Poularde Niçoise (1903)
Reader ratingsPoularde niçoise after Escoffier (1903): a chicken pot-roasted in butter on aromatic vegetables, with green beans, tomatoes sautéed with garlic and tarragon, and pitted olives.
- Recipe makes
- 6 servings
- Prep
- Cook
- Total
The hen cooks covered for about 75 minutes, then uncovered for about 20 to brown, and rests for 15 while the gravy, beans and tomatoes are made. Peel and seed the tomatoes while the bird is in the oven, and put the bean water on when the lid comes off.
Pot-roasted chicken with green beans, tomatoes and black olives, dressed in the Niçoise style.
The story behind the recipe
A poularde is a fattened young hen, served whole as a relevé on a French menu of the time. Poularde Niçoise follows the rolled fillets of sole on the menu dated 1 July 1945 that survives with the timetable of the Sultan of Morocco’s train from Mauriac to Paris. The English edition of Auguste Escoffier’s Guide has no recipe for it: its pullets run straight from Nantua to Orientale. His French Guide culinaire of 1903 has it, in two sentences.
Two sentences and a garnish
The entry asks for the hen poêlée, laid on the dish with a bunch of green beans at each end, ringed with chopped tomatoes, and given 200 grams of pitted olives where the potatoes would go. The potatoes come from his standard Niçoise garnish for poultry and meat: 250 grams of tomatoes, peeled, pressed and sautéed with a touch of garlic and chopped tarragon added at the end, 300 grams of buttered green beans and 400 grams of small château potatoes, with a thickened gravy, the jus lié, alongside.
Read more about this recipe
A roast in a covered pot
Poêler is the method, and Escoffier’s English Guide of 1907 explains it. “Poëlings are, practically speaking, roasts,” he writes, “cooked entirely or almost entirely with butter,” in a covered pot on a bed of aromatic vegetables he calls matignon: carrot, onion, celery heart, a little raw ham, thyme and bay, stewed in butter with a splash of Madeira. The pot goes into “an oven whose heat is not too fierce,” and the lid comes off only at the end, so the bird may “acquire a fine colour.” Near the end he adds a little rich stock, and the pot’s juices, cleared of butter, go into the gravy.
Making it today
No single recipe joins these parts, so this one is our reconstruction from all three. A roasting chicken of about four and a half pounds stands in for the poularde, and bacon covers the breast as his sheet of pork fat did. Escoffier doesn’t say which olives; we use small black ones, the color his Niçoise garnish for fish names. His gravy is made with brown veal stock; ours uses the chicken stock. His oven is only “not too fierce,” so we chose the oven settings and cook the bird to the modern safe temperature.
The menu card, and the night train whose timetable it was filed with, are in What Was on the Royal Train’s Menu in 1945?. The beans for each end of the dish are boiled and dried as on the French Beans (1907) page, with less butter and no pepper.
Niçoise (à la). — Poêlée et dressée avec bouquet de haricots verts à chaque bout de plat. Entourer de tomates concassées et remplacer les pommes de terre par 200 grammes d’olives dénoyautées.
Recipe makes: 6 servings
Ingredients
For 6 servings. Quantities are shown as written.
Quantities as written here, for 6 servings.
- Roasting chicken , trussed1Author measures: about 4 1/2 lb.
- Salt, for the chicken1 tsp
- Black pepper1/2 tsp
- Bacon3 slices
- Unsalted butter2 tbsp
- Medium carrots, outer red part only, finely diced2
- Medium onions, finely diced2
- Celery ribs from the heart, finely diced2
- Lean ham, cut into small thin squares1 oz
- Thyme1 sprig
- Bay leaf1/2
- Madeira2 tbsp
- Melted butter6 tbsp
- Rich chicken stock1 1/2 cups
- Arrowroot1 tsp
- Cold water1 tbsp
- Medium ripe tomatoes3Author measures: about 12 oz.
