Cooking Labs- Sauces!!!!!

Hooray! Time for some sauce making, and butchery! No not butchery of sauces (well that happens too but anyways) but we got to take apart a whole chicken in class. First we started out by taking off the legs at the hip (with much cracking of the joints, bringing squirms to some of the girls in the class). then we removed the breasts by following the ribcage with our knives. we kept the wings on but cut the tips off, making what is called a supreme. After taking the skin off the breasts we diced them for use in the Blanquette (below).

To make the Blanquette we poached our chicken breasts in a seasoned chicken broth. we then made a veloute with that broth by adding roux to it. we combined the veloute and chicken and filled the puff pastry vol-au-vents with  it, garnished with some blanched asperagus.

Finished dishes

(Blanquette de Vollaile en Feuilletee

and Braised Chicken Chausseur(Hunter) Style

To make the Chausseur chicken, we first browned the bones left over from the butchery of the chicken and saved them for later. In the same pan we browned our mirepoix and mushrooms with the leftover chicken fat and added our flour to make an aromatic roux. After browning the roux a bit we added beef stock, making an espangole sauce. Then we browned the chicken thighs and drumsticks in a bit of oil and cooking in the oven, we deglazed with red wine, scraping up all the little bits called fond, and added our espangole sauce. After the sauce reduced a bit we plated, with a bit of the mushroom/sauce mixture on the bottom andth chicken on top (see below).
If you need the recipes, just ask!

Close up of a drumstick

From Left to Right: Drumsticks, wings, supremes, thighs