Laura the Gastronaut > Julia Child > Poultry > Poulet en Cocotte Bonne Femme

Casserole Roasted Chicken with Bacon, Onions, and Potatoes

February 13, 2020 | Updated September 21, 2023 | Laura

✽ Recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. I | Julia Child ✽

Julia Child Recipe 117 | 411 recipes to go!

✽ Casserole-roasted Chicken with Bacon, Onions, and Potatoes [Poulet en Cocotte Bonne Femme], p. 252

__________________________________

✽ Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. I was written by Julia Child who co-authored with Simone Beck & Louisette Bertholle and was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1961.

✽ You can buy Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I which contains these recipes here. (affiliate link)

The purpose of this Julia Child section of my blog is to document my journey of learning how to cook. To show my successes, my failures, and what I learned along the way.

Since I didn't create these recipes (if only!), I do not post exact amounts of ingredients or word-for-word instructions. If any of these recipes spark your interest, I highly recommend you buy Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking (affiliate link). It's a great investment and learning tool and contains hundreds of classic recipes.

I hope that you enjoy reading my thoughts, learn something new, and leave inspired to try a new recipe. Bon appétit!

__________________________________

✽ Butter Count: +4 TB

✽ Cost: $13.74 [~$3.44 per serving]

Check out the total Julia Child butter count & cost here!

→ Looking for a different Julia Child recipe? Here's a list of all of the completed and pending Mastering the Art of French Cooking recipes!

Well, look no further! In this recipe, Julia’s famous casserole-roasted chicken gets married to bacon, onions, and potatoes all in the same dish. She says it herself- “no other vegetables are needed to make up a main course.”

Overall, I love this chicken and prefer it over the casserole-chicken with tarragon. I think my husband and I could have eaten the whole thing in one sitting!

She mentions that you can serve it with whole broiled tomatoes for color, but those are mehh so I wouldn’t waste the effort unless you are a HUGE tomato lover.

Looking for more Julia Child chicken recipes to read about?

→ Check out all of the poultry recipes that I've completed so far!

✽ Step 1: Prepare Bacon

By now I know that if a Julia recipe has bacon in it, the recipe will start out with blanching the bacon. The bacon is cut off the rind and cut into lardons. Lardons are rectangular strips that are ½ inch wide and 1 ½ inches long. These are boiled in two quarts of water for ten minutes, rinsed with cold water, and dried.

The bacon is then sautéed in butter (yes, bacon sautéed in butter). We all wanted to do it and now here is the perfect excuse.

✽ Step 2: Brown Chicken

A trussed chicken is browned in the hot bacon fat in the same manner as the previous casserole-roasted chicken. Remove chicken from casserole and pour out the fat.

✽ Step 3: Prepare Vegetables

Now to the veggies! Pearl onions are boiled for five minutes in salted water and drained.

The potatoes are peeled and trimmed into ovals. UGH! This really is the worst, and it wastes SO much of the potato. And it takes so much time! Though I am getting better at it, I can never see myself doing this outside of a Julia recipe. The potatoes are covered with cold water, brought to a boil, and drained immediately.

The potatoes will then be sautéed in hot butter for about two minutes to evaporate their moisture. This is when it is helpful to have oval potatoes so they can roll around and become perfectly cooked all over. I suggest just buying the small potatoes at the store and saving yourself from the headache.

The chicken is then salted and placed breast-up in the casserole with the potatoes. The bacon and onions are added over the potatoes and an herb bouquet is dropped in (parsley sprigs, bay leaf, and thyme). Everything is basted with butter and covered with foil and the casserole lid.

✽ Step 4: Roast Chicken

The casserole is heated on the stove until it is all sizzling and put into a 325-degree oven to roast. The chicken needs to basted once or twice during the cooking process.

And now the most shocking news of all- “no sauce is necessary.” Wait, what? I LOVE Julia’s sauces so I was a little disappointed to hear this. However, the chicken didn’t need it, and I soon forgot she even ever said those words. She always knows what she’s doing. This dish does not disappoint!

*This blog, Laura the Gastronaut, and this post were/are not endorsed or supported by Julia Child or The Julia Child Foundation.

Category: Julia Child, Poultry Cuisine: French
Keywords: julia child chicken recipe, casserole roasted chicken recipe

✽ Did you make this recipe too?
→ Let me know by leaving a comment below and sharing on Instagram. Tag @laurathegastronaut and hashtag it #laurathegastronaut.

More Chicken Recipes:

✽ Sauteed Chicken (perfecly cooked chicken that everybody will love)
✽ Old-fashioned Chicken Fricassee (this delicious recipe is a classic for a reason)
✽ Fricassee de Poulet a l'Indienne (chicken fricassee covered in a tasty curry sauce)
→ Check out all of the completed Julia Child poultry recipes!

✽ You can find this recipe and all the other Julia Child recipes I make in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I (affiliate link).
→ Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. I was written by Julia Child who co-authored with Simone Beck & Louisette Bertholle and was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1961.

✽ Check out my Julia Child Recipe Checklist to see a list of all my completed and pending recipes from Mastering the Art of French Cooking!

Bon appétit!

June 15, 2020 by Laura Ehlers

*This Casserole-roasted Chicken with Bacon, Onions, and Potatoes blog post may contain some Amazon affiliate links. These link to products that I personally use and recommend. If you purchase anything using my links, it will not cost you anything. It will though give laurathegastronaut.com some financial support which helps me keep this blog running. Thank you for reading my blogs and your continued support.