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Overhead view of browned chicken thighs and sliced mushrooms in a creamy sauce.

Poultry & duck

Fricassée de Volaille à l’Ancienne

By Nagi Maehashi

recipe credited to Jean-Baptiste Alexandre

The mushroom sauce is the reason to put this fricassée on the table. It is rich with cream and butter, lifted by dry white wine and scented with thyme, bay and garlic. Golden chicken thighs and drumsticks braise in it until tender, with onions and chunky mushrooms alongside. This is Nagi Maehashi and Jean-Baptiste Alexandre’s family-style version: generous, comforting and particularly good spooned over buttery mash.

Prep
20 min
Cook
1 hr
Total
1 hr 20 min
Serves4–6
Nutrition
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Ingredients

Chicken

Mushroom sauce

  • Alternative

    ½ tsp dried thyme at the four-serving base

  • Alternative

    The source permits replacing the white wine with extra low-sodium chicken stock.

Method

  1. Pat the chicken dry and season with the chicken salt and pepper.
  2. Melt the butter over medium-high heat. Brown the thighs skin-side down for 4–5 minutes, then one minute on the other side. Set aside. Brown the drumsticks on three sides, about two minutes per side, and set aside.
  3. Cook the mushrooms, onions, bay and thyme in the remaining butter for five minutes. Stir in the garlic for 30 seconds, then the flour for one minute.
  4. Add wine, stock, sauce salt and pepper. Scrape the browned residue into the sauce. Return the chicken skin-side up.
  5. Bring to a steady gentle simmer. Cover for ten minutes, then uncover and simmer for another 20 minutes, until the chicken reaches the source’s 75°C / 167°F or slightly higher.
  6. Set the chicken aside. Stir the cream into the sauce, return to a simmer and taste for salt. Return the chicken, remove from the heat, scatter over parsley and serve.

Equipment

Large heavy-based skillet or pot with lid; Plate or tray; Wooden spoon

Notes

  • Chicken pieces: keep the skin and bones for the main braise. Dry the chicken before seasoning and browning, and retain the butter and browned residue for the sauce.
  • Mushrooms: cook until lightly golden. There is no need to take them to a deep brown, since their colour will fade in the braise.
  • Sauce: scrape the pan thoroughly when adding the wine and stock. Use a steady simmer, with the lid on for the first ten minutes and off for the next twenty so the liquid reduces.
  • Wine and herbs: choose a dry white wine with little sweetness or oak; Chardonnay is a good choice. Replace it with extra low-sodium chicken stock if preferred. Fresh thyme can be replaced by the listed dried-thyme alternative.
  • Boneless alternative: brown the pieces, then simmer the sauce without chicken, uncovered, for fifteen minutes. Add boneless breast and cover for about six minutes, to the source’s stated 65°C/149°F. For boneless thigh, use the same sequence and the source’s 75°C/167°F endpoint.
  • Vegetables: those needing the full thirty-minute braise can go in at the start; add quick-cooking green beans or asparagus towards the end.
  • Finish and serve: stir in the cream, bring the sauce back to a simmer, then return the chicken and take the pan off the heat. Homemade stock gives extra depth. Serve with mash, rice or short pasta, plus greens or a salad.

How to

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Photos

11 photos
Ingredients in Chicken FricasséeIngredientsIngredients for the sauceRaw chicken drumsticks and thigh cutlets for Chicken FricasséeIngredientsChicken thighs and drumsticksHow to make Chicken FricasséeSteps 2–4 · OverviewBrown the chicken and build the sauceClose up of golden brown seared chicken thigh cutletsStep 2Brown the chicken in butterCooking sauce for Chicken FricasséeStep 3Cook the mushrooms and onionsPouring homemade chicken stock into pot for Chicken FricasseStep 4Add the stockHow to make Chicken FricasséeSteps 5–6 · OverviewSimmer the chicken and finish with creamLarge pot of freshly cooked Chicken FricasséeFinished dishThe finished fricassée in the potOverhead photo of Chicken Fricassée fresh off the stoveFinished dishChicken and mushrooms in the finished saucePlate of Chicken Fricassée served over mashed potatoServingServe over mashed potatoDrizzling Chicken Fricassée sauce over chickenServingSpoon the sauce over the plated chicken

Fricassée de Volaille à l’Ancienne

Recipe photos

About this dish

The French name fricassée has described a wide range of sauced dishes, from poultry and meat to fish and vegetables. Its narrower classical meaning is more precise: pieces of white meat cooked in butter without browning, then simmered in white stock and bound with cream. This recipe takes a golden route through the same comforting family of dishes.

Nagi Maehashi credits French chef Jean-Baptiste Alexandre with the formulation. Her enthusiasm centres on its creamy mushroom sauce, and the browning is what gives that sauce its foundation. Butter carries the chicken’s savoury residue into the mushrooms and onions; wine and stock loosen it from the pan. Flour adds enough body to coat the chicken, while cream goes in at the end, without an egg-yolk liaison.

The short braise keeps the bone-in pieces tender and intact. Bringing the pot to the table lets everyone help themselves to chicken, mushrooms and plenty of sauce.

Recipe and cooking notes adapted from RecipeTin Eats.