Chicken Fricassee | Quick French Chicken Stew

This is a terrific recipe to get a cosy stew fix any night of the week without hours of slow cooking. This dish is a traditional French chicken stew made with a creamy white sauce with mushrooms, instead of the more common rich, dark brown sauce like you ordinarily see with stews, such as with Coq au Vin and this baked Chicken Stew.

INGREDIENTS:

- Chicken Pieces.

- Garlic and onion.

- Bay leaves and thyme, the herb flavourings for the sauce. Fresh is best if you have them, else dried is fine.

- Butter.

- Mushrooms , the traditional vegetable included in the sauce. 

- White wine, any white wine that’s not too woody or sweet will work great here. Chardonnay in particular adds really good flavour.

- Chicken stock/broth.

- Flour, Used to lightly thicken the sauce.

- Cream, this also thickens the sauce as well as making the sauce rich, creamy and decadent!

How to make Chicken Fricassée

In a nutshell, Chicken Fricassée is made by browning chicken pieces in butter, then braising them in a creamy mushroom sauce thickened with a little flour. It’s a quick stew so it’s only simmered for 30 minutes on the stove which is all you need for the chicken to cook through.

1) Brown chicken

First, we sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper. Then in a large skillet or pot that has a lid, melt the butter over medium-high heat. (If your pot/skillet doesn’t have a lid or you don’t have a lid from another pot that is the same size or larger, don’t stress, there’s options – I outline these in the simmering step.)

Brown the chicken thighs first, placing them in the butter skin side down. Cook them for 4 – 5 minutes until nice and golden, then turn and cook the other side for just 1 minute. Remove the thighs from the skillet to a plate or tray. Now do the drumsticks. For drumsticks, I usually sear 3 sides which gets decent coverage all around – about 2 minutes on each side. Once done, add them to the plate holding the thighs.

There will still be plenty of butter left in the skillet, which has now transformed into browned butter. Which means it’s extra tasty – woo!

2) Sauté mushrooms

To start the sauce, sauté the onions, mushrooms, thyme and bay leaves for around 5 minutes in the residual butter, adding the garlic towards the end. The mushrooms will change from white to light golden, but won’t go a deep golden brown. There’s no point browning mushrooms well because they will lose the colour when braised.

Then add the flour and cook it for 1 minute to cook out the raw floury taste.

3) Add stock and wine

Then add the wine and chicken stock. Stir well, scraping the base of the pot to dissolve all the golden bits stuck on the base of the pot into the sauce. This stuff is called “fond” and it’s concentrated flavours that makes the sauce even tastier!

4) Return chicken to pan

Return the chicken to the pot, skin side up. It will mostly be submerged, and that’s exactly what we want. The braising liquid will keep the chicken nice and juicy, while the chicken will absorb the tasty sauce flavour!

5) Simmer covered 10 minutes

Once the chicken is in the sauce, bring the liquid back up to a simmer. Then adjust the heat so it’s bubbling constantly but not boiling rapidly – see video to see what this looks like. On my stove, it’s medium heat. Cover with a lid and cook for 10 minutes.

6) Uncovered 20 minutes

Remove the lid then simmer for a further 20 minutes. In this step, the sauce will reduce and thicken into a thin gravy consistency.

“When is the chicken cooked?” – By this time, the chicken will be cooked. 30 minutes mightn’t sound like long for a stew, but that’s all you need because the chicken is cooked submerged in a very hot liquid. It will be completely cooked and quite tender, though not at the “fall-apart-at-a-touch” stage which is intentional.

7) Now make the sauce creamy

Remove chicken from the sauce to a plate. Add the cream, stir, then bring the sauce back up to a simmer.

8) Garnish and serve!

Once the sauce comes back up to a simmer, return the chicken to the sauce. There’s no need to simmer the sauce after the cream is added. Garnish with a good amount of parsley, and it’s ready to serve!