flipBoiled Chicken with Parsley Sauce
Boiled Chicken with Parsley Sauce
Why this dish? Her diet consisted of boiled lean meats and cooked vegetables, a spare cuisine far from Victorian opulence. Boiled chicken with white sauce, mild and digestible, was the typical dish recommended for delicate stomachs in wealthy households.
A chicken gently poached until tender, coated in a white sauce perfumed with fresh parsley. A pale, tender, and comforting food, emblematic of English sick-room cookery as well as ordinary table fare.
One chooses a fowl not too fat, and poaches it very gently, the water barely trembling, with an onion and a few herbs. The sauce is made with butter and flour, thinned with the cooking broth, and a handful of finely chopped parsley thrown in at the last minute, for colour and fragrance. It is a simple dish, without artifice, but I asked for nothing more: the loaded Victorian table always seemed a vanity to me, where the mind demands sobriety.
- •Tender fowl — one (centrepiece)
- •Onion studded with a clove — one (poaching aromatic)
- •Butter — a knob (sauce base)
- •Flour — a spoonful (thickener)
- •Fresh parsley — a good handful (sauce flavour)
- •Salt — to taste (seasoning)
Boiled Chicken with Parsley Sauce
A chicken gently poached until tender, coated in a white sauce perfumed with fresh parsley. A pale, tender, and comforting food, emblematic of English sick-room cookery as well as ordinary table fare.
Why this dish? Her diet consisted of boiled lean meats and cooked vegetables, a spare cuisine far from Victorian opulence. Boiled chicken with white sauce, mild and digestible, was the typical dish recommended for delicate stomachs in wealthy households.
One chooses a fowl not too fat, and poaches it very gently, the water barely trembling, with an onion and a few herbs. The sauce is made with butter and flour, thinned with the cooking broth, and a handful of finely chopped parsley thrown in at the last minute, for colour and fragrance. It is a simple dish, without artifice, but I asked for nothing more: the loaded Victorian table always seemed a vanity to me, where the mind demands sobriety.
Ingredients (period version)
- Tender fowl — one (centrepiece)
- Onion studded with a clove — one (poaching aromatic)
- Butter — a knob (sauce base)
- Flour — a spoonful (thickener)
- Fresh parsley — a good handful (sauce flavour)
- Salt — to taste (seasoning)
Ingredients
- Free-range chicken (or boiling fowl) — 1 (approx. 1.5 kg) (centrepiece)
- Onion studded with a clove — 1 (aromatic)
- Carrot and celery stalk — 1 each (broth)
- Butter — 30 g (sauce base)
- Flour — 30 g (thickener)
- Cooking broth — 300 ml (sauce)
- Chopped flat-leaf parsley — 4 tbsp (flavour)
- Salt and white pepper — to taste (seasoning)
Method
- Place the chicken in a large pot with the onion, carrot, celery, and salted cold water.
- Bring gently to a simmer and poach for 1 to 1.25 hours, without letting it boil vigorously.
- Remove the chicken, keep it warm, and reserve the broth.
- For the sauce: melt the butter, add the flour, and cook for 1 minute without browning.
- Gradually whisk in 300 ml of hot broth until smooth and coating.
- Off the heat, stir in the chopped parsley, season with salt and white pepper.
- Carve the chicken and generously coat with the parsley sauce.
How it was made : White parsley sauce traditionally accompanied boiled poultry and fish in English cuisine. Cooking in barely simmering water, considered healthy and digestible, was especially recommended for people of fragile constitution.
The contemporary twist : Served as sliced breast on a smooth parsnip purée, with the parsley sauce drizzled and a few fresh parsley leaves on top — a stripped-down version of a sick-room classic.
Sources : Isabella Beeton, Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, 1861 · Eliza Acton, Modern Cookery for Private Families, 1845
Harriet Taylor Mill · Charactorium
