Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 2-3 hours
To serve: 6-8

You will need

4 lb. plump boiling fowl, oven ready
1 lemon
2 carrots, scraped
3 leeks or 2 onions, peeled
1 stick celery, cut up
salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon lemon juice
6 oz. button mushrooms
1 oz. butter or margarine
1 oz. flour
¾ pint (US 1 ⅞ cups) stock from chicken
2 egg yolks
2-3 tablespoons thick cream

Rub skin of bird with cut lemon. Put into a large pan with prepared carrots, leeks or onions, celery, salt and pepper. Add hot water just to cover. Cover tightly and barely simmer until tender, about 2-3 hours. Simmer mushroom caps for 5 minutes in a little salted water and the lemon juice. When tender drain chicken, remove skin and carve into joints. Arrange joints on dish and keep warm. Make sauce as follows. Melt fat, add flour and cook stirring for 2 minutes. Add stock, whisk until boiling and simmer 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Blend egg yolks and cream together, and whisk into the sauce little by little. Reheat gently, but do not boil. Coat chick with sauce and garnish with drained mushrooms.

Variation

Poule au pot Henri IV
King Henry’s chicken in the pot

Stuff the neck end of a plump boiling fowl with sausage meat and simmer as in previous recipe with the additional of a small quartered cabbage, some fresh herbs and peppercorns. One hour before chicken is cooked add two ½-inch thick slices pickled belly pork and, if wished, extra vegetables. Serve the fowl reposing on a large platter with pork on either side and firmer vegetables grouped around. The remaining vegetables finely chopped are reheated in the chicken stock for soup next day.

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©Shufunotomo Co., Ltd., Japan 1968 English text ©The Hamlyn Publishing Group Ltd., 1968