To avoid waiting too long, our grandmothers found an express version of the pot-au-feu. With an hour less cooking time, this recipe is only good for you!
In the old days, winter evenings were spent by the fireplace, enjoying a good pot-au-feu. This comforting beef dish was widely eaten by our great-grandparents. To prepare it, you just need to wait a little: because after quickly cutting the vegetables and meat, the ingredients must cook over low heat for 3 hours, in a broth. Fortunately, a dish similar to pot-au-feu can be prepared more quickly. Here, we replace red meat with poultry, which allows, among other things, to reduce cooking time. In the hen-au-pot, an even older recipe from the time of Henri IV, the chicken meat is left to simmer for 2 hours.
However, nowadays, we hardly eat chicken like in past centuries. Florian, the chef running a brasserie in Sèvres, has modernized the recipe. In his pot, he replaces the chicken… with a good free-range chicken, bought from the butcher! “It’s a recipe that I like to cook, with good products, which doesn’t cost very much. Simple, humble, grandmother’s cuisine”, he explains in an episode of Weather on the Map. Because yes, in addition to being less electricity-intensive, a kilo of free-range chicken costs a little less than that of beef chuck. Clearly, this dish really has all the qualities!
In this revisited chicken pot, the whole chicken is cooked in a large pot of water, with seasonal vegetables (leeks, carrots and turnips).
- 1 chicken (preferably free-range)
- 2 leeks
- 4 sand carrots
- 4 turnips
- 2 onions
1. Immerse the whole chicken in a pot of hot water, with the peeled and halved onions. Leave to cook for an hour.
2. Cut the leeks into large pieces. “We just remove the top of the first leaf to clean them and the base of the leek”, explains Florian. “The less we throw away, the better!”. Then run them under water to clean them well. Peel the turnips and carrots, leaving them whole.
3. Add the vegetables to the pot and simmer for another hour.
“After a total of two hours of cooking, the famous chicken pot is ready to be enjoyed”, explains the report. You can then remove the chicken, cut it into generous pieces, and serve with the leeks, carrots and turnips. You will see that in just a few bites, you will be well warmed up!
