I make - La Poule Au Pot

La Poule au Pot is a traditional dish in France, stemmed all the way back to Henri IV from Béarn in southwest of France. The royal version is rather elaborate with sausage stuffing inside the poached chicken. But for two people, I do it with chicken pieces and no stuffing. Browsing through the internet, it seems common to serve with rice or potato and with a white sauce or tomato sauce. I like the idea with a sauce on the side. I also prefer rice over potatoes to further benefit from the bouillon. This is a very tasty poached chicken dinner with homemade stock saved for later.

Poule au Pot

For the poached chicken

- 4 to 6 chicken pieces, drum sticks and/or thighs

- 1 onion, studded with 2 cloves

- 2 leeks, cut into batons of index finger length

- 2~4 carrots, large pieces

- 2 ribs of celery, large pieces

- 1 turnip, quarters

- bay leaves

- thyme leaves

- 1 tablespoon of whole black peppercorns

- 1 tablespoon of coarse salt (please half the volume if using table salt)

- 1/2 cup of white wine (optional)

- 1.5 liter of water or enough to submerge the chicken

- Bouillon cooked rice

For mushroom white sauce

- 250 g white mushroom sauteed with 1 tablespoon of oil

- 50 g flour

- 50 g butter

- 1/2 cup milk

- 1~ 1-1/2 cups chicken bouillon
- 2 tablespoons of cream cheese (or cream)

- nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon of dried tarragon (optional but nice) 

- Salt to taste

Put all the ingredients for the poached chicken in a big pot and bring it to boil. Once it starts to boil, turn the heat to low, cover and cook gently for 1 hour. Heat off and rest the chicken in its liquor until room temperature.

To prepare mushroom white sauce, make a roux with flour and butter. Add in cold milk. Stir constantly. Ladle in chicken bouillon in several rounds to make the sauce with constant stirring. Add a few grates of nutmeg and stir in cream cheese and sauteed mushrooms. Heat off. Add in tarragon leaves if using. Taste and season with salt.

To serve, put the bouillon cooked rice in the middle of the plate. Arrange the chicken and vegetable pieces around and finish with the white sauce.