Chicken Supreme

Yesterday, we made a Le Cordon Bleu basic cuisine classic: Chicken Supreme. (We even have it on good authority from higher-level students that this is ALWAYS on the Basic Cuisine Final Exam).

I think this might be because the recipe involves blanching a chicken and making a chicken stock. Then taking that stock to make rice and a classic French sauce- Sauce Béchamel/Blanche (made with a roux, stock, and cream). 

While it may sound delicious to you, it ends up looking less than. Think beige chicken with beige rice with a beige sauce over the top and you’ve got the picture.

(here is a picture of the chef's after demonstration and mine looked exactly the same- we can't take cameras into the kitchen.) 

Having grown up with my grandfather’s famous matzah-ball and chicken soup recipe, I am used to making chicken stock and as we call it “boiled chicken”. You chop up an onion (just into four pieces), cut up two carrots (so that you have 8 pieces), one stalk of celery (in half again), two peeled cloves of garlic (whole), some peppercorns, and one cleaned chicken. You then put this in a pot, fill it until it covers the chicken with COLD water, and put it on the stove. (cold water is necessary for incorporating flavor. Plus your chicken and veggies are cold.) Let it boil; bring it back down to a simmer for a while; then drain out the broth, which you can reduce to make your soup. (Sometimes we would put a beef bone in there too for more flavor.)

Le Cordon Bleu’s way is very similar with a few key differences, one of them being the trussing of the chicken.

To truss a chicken is to tie it up with string, so that it does not fall apart as you cook it. In demonstration, the chef showed us how to do this emphasizing that there is only one way to truss and that it is the way EVERYONE in France does it.

You start with the chicken on its back and stick your needle under the drumstick bone (so as not to puncture the meat that you will be serving). Then you pull the needle and string through the cavity in the middle to the other drumstick, coming out in the same place as you started (but on the other leg). Then you go up and do the same through the wings, catching the neck skin and sewing it onto the back (this closes off the cavity) and finally tying the string ends together into a sturdy knot. Then you turn the chicken over and close the butt-end cavity. This should make your chicken look like a Rugby ball.

Confused yet?

Pretty much. After watching this demonstrated by the chef twice, I thought I had it, though. Of course until I was in practical and had the dead, naked chicken in front of me. Luckily, for practical we had the only female chef on faculty and she was incredibly helpful. She also trusses a chicken completely different from the Demonstration chef…

Believe it or not, this happen all the time.

But with her help, I trussed my first chicken and got it blanching.

After it was blanched, I drained the water, re-filled the pot with more cold water, added those vegetables (plus a leek, three cloves, and a garnish bouquet, which is made with one bay leaf and thyme rolled and tied up into a leek leaf- the Le Cordon Bleu recipe as opposed to my grandfather’s) and let it boil/simmer.

While my chicken and stock cooked, I cisole-ed (or cut VERY finely- I’m sure I spelled this wrong) half of an onion, which I later sautéed with my rice; created a roux (an even mix of butter and flour which acts as a base and adds thickness to sauces); and kept my station clean.

Once the rice was ready, I added my strained stock to it.  After cooking the roux, I let it cool, then added hot stock to it (you add hot liquids to a cold roux or cold liquids to a hot roux ALWAYS) letting it come to a boil. Once at a boil I added the cold cream (remember the rule), seasoned it with nutmeg and salt, then strained the final product. The "chinois" or cone shaped strainer has become a dear friend as he is incredibly necessary for almost everything. 

We cut the chicken plating the breast, thigh and drumstick; making a dome of rice and then covering it with the sauce.

Mine ended up with this rating:

Chicken: slightly over-cooked

Sauce: under-seasoned (the French like a lot more salt than I do and I need to adjust)

Rice: over cooked (the chef explained to me that the French like their rice still crunchy which I dislike and had added extra stock to fix. Well, now I know to make my rice on the raw side)

But overall, a job well done. But for me, the best part was that I am finally getting into my rhythm in the kitchen. It almost feels like dancing when you are moving, tasting, and thinking in sync with yourself, your fellow chefs, and your food. To me, it is beautiful.