Chicken Fricassee

[sprinkleeninow]

https://www.recipetineats.com/chicken-fricassee-quick-french-chicken-stew

[madaboutharry]

1. Chicken Fricassee is also delicious when made in a marinara sauce.

I’m not a fan of cream based sauces. I’ve made fricassee with marinara sauce instead and it always comes out great. The key of course is cooking it until the chicken is very tender.

[Warpy]

2. Back in the day when you could get old stewing hens

culled from egg farms, you could do a really good chicken fricasee. Now the chickens are only a few weeks old and are stripped of both skin and bones, so it's impossible to get much flavor out of them. Even buying a capon and butchering it down into parts doesn't work all that well, it's the long stewing that develops the true flavor.

What I've taken to doing in our time of flabby, tasteless, stripped down chicken breasts is to poach them in broth with scallion and ginger, then cut them into bite sized pieces. I will then make a bechamel flavored with Better than Bouillion, herbs and veg, pop the chicken meat in, and simmer for a few minutes. Served over rice or homemade pasta, it's not terrible. It's also not chicken fricasee.

Those old stewing hens, along with the bones and skin, are going to food processors to be turned into engineered "chicken products" like nuggets and the like.

The real thing might be more labor intensive and contribute more to the local landfill, but it was worth it.

[sprinkleeninow]

3. 'Tis true regarding stewing hens. Seems they're hardly available anymore.

Up north there was a poultry store in our city where you could get really fresh chicken. Heck, my Baba and most adjacent neighbors had coops and chickens for eggs only!

[Staph]

4. I've used this recipe before.

It's really good! You do need to have something - mashed potatoes, rice, pasta, and/or good bread - to sop up all that goodness!