What Is a Fricassée?
A fricassée is halfway between a sautéed dish and a stew. This French classic isn’t a specific recipe, but rather the name for a hybrid cooking method for meat that relies on both dry and wet heat.The idea is to start by sautéing meat in a pan with butter and oil to get it browned and crisp. Liquid—typically white wine and stock—is then added, and the meat is braised with vegetables and aromatics until juicy and full-flavored.
Fricassée à l’ancienne finishes the dish with a pour of heavy cream, but many modern fricassée recipes skip this step for a lighter result. Still, the old-fashioned version remains a timeless favorite in France.
Fricassée is usually made with chicken, but veal or rabbit also work well. The rest of the recipe is often up to the cook’s discretion; you can add any vegetables or fixings of your choosing. Onions, carrots, and mushrooms are most common, but the possibilities are truly endless.
Now, if you’re familiar with French cooking techniques, you may find similarities between this and the “en blanquette” method. This method, which cooks meat with aromatics and vegetables in a cream-enriched sauce, is quite similar in taste and texture to fricassée. But the difference is that “en blanquette” cooks the meat directly in the sauce, while a fricassée requires first browning the meat in fat. If you ask me, this extra step imparts a touch more flavor, richness, and complexity to the final dish.
The Run Down
An old-fashioned chicken fricassée relies on humble and readily available ingredients, including chicken, onions, carrots, and mushrooms. It adds thyme, sage, cream, and nutmeg to build a sauce with classic French flavors.
The Chicken
A traditional chicken fricassée is prepared with a whole chicken cut into six or eight pieces, but you can also opt for bone-in chicken thighs, legs, or quarters.In any case, I highly recommend you salt your chicken 30 minutes to 1 hour in advance, to allow the salt to penetrate the meat.
Leaving the skin on the chicken is essential. The chicken will be first cooked, skin-side down, in the pan. The fat from the skin will melt and render into the pan and be used later to caramelize the shallots and garlic, and act as a base for the sauce. It will contribute greatly to building flavors in this dish. You can choose to remove the skin when serving, if you prefer.
Bacon or ‘Lardons’
Traditionally in France, this recipe would call for lardons, thin strips of cured pork belly that are very common and readily available in grocery stores. As an alternative, you can use bacon, cut across the grain into short matchsticks.
White Wine
For chicken fricassée, I almost always recommend using a white wine that is dry and crisp—that is, one that has low sweetness and high acidity. Some recommendations are pinot grigio (a great neutral), sauvignon blanc (higher acidity) or chardonnay (slightly richer than the two first).Chicken Fricassée à l’Ancienne
Grab a sturdy, large skillet for this one-pot recipe. Carrots and onions are staple vegetables here, especially in the spring when carrots are plentiful, but other fixings such as button mushrooms, peas, shallots, and spinach are welcome, too—you can be creative!For the old-fashioned à l’ancienne version, add a generous dollop of cream at the end for a rich, silky sauce. Craving a lighter version? Just skip the cream.
- 1 whole chicken (3 to 3 1/2 pounds), cut into 6 or 8 pieces
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 3 ounces bacon (3 strips), sliced across the grain into 1/4-inch-thick matchsticks
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 large carrots, peeled and cut into thick coins
- 1 1/2 cups (150 grams) button mushrooms, sliced
- 2 medium onions, peeled and sliced in half rounds
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 1 1/2 cups chicken stock
- 3 bay leaves
- 5 to 6 thyme sprigs, plus extra for garnish
- 1/2 cup heavy cream (optional)
- 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
Heat up a large, heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat. Add the bacon sticks and cook, stirring frequently, until browned, about 5 minutes. Scoop bacon pieces into a bowl, leaving fat drippings in the pan.
Add the olive oil and butter. When the butter is sizzling, place the chicken pieces in the pan skin-side down. Cook for about 10 minutes, without touching, until the chicken skin is golden brown and the chicken is 3/4 done, just firm. Flip the chicken pieces and cook for 10 more minutes. Transfer the chicken to a plate, leaving chicken drippings in the pan, and cover the chicken with foil.
Add the carrots, mushrooms, onions, and garlic to the pan. Sauté for about 5 minutes, until fragrant. Sprinkle with the flour and stir until the vegetables are well coated and the flour is completely moistened.
Add the white wine and chicken stock and stir well, scraping off all the brown bits at the bottom of the pan into the sauce. Add the chicken pieces back into the pan (save the plate and foil), and top with the bay leaves, thyme sprigs, and cooked bacon. Cover with a lid, bring to a simmer, and then lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove the lid and cook for 10 more minutes.
Transfer the chicken to a plate and cover with foil again. Stir the cream (if using) and nutmeg into the pan sauce. Cook, stirring, for 2 to 3 minutes, until the sauce thickens slightly. Return the chicken pieces to the sauce and cook for 2 to 3 minutes.
Garnish with fresh thyme and serve.