- Softened butter1 tbsp
- Small garlic, crushed1 clove
- Chopped tarragon1 tsp
- Fine salt1 pinch
- Thin green beans, trimmed10 oz
- Coarse salt, for the bean water2 tbsp
- Cold butter, cut small1 tbsp
- Pitted small black olives7 oz
Measurement notes
Ingredients as written here
- 1 roasting chicken (about 4½ lb), trussed
- 1 tsp salt, for the chicken
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 3 slices bacon
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 2 medium carrots, outer red part only, finely diced
- 2 medium onions, finely diced
- 2 celery ribs from the heart, finely diced
- 1 oz lean ham, cut into small thin squares
- 1 sprig thyme
- 1/2 bay leaf
- 2 tbsp Madeira
- 6 tbsp melted butter
- 1 1/2 cups rich chicken stock
- 1 tsp arrowroot
- 1 tbsp cold water
- 3 medium ripe tomatoes (about 12 oz)
- 1 tbsp softened butter
- 1 small garlic clove, crushed
- 1 tsp chopped tarragon
- 1 pinch fine salt
- 10 oz thin green beans, trimmed
- 2 tbsp coarse salt, for the bean water
- 1 tbsp cold butter, cut small
- 7 oz pitted small black olives
Equipment
- Dutch oven, 6 to 7 quarts, with a lid
- Kitchen string
Instant-read thermometer- Large pot
- Skillet
Small saucepan
Fine sieve- Warm serving platter
Instructions
Heat the oven to 325°F (165°C).
Melt the unsalted butter in the Dutch oven over medium-low heat. Add the carrots, onions, celery, ham, thyme and bay leaf and stew them gently for 8 to 10 minutes, until soft but not browned. Add the Madeira and let it bubble for a minute.
Season the chicken inside and out with the salt for the chicken and the black pepper. If the bird isn’t trussed, tie the legs together with kitchen string. Lay the bacon over the breast and set the bird on the vegetables. Pour about half of the melted butter over it.
Cover the pot and cook in the oven for about 75 minutes, basting the bird with the rest of the melted butter in two or three goes, and with the butter in the pot.
Meanwhile, prepare the garnishes. Cut a small cross in the base of each tomato, drop them into boiling water for 15 seconds, then into cold water, and peel them. Halve them, squeeze out the seeds and juice, and chop the flesh roughly.
When the thickest part of the thigh reads about 160°F (71°C) and the breast about 150°F (66°C), take off the bacon and pour about a third of the chicken stock around the bird. Raise the oven to 400°F (205°C) and cook uncovered for 15 to 25 minutes, basting once or twice and checking the breast from the first 10 minutes, until the skin is golden, the breast reads 165°F (74°C) and the thigh 175°F (79°C). If the pot looks dry, add a little more of the stock so the vegetables don’t burn. Meanwhile, bring the large pot of water to a rolling boil with the coarse salt for the bean water.
Lift the chicken onto the warm platter, remove the string, cover it loosely with foil and let it rest for 15 minutes.
Pour the rest of the stock into the pot with the vegetables and their butter, and simmer gently for 10 minutes. Strain it through the sieve into the small saucepan, pressing on the vegetables, and spoon off the fat. Stir the arrowroot into the cold water, whisk it into the simmering gravy and cook for about a minute, until lightly thickened.
While the gravy simmers, boil the green beans in the salted water for 4 to 7 minutes, until tender but still a little firm. Drain them without rinsing, toss them in the dry pot over medium heat until the steam stops, then take them off the heat and toss them with the cold butter until it melts.
Melt the softened butter in the skillet over high heat, add the tomatoes and garlic, and toss for 3 to 4 minutes, until their juice has nearly cooked away. Season with the fine salt, stir in the tarragon and the olives, and warm them through for a minute.
Set a bunch of beans at each end of the platter, spoon the tomatoes around the chicken, and add the olives among them. Spoon a little gravy over the bird and serve the rest in a sauceboat.
Nutrition
600calories per serving
- Recipe makes
- 6 servings
- Servings
- 6
Estimated per serving from USDA FoodData Central values for roasted chicken with skin, butter, olives, green beans, tomatoes, bacon and the vegetables.
Recipe notes
When adjusting quantities
Pick a pot just large enough to hold the bird. A hen over 5 pounds needs a 7-quart pot and about 20 minutes more under the lid.
Notes
Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the servings.
Escoffier had the breast of a poularde taken off and sliced in the kitchen so it reached each diner hot, which suits this dish: carve the breast into slices and serve each plate with beans, tomatoes, olives and a spoonful of gravy. His 1903 Guide has the wishbone taken out of every poularde to make carving easier, which is worth doing before you truss the bird. Chill leftovers within 2 hours.
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 A. Escoffier, Le Guide culinaire (Paris, 1903), Poularde à la Niçoise and Garniture Niçoise B, with his pot-roasting method from A Guide to Modern Cookery (London, 1907), no. 250
Recipe details
- Course
- Main course
- Dish family
- Meat & Poultry
- Region
- French
- Era
- Edwardian
- Source decade
- 1900s
- Main ingredient
- Poultry & game birds
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- Occasion
- Dinner party