Chicken à la Marengo (1868)
Reader ratingsGouffé’s 1868 chicken à la Marengo: chicken fried in oil with shallots, garlic and herbs, with a glossy pan sauce of flour and broth.
- Recipe makes
- 1 chicken, serving 4 to 5
- Prep
- Cook
- Total
The chicken fries for about 25 minutes; the sauce takes another 15 in the same pan.
Chicken à la Marengo with a brown pan sauce and mushrooms, on a white platter.
The story behind the recipe
Fried in oil with shallots, garlic and a handful of herbs, then sauced from the same pan with flour and broth: that is chicken à la Marengo as Jules Gouffé printed it in The Royal Cookery Book in 1868. It is the oldest of our three versions and the plainest, with nothing on the plate but chicken and its sauce.
Gouffé’s version
Gouffé’s recipe was printed in London sixty-eight years after the battle. Gouffé was chef de cuisine of the Paris Jockey Club, and the English edition was translated by his brother Alphonse, “Head Pastry-Cook to Her Majesty the Queen.”
Gouffé weighs even the herbs: “2 shalots, say ½ oz. whole,” “1 clove of garlic, say ¼ oz.,” “1 bunch of parsley, say 1 oz.” His last line is the one that makes the dish: “The fat is not taken off the sauce of Chicken à la Marengo.” The oil stays in, so the sauce comes out glossy. Mushrooms, he adds, “may be added as a garnish.”
For where the battlefield story itself comes from, read Was Chicken Marengo Really Cooked on the Battlefield?
Read more about this recipe
Making it today
Gouffé cuts a three-pound chicken into eight pieces as for a fricassee, keeping the skin on. A butcher will do it, or buy eight bone-in pieces. He uses a full gill of oil, five fluid ounces; that sounds like a lot, but it is what fries the chicken, and it becomes the base of the sauce. We use olive oil, our choice for a Marengo, since the book only says “oil.”
Leave the herbs whole, as he does; they come out when the sauce is strained. Agnes Marshall’s Chicken Marengo with Fried Eggs (1890) shows where the dish went next.
CHICKEN À LA MARENGO
Prepare a chicken as for Fricassee (vide page 135).
Set the pieces of chicken in a sauté-pan, so that they do not overlap one another, with: ...
Observation.—The fat is not taken off the sauce of Chicken à la Marengo.
Recipe makes: 1 chicken, serving 4 to 5
Ingredients
For 1 chicken, serving 4 to 5. Quantities are shown as written.
Quantities as written here, for 1 chicken, serving 4 to 5.
Chicken
- Chicken , cut into eight pieces1Author measures: about 3 lb.
- Olive oil5 fl oz
- Shallots2
- Garlic1 clove
- Bay leaf1
- Thyme1 sprig
- Parsley1 bunch
- Salt3/4 tsp
- Black pepper1/4 tsp
Sauce
- Flour1 oz
- Chicken broth20 fl oz
Optional garnish
- Button mushrooms4 oz
Measurement notes
Ingredients as written here
- 1 chicken (about 3 lb), cut into eight pieces
- 5 fl oz olive oil
- 2 shallots
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 sprig thyme
- 1 bunch parsley
- 0.75 tsp salt
- 0.25 tsp black pepper
- 1 oz flour
- 20 fl oz chicken broth
- 4 oz button mushrooms
Equipment
- Large sauté pan with a lid
Fine sieve- Warm serving dish
Instructions
Pat the chicken pieces dry and lay them in a large sauté pan in one layer, skin side down.
Add the olive oil, the shallots and garlic left whole, the bay leaf, thyme and parsley, and season with the salt and black pepper.
Set the pan over medium heat and fry for about 25 minutes, turning the pieces now and then, until golden all over and cooked through: the thickest part of the thigh should reach 165°F (74°C) and the juices run clear. If the shallots or herbs begin to darken, lower the heat.
Lift the chicken onto a warm dish and keep it warm, covered loosely.
Stir the flour into the oil and herbs in the pan and cook, stirring, for 4 minutes.
Pour in the chicken broth gradually, stirring, and boil for 10 minutes, still stirring, until smooth and lightly thickened. Do not skim off the oil.
If using mushrooms, leave them whole and simmer them in the sauce for the last 5 minutes.
Strain the sauce through a fine sieve, pressing on the herbs, and keep the mushrooms back to scatter on top. Pour the sauce over the chicken and serve.
Nutrition
820calories per serving
- Recipe makes
- 1 chicken, serving 4 to 5
- Servings
- 4
Estimated per serving (4) from USDA FoodData Central values for the listed ingredients; the olive oil is counted in full, since it stays in the sauce.
Recipe notes
When adjusting quantities
Scales by the chicken. Use a pan wide enough that the pieces lie in one layer.
Notes
Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the servings.
Gouffé dishes it as he does his fricassee: the two pieces of back in the center, the legs and wings against their sides and the two pieces of breast on top, with the sauce poured over. For the fricassee he adds that “four fine crayfish at the corners will much improve the appearance of this dish,” a hint of the garnish to come. The book doesn’t name a side.
For a smaller chicken, or bone-in thighs alone, the time will be shorter: cook until the thickest piece reaches 165°F (74°C).
Scaling changes the ingredients only; pan sizes and cooking times need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.
Sources and attribution
After Jules Gouffé, The Royal Cookery Book, trans. Alphonse Gouffé (London: Sampson Low, 1868), Chicken à la Marengo and Fricassee of Chicken
Recipe details
- Course
- Main course
- Dish family
- Meat & Poultry
- Region
- French
- Era
- 19th century
- Source decade
- 1860s
- Main ingredient
- Poultry & game birds
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Occasion
- Everyday meal