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poulet vallee d auge

Poultry & duck

Poulet Vallée d’Auge

By Marie-Josée

Cider, Calvados and buttery apples give this chicken casserole its Norman character. The browned pieces simmer with nutmeg, then meet a cream sauce enriched with a little of the cooked fruit. Most of the apple quarters stay whole, soft against the chicken, while the sauce carries their sweetness through the dish. Marie-Josée’s version is made for sharing, with a sauce boat alongside so none of the apple-scented juices need be left behind.

Prep
30 min
Cook
50 min
Total
1 hr 20 min
Serves6
Jump to recipe ↓Julie Andrieu ↗

Ingredients

Chicken, apples and sauce

Method

  1. Brown chicken on all sides in oil in a casserole; season. Pour over Calvados and flambé. Add cider and nutmeg, lower heat and simmer 15 minutes.
  2. Meanwhile peel, quarter and core apples. Brown them in hot butter in a large frying pan.
  3. Turn chicken; add a little cider if needed and cook another 15 minutes. Add apples. Deglaze frying pan with cider and pour into casserole. Cover and cook 20 minutes.
  4. Transfer chicken and apples to a serving dish, leaving four apple quarters in the casserole. Mash these into the cooking juices. Heat, add cream and whisk until boiling. Spoon sauce over the dish; reserve some for a sauce boat.

Equipment

Casserole with lid; Large frying pan; Serving dish; Sauce boat; Whisk

Notes

  • Apple pan: brown the quarters in hot butter, then use cider to lift the cooking juices before pouring them into the casserole.
  • Sauce: when lifting out the chicken and apples, leave four quarters behind. Mash these into the juices, then add the cream and whisk as directed.
  • Extra liquid: keep cider to hand for the apple pan and for topping up the chicken if needed during cooking.
  • Glass measures: use the original glass of cider and liqueur glass of Calvados. Their capacities and the extra cider are not specified, so no millilitre equivalents are supplied.

Photos

1 photo
Poulet vallée d'Auge de Marie-JoséeServingChicken and browned apples

Poulet Vallée d’Auge

Recipe photos

About this dish

The Pays d’Auge is orchard and pasture country, known for cider, Calvados and dairy produce. Poulet Vallée d’Auge gathers those flavours in one casserole. The Lisieux tourism office describes it as familiar on Norman tables today and dates the named speciality to the 1960s, rather than to a distant, undocumented past.

Marie-Josée’s recipe, published by Julie Andrieu, gives seven Reine des Reinettes apples a central role. Their separate browning in butter brings colour before they join the chicken, while cider lifts the apple pan’s cooking juices into the casserole. The chicken is first browned and flambéed with Calvados, building the sauce around both meat and fruit.

At the finish, four apple quarters are mashed into the juices before the cream goes in. They thicken the sauce without flour and carry apple flavour through every spoonful. The remaining quarters keep their place on the serving dish beside the chicken.

Recipe and cooking notes adapted from Julie Andrieu.