the name “fricassee” you can find various recipes and cooking methods. In addition to herbs, green salad, add:
- Mushrooms;
- Beans;
- Almond.
Don't be afraid to experiment and make changes to the recipe.
It's easy to prepare. Wash the selected meat and dry it with a paper towel. It is recommended to give preference to breast or meat without streaks of fat.
Cut into small pieces, as they say in one bite. Unlike beef stroganoff, it is usually cut into squares.
Flour. In some recipes, flour is sprinkled on the fried meat.
Heat the frying pan, but not to the same temperature as when stewing, i.e. Fricassee is cooked at lower temperatures. In this case, the juice flows out of the meat, but the pieces themselves remain light, i.e. without crust.
You can fry in oil or fat.
Place pieces of meat into a heated frying pan. Stirring, fry on all sides.
As soon as the juice stops flowing out, add herbs, spices, herbs, and vegetables. Fry for a few more minutes.
Sprinkle with flour and fry, stirring constantly.
Then, stirring constantly, carefully pour in the cream. Add water or broth if necessary and simmer until done.
With rice and jackfruit
Fricassee is a dish that you can experiment with endlessly when preparing it.
For example, it can be prepared without meat and contain only mushrooms, vegetables and rice. An Asian vegan version of fricassee suggests adding canned jackfruit, which has a texture similar to chicken.
What ingredients will you need?
- 250 g basmati rice;
- 2 cans of jackfruit (500 g each without liquid);
- 100 g frozen peas;
- 1 carrot;
- 1 onion;
- 50 g champignons
- 100g white asparagus tips, canned;
- 50 ml vegan white wine;
- mustard;
- 250 ml plant-based cream;
- 250 ml vegetable broth;
- 4 tbsp. l. flour;
- 4 tbsp. l. any vegan butter;
- juice of 1 lemon;
- frying oil;
- parsley for serving;
- nutmeg;
- salt;
- coarsely ground pepper.
Step-by-step cooking process
- You need to add the rice to the pan and add double the amount of cold salted water, heat to a boil, then reduce the heat and let it simmer for about 20 minutes. The liquid should completely soak into the cereal. If the rice is not as soft as you would like, you can add more water and cook until it reaches the desired texture.
- The onion should be peeled and chopped, the carrots should be chopped.
- Mushrooms need to be peeled and cut into quarters, the tops of asparagus and jackfruit should be drained of liquid, frozen peas should be thawed and slightly heated.
- Next, you need to heat the oil in a frying pan and put the jackfruit and mushrooms in it, fry for about 5 minutes. over medium-high heat, turn down the heat, add the onion, carrots and peas and cook for about 15 minutes. on low heat. In 10 minutes. You can shred the jackfruit pieces with two forks.
- In another saucepan, melt the butter and add flour, add vegetable broth and plant-based cream and add white vegan wine.
- Then you need to add mustard to the liquid mixture and season everything with fine table salt, coarsely ground pepper, nutmeg and lemon juice to taste, leave to simmer over low heat for 10 minutes.
- After this, add the fried vegetables and jackfruit to the sauce and mix evenly.
- To serve the dish, place the rice on serving plates, cover it with vegetables in the sauce and sprinkle chopped parsley on top.
Classic chicken fricassee recipe
The classic recipe still calls for chicken. As the story goes, one day a cook, who was not aware that Emperor Napoleon did not like chicken, prepared a dish with it.
Knowing that this could threaten him with losing his place in the imperial kitchen, the cook dared to offer the emperor a taste. Napoleon liked the fricassee and gave instructions from that day on to include the dish on the menu. According to legend, from then on chicken fricassee became popular in France and was served at receptions of the French and European nobility.
To prepare a classic chicken fricassee you will need the following ingredients.
Ingredients:
- 1 chicken carcass (weighing about 1.2-1.3 kg)
- 200 grams of asparagus
- 100 grams of fresh champignons
- 60 grams butter
- 120 ml dry white wine
- 2 tablespoons flour (without top)
- Salt, pepper, spices
First boil the chicken. Then remove the skin and cut off the stems. They are not needed for fricassee. The dish is prepared only from white meat. Cut the meat separated from the bones into pieces.
Boil asparagus in salted water. Cut into small pieces, approximately 2.5-3 centimeters.
Wash the champignons and cut into four parts. Can be cooked with frozen or canned mushrooms.
