Chicken Marengo

A tomato and mushroom chicken braise whose fried eggs and crayfish go on top at the end and are never cooked in the sauce.

Chicken, Shellfish, Egg. Not vegetarian — contains chicken, chicken stock, shellfish.

Ingredients

For the braise

• 1 chicken, jointed into 8
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 150 ml dry white wine
• 400 g tomatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1 tablespoon tomato purée
• 250 g button mushrooms
• 300 ml chicken stock
• a few thyme sprigs
• salt and pepper

To finish, on top

• 4 eggs
• 8 cooked crayfish, or large prawns
• 4 slices bread, for croutons
• butter and oil, for frying
• chopped parsley

Method

1. THE EGGS AND CRAYFISH GO ON TOP AT THE END AND ARE NEVER COOKED IN THE SAUCE. They are a garnish laid on the finished dish: eggs fried crisp at the edges with the yolk soft, crayfish warmed in butter for a minute. Simmered in the braise, the egg would scramble into shreds and the crayfish would go to rubber and make the whole sauce taste of shellfish -- which is not what either is there for. They sit on it.
2. WHICH ALSO MEANS THE DISH IS FINISHED BEFORE THEY ARE STARTED. Braise done, warm, off the heat; then the croutons, then the crayfish, then the eggs last so they reach the table soft. Four eggs fried to order is the whole timing problem here.
3. THE CHICKEN IS BROWNED HARD AND IN BATCHES, skin side first and left alone. Crowded, it releases water and steams, and a pale braise of this kind tastes of boiled tomato.
4. THE MUSHROOMS ARE FRIED SEPARATELY AND ADDED LATE. In from the start they give up their water into the sauce and go grey and slack; fried hard in a dry pan and folded in for the last ten minutes, they keep their texture.
5. THE CROUTONS ARE FRIED IN BUTTER AND KEPT OUT OF THE SAUCE until the plate, for the same reason as the bread on the onion soup page.
6. Chicken pieces patted dry and seasoned. Browned in the oil in TWO batches, skin down, 5 minutes a side. Lifted out.
7. Onion softened in the fat 8 minutes, garlic 1 minute.
8. Wine poured in and boiled down by half, scraping the base.
9. Tomatoes, purée, stock and thyme added. The chicken returned skin up.
10. Simmered, partly covered, 35 minutes, until the chicken is done and the sauce has thickened.
11. Mushrooms fried hard in a separate dry pan with a little butter until browned, then folded in for the LAST 10 MINUTES. Sauce tasted and seasoned.
12. Bread cut into triangles and fried in butter and oil until gold. Drained.
13. The crayfish warmed in a little butter 1 minute.
14. The eggs fried in butter and oil, one per person, edges crisp and yolks soft.
15. The braise spooned onto warm plates, the croutons tucked at the side, and the crayfish and a fried egg SET ON TOP of each. Parsley over, served at once.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under France · All recipes