Chicken in Beer

Sauté de poulet à la bière (Normandy)

Mum and I made this on 22nd June, 2024 - a particularly cold Winter night. This was just the thing! Mum made this a second time a few weeks later.

My Review

This recipe was delicious! It's hard to go wrong with shallots, good chicken, and cream. I wouldn't describe it as particularly complex in its flavours, but it is hearty and tasty. It is reminiscent of a dish you might find on the menu at a stalwart family-owned French restaurant that's been in the block of shops up the road for at least forty years. Do they ever change their menu? No. Have they updated their format to sharing plates? Absolutely not. Will you keep going back at least once a fortnight for the rest of your life? Probably. Why fix what isn't broken?

I do find the use of pasta a little strange for a French dish, namely one from as far North as Normandy. While I wouldn't find this surprising from somewhere further South, I haven't seen many Northern French recipes involving pasta. Would they consider it unpatriotic? I don't know. I have only been to Normandy for a matter of hours when I was in high school. Those hours were spent staring out at a bleak, drizzly horizon in the cold while our teacher chaperone tried to convince us that that was definitely the outline of England in the distance, not a murky cloud formation. The rest of the time was spent leaving, and then thinking I was going to die (in the best way) at Parc Asterix, located in the nearby Oise department. I don't think the fine cuisine of Parc Asterix had to offer should be taken as representative of Oise, Normandy, or France in general, so I am certainly no expert.

While I did appreciate the easiness of preparing the pasta, I would have slightly preferred mashed potatoes to form the carbohydrate component of the meal from a taste and desire to be stereotypically Norman standpoint. That is exactly what Mum did with her rendition. Bread would also be a good substitute or even addition to soak up all the delicious creamy sauce the pasta doesn't catch.

While Mum read the recipe properly and used chicken with the bone in, I wasn't so attentive and made it with boneless chicken thigh. While still good, I would highly recommend actually learning to read and using a quartered whole chicken (always free range and corn fed if possible!) with the bone in. If you go to a butcher, they will happily do the quartering for you - please support your local butcher! Without a bone, the chicken in my meal began to fall apart a little. Additionally, meat, regardless of type, is always tastier and juicier when cooked with the bone intact.

You may have seen me mention elsewhere that Floyd was one for incorpating tips from those he made these meals for into the recipes in the book, and this is one of those recipes. In this charming video, Floyd makes this exact dish, sans beer at the end. After remarking on its tastiness, the chef alongside Floyd suggests adding in a little at the end of creating the sauce to bring the flavours forward. And voila, we now read Floyd's recipe, and there is the suggestion! I would say though that you can probably use any dark beer, it doesn't have to be Guinness - perhaps they were sponsoring him?

Mum's Review

Delicious - perfect for a Winter's night. Dennis (my note - that's my Dad) gave it 9 out of 10. Next time I'll try your idea of the roasting dish - I couldn't brown the chicken as much as I would have liked.

The Recipe

Serves 6

⚜ 1x 3lb (1.5kg) corn-fed chicken, quartered

⚜ 4 oz (125g) butter

⚜ Oil

⚜ 4 shallots, finely chopped

⚜ 7 oz (200g) mushrooms, sliced

⚜ 12 fl oz (350ml) pale ale or lager

⚜ 1 small glass Marc d'Alsace (gin will do)

⚜ Salt and pepper

⚜ 10 fl oz (300ml) cream

⚜ 2 tablespoons Guinness

⚜ Fresh parsley, finely chopped

The Method

Sauté the chicken pieces in 2 oz (50g) of the butter and a little oil. Add the shallots and the mushrooms and continue to cook. When they are well browned, pour over the beer and the Marc d'Alsace. Season with salt and pepper and simmer on a gentle heat for about 1 hour, or until the chicken is tender.

Shortly before serving, arrange the chicken pieces ina deep dish and keep hot. On a high heat reduce the sauce by half, add the cream to thicken the sauce, and the rest of the butter, whisking all the while. Whisk in the Guinness. Pour the sauce over the chicken and sprinkle with the parsley. Serve with fresh pasta.