Heat 2 tablespoons of butter in a frying pan or deep saucepan. Add asparagus and mushrooms. Stew.
In another frying pan, heat the remaining butter. Add flour. Fry, stirring constantly.
Then add, gradually stirring, chicken broth. And after that - wine.
Reduce heat and simmer the sauce over low heat until it thickens. Add salt to taste. Add pepper and spices.
Place meat, stewed mushrooms and asparagus into the thickened sauce. Heat for a few minutes and serve immediately.
A thick sauce is prepared for fricassee. If you don't like it, reduce the amount of flour or increase the amount of broth.
Fricassee in French
For classic chicken fricassee we will need the following products (for 2 servings):
- chicken pulp – 300 gr.,
- bouillon,
- yolk of one egg,
- lemon juice – 1 tbsp. l.,
- cream (fat content 35%) – 150 gr.,
- oil sl. – 20-30 gr.,
- vegetable oil – 30 gr.,
- champignons – 200 gr.,
- onion – 1 pc.,
- flour for sautéing - 1-2 tbsp. spoons,
- capers,
- green peas – 100 grams,
- asparagus,
- black pepper, white pepper, rosemary,
- salt.
Preparation of chicken fricassee with mushrooms:
- Process the chicken carcass: remove the skin, rinse, cut into pieces (preferably into cubes).
- Heat the butter over low heat in a frying pan or saucepan.
- Turn up the heat and quickly (5 minutes) fry the pieces of meat until crisp. Roll the pieces in flour.
- Fry the pre-peeled and chopped onion in a separate bowl until transparent.
- Add the champignons and seasoning mixture to the onions and fry over high heat for 2-3 minutes.
- Add fried chicken, capers, green peas, asparagus. Pour in broth - 100 grams.
- When the liquid has evaporated, with constant stirring, pour in the cream, ground with the yolk, and leave to simmer under a tight lid for 10-15 minutes.
Before serving, sprinkle with lemon juice and add coarsely chopped fresh capers and asparagus. Garnish with herbs and green peas.
How to cook chicken fricassee with vegetables
Ingredients:
- 1 medium chicken
- 1.5 liters of water
- 300 ml dry white wine
- 2 medium red onions
- 2 large carrots
- 100 grams of mushrooms
- 2 bay leaves
- 50 grams butter
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 500 grams of heavy cream or sour cream
- Salt and pepper
Pour water into the pan. Add wine, salt, pepper, bay leaf and bring to a boil.
Meanwhile, cut the chicken into smaller pieces. Place in water along with onions, carrots and mushrooms.
Reduce heat after boiling and removing foam. Cook for 45-60 minutes until the meat is tender and falling off the bones.
Remove the bay leaf. Cut the meat into small pieces.
Grind softened butter with flour. Gradually pour in the strained broth, stirring constantly.
Add cream. Drop in the chicken pieces. Reheat and serve with white wine.
Turkey fricassee
One version of the translation of the word fricassée is mixture. Initially, this was the name for a vegetable dish that was served with meat. A kind of analogue of stew was prepared from poultry meat, young lamb, veal, but not from pork. Later, when white wine was added to the cream sauce and mushrooms became an integral part, fricassée became the name of the dish.
For turkey fricassee you will need:
- turkey (loin) – 500 gr.,
- bone broth – 250 gr.,
- mushrooms – 200g.,
- sl. butter – 50 gr.,
- olive oil 2-3 tbsp. spoons,
- cream – 50 gr.,
- juice of one lemon,
- wine (white dry) – 50 g.,
- mustard powder – 1 tsp,
- yolk,
- onion – 1 pc.,
- flour for breading,
- seasonings: rosemary, thyme,
- spices: salt, ground black pepper.
Creamy fricassee: cooking sequence:
- Separate the pulp from the bones. Set aside the sirloin and cook a strong broth from the leftovers.
- Divide the fillet into two halves, place in boiling water and cook over high heat for no longer than 5 minutes. Place on a sieve.
- Mix equal amounts of butter and olive oil.
- Cut the boiled fillet into portions and fry in heated oil with the addition of 1 tbsp. spoons of white wine.
- Roll chopped onion in flour and bread in vegetable oil for 2 minutes. Add chopped mushrooms and bread for another 5 minutes.
