France and the Alps · Volume 14, The Duck and the Border
Poulet Basquaise
French Basque Country
Illustration
- Time
- 1 hour
- Researched
- 20 sources cited
The piperade sauce, attributed by multiple sources to seventeenth-century Soule, was originally eaten with bread; meat, chicken most often, was added later, turning a peasant garden dish into a fuller plate.
As tradition built it
Serves 4. About 1 hour.
Ingredients
- 1 chicken, jointed
- 1 batch (Dish 6, serves 4) piperade base, as Dish 6
- 4 tbsp olive oil, 130 ml white wine, 1 bouquet garni, Espelette pepper to taste olive oil, white wine, bouquet garni, Espelette pepper
Method
- Brown the chicken pieces.
- Simmer in the piperade base with olive oil, white wine, bouquet garni and Espelette pepper added late, per Rung 6.
- Traditionally served in an earthenware cassole or cocotte, usually with rice.
What a modern chef changes
The chicken and the sauce base built with the same separation-then-combination logic as Dish 6.
Rung 6
Method
- Brown and finish the chicken separately from a fully reduced piperade base, combining only in the final 10 minutes, so the chicken skin stays properly crisp rather than steaming in the sauce for the full cooking time.
- Use chicken thighs only, bone-in, rather than a whole jointed bird, for more even cooking and a more forgiving finish under this technique.
- Finish with Espelette pepper at the table rather than in the pan, the most literal version of Rung 6 in this chapter's whole dish list.