Poulet Sauté Chasseur – Hunter’s Chicken Recipe – French Special

Blanch, peel, de-seed and chop tomatoes; comcassé (in small, seedless half inch cubes). Reserve until needed.

In the traditional method, each piece of chicken contains only one bone. To achieve this, remove first the back and
then the thigh bone; cutting them away cleanly to the top of the leg joint. (This will help accelerate your cooking time
and make it easier to eat.) Fold over the skin and flesh of thigh to form a neat package (you can tie it if you want) and
reserve. In a small pot, add one tablespoon of olive oil, over medium heat, until liquid and hot and then add remaining
bones (thigh, back and any extra bits) and brown well before turning (about 6 minutes/side). This is a brown stock
recipe, be sure to get lots of colour on those bones.

While bones are browning, cut mushrooms, shallots, garlic and herbs, reserve remains (ie: ends of mushrooms, shallots,
even the skins off the tomatoes for flavour). Then drain off excess fat from now browned and cooked, bones. Cover with
water and return to stove over medium low heat, add thyme, whole peppercorns, parsley, one sprig of tarragon, and the bay
leaf to stock as it begins to simmer. Add also the remains of the shallots, mushrooms, tomatoes etc. to stock to give it
lots of flavour, simmering over low heat for about 30 minutes to reduce bay about half, while you cook the rest of the
dish.

In a large, deep sauté pan, sauté lardons over medium heat until golden brown then remove, drain, and de-grease the
pan. Reserve cooked salt pork cubes at room temperature. Do not rinse your pan, that golden colour on the bottom of the
pan is FLAVOUR. (If you want, you can use the pork fat instead of butter, but it’s mighty salty.)

Season the prepared chicken pieces with salt and pepper, over medium heat add half the butter and remaining olive oil
to the pan. Once the pan is to temperature, seer chicken until brown, about 15 minutes on each side, basting chicken with
butter and juices from the bottom of the pan (20 minutes per side if you are cooking bone-in). Watch that the bottom of
the pan does not burn, butter has a higher smoke point than oil. Remove the now golden-brown chicken to rest on a platter
or dish, uncovered, in a warm spot.

Drain any excess chicken fat from your pan and add mushrooms, shallots and garlic to the now golden, hot pan and season
with pepper only. Add remaining butter, and saute until golden. Deglaze pan with brandy, scraping all the brown bits off
the bottom to dissolve. Add white wine and reduce over medium heat by about two thirds. (In the photos, you will notice
that I removed the mushrooms to deglaze the pan, you don’t have to.)

Take reduced chicken stock in second pot, and strain liquid directly into pan, add veal stock and tomatoes continue to
simmer over medium high heat, uncovered, about two minutes. Add salt pork lardons and stir to combine, as sauce simmers,
the lardons to soften, add chopped tarragon and parsley to the sauce and stir, cooking over medium-low heat about 4
minutes.

(NOTE: if sauce is not thickened to your liking, add optional cornstarch slurry to hot sauce to thicken) Check seasoning
level, adjust as needed and immediately return the chicken to the pan, on top of the sauce to warm, and steam to be sure
the chicken is hot, three to five minutes.