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Chicken Fricassee With Vermouth
Updated July 2, 2024
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- Total Time
- About 1 hour 30 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 1three-and-one-half-pound, ready-to-cook chicken, cut into serving pieces
- Salt, if desired
- Freshly ground pepper
- 2tablespoons butter
- ½cup coarsely chopped onion
- 1clove garlic, finely chopped
- 2tablespoons flour
- ¾cup dry white vermouth
- ¼cups chicken broth
- 1bay leaf
- 2sprigs fresh thyme or ½ teaspoon dried
- 1cup carrots cut into fine, julienne strips, about two inches long
- 1½cups loosely packed leeks cut into fine, julienne strips, about three inches long
- ½cup heavy cream
Preparation
- Step 1
Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper to taste.
- Step 2
Heat the butter in a skillet and add the chicken pieces skin side down. Cook over moderate heat about one minute without browning.
- Step 3
Scatter the onion over all and cook 30 seconds. Add the garlic and stir it around. Cook the chicken about four minutes, turning the pieces often in the butter.
- Step 4
Sprinkle the flour over all, turning the pieces so that they are evenly coated. Add the vermouth, chicken broth, bay leaf and thyme. Cover and cook over moderate heat about 20 minutes.
- Step 5
Meanwhile, bring two batches of water to the boil for the carrots and leeks. Drop the carrots into one batch, the leeks in the other. Let the carrots simmer about one minute and drain. Let the leeks simmer about four minutes.
- Step 6
When the chicken has cooked for a total of 30 minutes (start to finish), add the carrots, leeks and cream. Let simmer about two minutes. Serve with rice.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
The chicken fricassee was absolutely delicious. Because there are only two of us, I only used two 3/4 lb skin-on bone-in chicken thighs. I also made the full amount of sauce given in the recipe and added 50% more carrots (to not cook a vegetable side dish). The sauce was fantastic. I would highly suggest making more sauce and vegetables to deliver further richness to the chicken and rice.
You will have a much more pronounced taste of raw leeks if you don't boil them first. With the carrots it may be more for texture. I'd have suggested putting in the leeks first, and then after three minutes add the carrots and then drain them all together.
No big difference. :) But it is good culinary practice to blanch the veggies to sanitize them and help them retain their color brilliance. I would just fill a metal bowl (same bowl I used to wash the veggies in) with boiling water from a kettle and blanch the veggies for the same amount of time indicated in the recipe.
I'm so amazed how many people have intolerance to so many ingredients that most of us take for granted. It's a classic recipe but if the ingredients don't work, move on to something else.
I really thought the dry vermouth made this dish rather than just a dry white wine. To me dry vermouth has a more refined taste and I use it on occasion instead of wine with classic dishes that include cream.
I nearly always use extra dry vermouth in place of white wine in recipes. I usually drink red and don't want to open a bottle of white just for cooking. Also, vermouth is cheaper and lasts for several months in the fridge (I pump the air out of the bottle--not sure if it makes a difference but makes me feel better). So I always have it on-hand. Julia Child recommended using a smaller amount if substituting vermouth for white wine, but I just go one-for-one.
I found that the best substitute for flour in all thickening matters is potato starch. It does not get lumpy and gluey, and even when reheating the dish later will maintain nice saucy consistency.
Would anyone please comment on how the chicken skin works out in this recipe since it is not browned?
Please be considerate of others' wishes to cook the classics with modifications due to intolerence, addiction, etc. There's no need to disparage the request. We are all here because we love to cook!
Chicken fricassee is an old time family recipe handed down from my grandmother to mother to me. Our recipe calls for milk (cream was too expensive) added at the end. Carrots and large chunks of celery cooked with the chicken during the last 10 minutes and the final addition of dumplings cooked in with the chicken and made with Bisquick. A hearty one-dish meal for a cold and rainy evening.
If you have a pressure cooker, or a combination sautée-pressure cooker, try lightly sautéing the chicken, then adding all the rest of the ingredients and pressure cook for 20 minutes. The whole dish is ready in a half hour. Serve over noodles. For my taste, I would reduce the amount of thyme by half.
Does it really make a difference if the carrots and leeks are added directly to the chicken in the pot rather than dirtying up two additional pots? Claiborne and Franey obviously had people washing the dirty pots for them.
Didn't have heavy cream on hand. Used 4 tbsp whole-milk yogurt, stirred in one tbsp at a time. Recipe got high praise from my family.
This is an absolutely fantastic recipe! I've done it several times and it is a real pleaser. Easy to prepare and doesn't take very long to put this delicious meal together. I leeave the carrots out sometimes and replace with finely sliced button mushrooms. Highlyz recommendable.
You can use coconut cream.
This was so mediocre and nearly flavorless. All that julienning and blanching and for what? I’m so disappointed. There also wasn’t enough sauce and the chicken was both overcooked and stuck to the pan after braising it over moderate heat. Would not make again. Even with corrections it would be hard to add enough flavor.
This is awesome exactly as it is.
This is fab-elegant, but lick-the-bowl clean! The julienning of the veg takes time, but the end result is well worth the effort. The veg are stunning jewels of orange & green on a lusciously beige gravy over a bed of white rice. Based on comments: I made extra ‘gravy’, cuz why not? For a 1-pot dish, blanch veg using the suggested timings (set them aside in a colander) then use the pot to assemble the dish I added celery as another blanched veg I used well-trimmed thighs, cuz that’s what I had
Made with four small chicken legs as unusually, I did not want leftovers. Used two carrots and one leek so over veg quantities of recipe but not wasting anything. Balanced leeks three minutes and then tossed in carrot; saved resulting broth for cooking rice. Used potato starch as others suggested but even reducing by half, the liquid was too thick. Corrected easily enough with a bit of broth and more vermouth. Served with a mixed wild rice and green beans tossed with evoo and lemon.
I truly like the feedback and review of others. It really helps with novice cookers ( I would never use the word chef.) It was a great recipe that was loaded with cooking options via the reviews.
I don't know what the fuss is about. This recipe wasn't what I expected. I used white wine and it wasn't sweet enough...I added sugar at the end to sweeten it but after I looked at another recipe I had I realized the sugar should have gone into the wine from the start. I used fresh chicken breast with bone and thus replaced water for the stock and cooked it long time so the flavor gets released. Also used mushrooms and leeks but still wasnt impressed. This is going out of my recipe book.
This didn’t produce much sauce for me. I would double it next time but am exploring other recipes for this dish.
Used 4 skinned chicken thighs doubled the sauce Added rosemary and thyme - no garlic or onion added Used mushrooms cooked in butter in place of leek Served over homemade pasta
Used boneless skinless chicken breasts, added mushrooms and doubled the sauce and served with egg noodles. Soooo delicious.
Excellent recipe! If you are going for taste and ease more than looks, spread the carrots and leaks over the top of the chicken, put a lid on the pan, and cook until chicken is done.
I used a large chicken and doubled all the other ingredients so as to have plenty of sauce and vegetables. The chicken cooked perfectly (skin does not brown but the meat stays moist) but I thought the dish overall was fairly bland, despite the vermouth. Best part was the leeks - they paired well with the creamy vermouth sauce. If I make this again I am going to substitute tarragon for the thyme - think this would work much better.
Tarragon would make a wonderful addition.
Does this cook with cover on?
Anyone try this with skinned but bone in thighs?
This was pretty bland. I didn't have vermouth and used just white wine. Could be the reason, but I'm not going to try to find out.
Made this and doubled the sauce. I just u sed one pot of boiling water for carrots and the leeks. Loved the result. The vermouth made the dish!!!
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