Pollo in fricassea (Chicken Fricassée)

Frank27 April 2019mains/secondi piatti, Toscana48 Comments

The Italian cooking term fricassea is a bit of a false friend for English or French speakers. Like a fricassée, it usually involves a two-step cooking process of a sauté followed by a braise. But for Italians the thing that makes a fricassea a fricassea—and not, say, a spezzatino—is the final third step, where you add egg yolks and lemon to thicken the cooking juices into a deliciously creamy, tangy sauce.

It is fairly common technique in Italian cookery. Aside from today’s chicken dish, Artusi has a recipe where he says it can be applied to veal and lamb as well, and in fact we’ve featured a Roman lamb dish finished this way It can be applied to vegetables, too, such green beans. Although the word fricassea is obviously French in origin, you’ll find this egg yolk and lemon finish in Greek cookery as well, most famously in the iconic Avgolemono Soup, and I suspect the Greeks may have been the first to come up with the technique.

Whatever its origins, pollo in fricassea makes for a rich yet light main course. It’s especially nice this time of year when you can find fresh spring onions, but delightful at any time of year.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

1 whole young chicken, cut into serving pieces
1 onion, preferably a fresh spring onion, thinly sliced
A splash of white wine
250 ml/1 cup chicken broth, preferably homemade
A sprig of fresh rosemary
A spring of fresh sage
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

For the egg and lemon finish:

Juice of one lemon
2 egg yolks

Directions

In a braiser or sauté pan large enough to hold all the chicken pieces in one layer, gently sauté the onion in abundant olive oil until it has softened and turned translucent. It’s a good idea to add a pinch of salt and a few drops of water while the onion cooks to speed the cooking and avoid browning.

Turn up the heat to medium and add the chicken pieces. Sauté the chicken, turning them from time to time, until they are lightly browned on all sides. Take care not to burn the onion. Season the chicken pieces generously.

Add the white wine, scrapping up any bits of chicken that may have stuck to the bottom of the pan, and let the wine evaporate.

Then add the broth, along with the rosemary and sage, turn down the flame to low, and cover. Let the chicken braise for a good 30-45 minutes, until the chicken is tender and completely cooked through. (You may want to remove the chicken breasts about midway to avoid their overcooking, then put them back just before proceeding to the next step.) There should be ample cooking liquid throughout; add more broth if needed.

Uncover the pan, remove the rosemary and sage, and add the egg yolks and lemon juice, which you will have beaten together in small bowl, stirring until the cooking liquid has thickened into a light, creamy sauce.

Serve your pollo in fricassea right away, with some good quality crusty bread.

Notes on Pollo in fricassea

Pollo in fricassea a simple dish, the only tricky part being the last step, where you need to take some care not to curdle the egg yolk. Mix the egg and lemon mixture into the cooking juices quickly and keep the heat gentle, stirring constantly until the sauce is thick enough to coat the chicken nicely. As soon as you get to this point, remove the pan from the heat. But if you miss your target and the egg does begin to curdle, no worries. You can always strain the sauce through a sieve and no one will be the wiser.

I usually cook chicken with the skin on, but this time I tried skinning it and rather liked the results. The skin does add a bit of flavor and keeps the chicken moist (in theory) but it has a way of sticking to the pan and/or curling up or off the chicken as it cooks. And when you apply moist heat to the dish as you do here, the skin loses its pleasing crispness and turns a bit flaccid.

Variations

Personally, I think pollo in fricassea is best made with a whole chicken or just legs and thighs, but there’s a modern variant on pollo in fricassea that calls for chicken breast only, cut into cubes. The soffritto is generally the Holy Trinity of onion, carrot and celery rather than onion only. The breast is simmered for a shorter time, of course, only about 15-20 minutes, before the egg and lemon finish is added.

You can vary the amount of lemon as you like. Personally, I rather like this dish with the juice of a whole (smallish) lemon, even though I’m not usually partial to acidity in hot dishes. But if you want less tang, use half a lemon instead of a whole one. And if you want a bit of color to enliven this rather monotone dish, a sprinkling of minced parsley at the end wouldn’t be amiss.

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