- Mix the meat with mushrooms and onions, pour in the remaining wine and simmer until the liquid has completely evaporated.
- Grind the yolk with cream and mustard, add spices and seasonings. Pour the resulting mixture over the meat and mushrooms and, stirring constantly, keep on low heat for 5 minutes.
- Bring until cooked, covered, for 5-10 minutes.
Just before serving, season with lemon juice. Use vegetables as a side dish.
Useful tips
Fricassee is a hybrid cooking method that combines wet and dry braising. It starts out as a sauté (with no added liquid) and then continues to simmer like a stew (with added sauce). This dish is great at any time of the year, but is especially recommended to serve on cold winter days. The main feature that distinguishes fricassee from regular stew is that the pieces are not fried to a crisp before adding liquid.
Instead, it is cooked in oil or fat at a low temperature so it stays white. As a result, most variations of fricassee are bland stews. Although chicken fricassee is the most common, some recipes suggest adding veal or lamb. In any case, the meat is salted and peppered, and then carefully fried in oil, avoiding caramelization. Then it is removed from the saucepan or frying pan, and vegetables (most often garlic, onions and celery) are fried along with spices and seasonings.
After this, the meat is returned along with flour, which forms the dressing. After adding white wine, the mixture thickens and decreases in volume, and it is poured with broth. Next, the dish is simmered under a closed lid until all components are cooked. Cooked rice, buttered noodles, mashed potatoes, soft gnocchi or boiled new potatoes are good side dishes for fricassee of chicken or other meats. Another option is to serve the hot dish with a warm baguette or whole grain bread. Any baked goods will work as the crumb absorbs the sauce well.
Fricassee is best cooked in a large cast iron saucepan or sauté pan with a lid. This is the optimal container, the volume of which should be sufficient so as not to overfill it. All components of the dish should easily fit in the pan, and the lid should be easy to close.
Chicken fricassee with apples
Braised chicken breasts in a creamy white sauce made with chicken broth, cider and a little vinegar have the perfect balance of flavor.
The addition of fresh apples makes this dish quite unique.
What ingredients will you need?
- 2 sweet apples (for example, Fuji or Gala);
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into pieces;
- salt and coarsely ground pepper;
- 0.3 tbsp. general purpose flour;
- 4 tbsp. l. unsalted butter, divided into 2 parts;
- 1 onion, finely chopped;
- 1 tbsp. l. fresh thyme leaves;
- 0.5 tbsp. apple cider (or unsweetened apple juice);
- 0.5 tbsp. unsalted chicken broth;
- 0.5 tbsp. heavy cream (high fat content);
- 2 tsp. apple cider vinegar;
- 1 tbsp. l. fresh chopped parsley or extra thyme leaves for garnish.
Step-by-step cooking process
- It is necessary to wash the apples and cut each into quarters without removing the skin. Then you need to remove the seeds and core and cut each quarter into four wedges 1-1.5 cm thick. You should get 16 slices from each apple.
- Flour should be poured into a shallow bowl.
- Dry chicken breasts with paper towels and rub with salt and coarsely ground pepper, roll each piece in flour and place on a clean plate.
- Next, you need to heat a large non-stick frying pan over moderate heat, place 2 tbsp. l. oil and heat until it melts.
- Next, add the apple slices to the heated skillet, cut side down, and cook until lightly browned, about 5 minutes at a time. on each side and transfer to another bowl.
- After this, you need to heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil in an already empty frying pan. Once melted, add the chicken breasts and cook until lightly browned on each side and transfer them back to the plate.
- Immediately add onion, thyme leaves and 0.5 tsp each to a preheated frying pan. salt and coarsely ground pepper, fry over low heat until the onion is soft and browned, about 7-8 minutes.
- Next you need to pour in the cider and broth and heat to a boil, add the fried chicken, reduce the heat to medium-low, cover and simmer until the meat is cooked, about 15 minutes. There is no need to turn the chicken.
- Once done, place the chicken on a serving platter and cover with foil to prevent it from cooling.
- Pour the cream into the pan, increase the heat to medium-high, bring to a boil and cook until the sauce thickens slightly, about 5 minutes.
- Then you should pour in the vinegar and mix everything until smooth, add the apples and accumulated chicken juice, taste and, if desired, season with coarsely ground pepper and/or salt.
- Pour the finished sauce onto the chicken breasts and garnish with parsley and serve immediately.