Culinary School Chronicles - Poached Chicken with Sauce d'Archiduc

Classes of late have moved farther away from food theory and more to practical application of the skills we have acquired.  I wonder if anyone but me has actually spent the time reading the manual they gave us....?  Probably only the few die-hards like me and my tablemates who haven't given up on showing up yet!  16 bodies of 24 again today.  Oh well...it means more product for those who show, so whatever.

Today Chef did a demo of Mushroom Rice Pilaf and then we learned to take chicken breast off the front end of the bird, remove the skin and poach it.  Very similar technique to what I did a few weeks back when we poached Rainbow Trout.

We also did a take on Sauce Archiduc which is a derivative sauce that combines the chicken's poaching liquid with a Béchamel sauce (back to Mother sauces again!).  The traditional version popularized by Escoffier is a cream and mushroom sauce, but this version incorporates lemon grass, Thai green curry paste and no mushrooms.  The sauce picks up a subtle hint of flavour from all of these ingredients and gives you that nice little burny tickle at the back of your throat that us capiscum lovers want.

Honestly, until I took this course, I never would have considered poaching to be a viable method of cooking - it seemed too much like boiling or microwaving to me.  But I was wrong.  Between the poached rainbow trout and the poached chicken today, I am a convert.  And it actually is quite a quick cooking method for your "a 1à minute" moments.  I didn't even know I had a là minute moments until I took my course but apparently I do!  And all of these classics still hold up incredibly well at a dinner party.

We also learned about the making of a clouté.  I must admit I love the French cooking terminology we keep learning.  Everything has a name and a defined method.  So classic.  So French!

Anyway a clouté is made by peeling an onion, and cutting it in half.  You then cut a fairly deep insert into the onion and place a bay leaf in the cut.  Then you use a few cloves to pierce the onion and bay leaf to hold them in place. This is my clouté looking back at me from my milk like a little clove studded face.

Basically what we do is place flavouring agents in the bottom of a sauté pan, adding the chicken and poaching liquid, then cook the chicken.  At the same time you make a classic Béchamel sauce and that sauce is added to the strained poaching liquid to create the Sauce Archiduc.  Using the Béchamel is just a different way to thicken an sauce instead of using a Beurre Manie or other method.

What I can say about this dish is that it seemed to be enjoyed by all on Saturday night, including the kids who cleaned their plates.  We served this dish with Mushroom Rice Pilaf and Roasted Asparagus.  Yummy!

Poached Chicken with Sauce d'Archiduc

Poaching liquid:

4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (if you can leave the wing on and Supreme it...even better)
1 tablespoon butter
1 shallot, peeled and finely minced
2 tablespoons ginger root, finely minced
1 teaspoon Thai green curry paste
1 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup white wine
2 stalks lemongrass, cut half and bruised

Archiduc Sauce:

Reserved poaching liquid
1 recipe Béchamel sauce (see below\)
1/2 cup heavy cream (35|% cream)
Salt and pepper to taste

Use a sauté pan just large enough to hold the chicken breasts in a single layer.  Butter the inside of the pan and sprinkle with shallots, lemon grass, curry paste and ginger.

Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper.  Place them on the pan presentation side up (the prettiest side).  Sprinkle with lemon juice and add just enough stock to cover the chicken.

Cover the chicken with a cartouche ( a buttered piece of parchment paper cut in the shape of the pan - this acts as a paper lid).  Bring the liquid to a low boil over medium heat.  Reduce heat and simmer until the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 175 degrees, approximately 15 to 20 minutes.

Remove chicken from pan and place in another dish, cover with foil to keep warm.  Return the poaching liquid to a boil, and reduce by half.  Add the Béchamel sauce.  Return to a simmer and continue to cook for 5 to 7 minutes.  Strain the sauce.

Adjust seasoning and serve over reserved chicken breasts with Mushroom Rice Pilaf and some lovely seasonal vegetables.

Béchamel Sauce


2 cups homo milk
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons butter
1 clouté (half an onion with a bayleaf and 2 cloves)

Rinse a small saucepan with cold water.  This will create a coating in the bottom of the pan and reduce the chance of your milk burning on the bottom of the pan.

Add the milk and clouté to the pan and bring to a simmer.  You want to scald the milk but not boil it.  You will know it is scalded because bubbles will form around the side of the pan and if you swish the milk a bit you will get a wisp of steam coming off it.

Melt butter in a separate saucepan.  Add flour and combine well.  Cook for 1 minute but try not to add any colour - we are making a white sauce so we want a blonde roux.  Allow to cool slightly.  For this technique to work the milk and the roux MUST be a different temperatures - moderately warm and hot are ok.

Away from the burner add about 1/4 of the hot milk to the roux.  Mix until smooth.  Add in another 1/4 of the milk and mix.  Keep adding the milk a bit at a time until all milk is taken in by the roux.  Turn the heat to very low and cook for 2-3 minutes.  Take off heat at reserve for use in Archiduc Sauce.

(Incidentally, if you add about 2 cups of Swiss cheese to the Béchamel right now, you get a Mornay sauce which makes an awesome Mac'n'Cheese.)