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Old-fashioned Chicken FricasseeOld-fashioned Chicken Fricassee + Stewed Mushrooms
June 14, 2021 | Updated April 13, 2022 | Laura
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✽ Recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. I | Julia Child ✽
Julia Child Recipes 179-180 | 348 recipes to go!
✽ Old-fashioned Chicken Fricassee with Wine-flavored Cream Sauce, Onions, and Mushrooms [Fricassée de Poulet à l'Ancienne], p. 258
✽ Stewed Mushrooms [Champignons à Blanc], p. 511
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✽ 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.
What you will find on my blog is:
✽ Butter Count & Cost Total
✽ Recipe Rating
✽ Answers to Questions about Recipe
✽ Fun Facts about Recipe or an Ingredient Used
✽ The Recipe Process
✽ Step-by-Step and Final Photos of Recipe
I hope that you enjoy reading my thoughts, learn something new, and leave inspired to try a new recipe. Bon appétit!
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Butter Count & Cost: Old Fashioned Chicken Fricassee
✽ Butter Count: +9 TB
✽ Cost: $16.92 [~$3.38 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!
Chicken Fricassee is a lengthy process.
I can't even remember the last chicken recipe I made from Julia's cookbook.. It's been awhile.
I'll be honest- I've been dreading this recipe. There's soo many steps.
Between cooking, moving my camera around to video it all, moving my lights around, and taking pictures of each step, I was exhausted once I finally was able to sit down and enjoy it.
This isn't a recipe you pull out at 6pm on a weeknight to make for supper really quick.
Julia Child Chicken Fricassee Recipe: Rating
✽ Laura's Rating: 7
✽ Brian's Rating: 8
This chicken dish is really good, but at the end of the day, I'm not sure it was worth all the steps involved. Maybe if the onions and mushrooms could just be thrown into the pot with the chicken instead of cooked by themselves, it would help speed up the process some.
I think how tired I was when I was eating this dish and the amount of dirty dishes in my sink factored into my rating a little bit.
Besides that, the onions and mushrooms were absolutely delicious, and I could have just eaten the sauce with a spoon by itself.
Old-fashioned Chicken Fricassee Recipe: Questions
✽ What is chicken fricassee?
Chicken fricassee is a classic French dish. According to Julia Child, chicken fricassee is somewhere between a sauté and a stew.
When you sauté chicken, no liquid is used. When you're making a stew, the meat is cooked in the liquid from the beginning.
When making a fricassee, the chicken is sautéed in butter and oil first then the liquid is added. The simmering liquid is then boiled down and used to make a sauce.
The famous coq au vin is also a fricassee.
✽ Is this chicken fricassee recipe difficult to make?
I wouldn't say it was difficult. It did, however, take some time to execute.
There's many steps involved including the initial sautéing, the simmering, braising the onions, stewing the mushrooms, making the egg yolk and cream sauce, and finally reheating and serving.
✽ What do you serve with chicken fricassee?
Julia suggests serving with rice, risotto, or buttered noodles. She also mentions buttered peas and asparagus tips.
I served it with plain white rice which worked really well with the dish. It reminded me of the delicious chicken & rice casserole that my mom makes.
Looking for more Julia Child chicken recipes to read about?
→ Check out all of the poultry recipes that I've completed so far!
Fun Facts about Fricassee
✽ What does the word fricassee mean?
It's thought the word 'fricassee' is a combination of the French words frire (to fry) and casser or quasser (to break in pieces).
✽ Is fricassee always made with chicken?
Most of the fricassee you see is made with chicken, but it sometimes is made with veal or rabbit as well.
✽ How old is the recipe for fricassee?
The earliest recipe for fricassee goes all the way back to 1300s in a medieval French cookbook called Le Viandier. The first time it's called 'friquassee' was in 1490 version of Le Viandier.
How to Make Chicken Fricassee
✽ Step 1: Cook Vegetables and Chicken Pieces in Butter
First, aromatic vegetables are slowly cooked in butter for a few minutes in a Dutch oven. You want them to be tender but NOT browned.
The heat is then raised and the chicken pieces are added cooking for four minutes and turning the pieces every minute.
✽ Step 2: Cook Slowly
The heat is turned backed down, the Dutch oven covered, and everything is cooked slowly for an addition 10 minutes, turning once at the halfway mark.
✽ Step 3: Add Flour
Now seasonings and flour are sprinkled onto the chicken pieces. The Dutch oven is covered, and it continues cooking for a few more minutes, turning once.
✽ Step 4: Add Stock and Wine and Slowly Simmer
The Dutch oven is taken off the heat and boiling stock, dry white vermouth, and an herb bouquet are added.
Now it all simmers slowly for about half an hour. While the chicken is simmering, I started working on the onions and mushrooms.
✽ Step 5: Make Onions
The onions are simmered with broth, butter, and seasonings for about an hour. The onions should still be able to hold together but not color.
I decided to not count the onions as a separate recipe since they can be served as is. I'll be making them as a side soon for an upcoming meal.
✽ Step 6: Make Mushrooms
The mushrooms are rapidly boiled in water, salt, lemon juice, and butter for a few minutes.
Since this mushroom recipe was made to be put into white sauces and to be used as garnitures, I'm counting as a recipe!
✽ Step 7: Remove Chicken and Quickly Boil Down
The chicken is taken out of the Dutch oven. Now the mushroom and onion cooking juices are added into the Dutch oven with the chicken juices.
The fat is skimmed off the top. It is all boiled down quickly.
Since we added flour earlier, the sauce will thicken up nicely. Just be patient! It took quite awhile for it to get thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
✽ Step 8: Make Sauce
Time to finish making the sauce! Egg yolks and cream are whipped together.
The thickened cooking liquid is beaten in a spoonful at a time to the egg and cream mixture. Be careful not to scramble your eggs! Once the eggs are tempered, the rest of the hot cooking liquid can be added in a small stream.
✽ Step 9: Boil Sauce and Add Seasonings
It is all now put back on the heat and boiled for a minute, stirring the whole time.
Seasonings, lemon juice, and nutmeg are added to the sauce. It is then forced through a fine sieve.
My husband always hates how the carrots and onions are strained out. They are very delicious!
✽ Step 10: Reheat Everything
The chicken, mushrooms, onions, and sauce are added back into the Dutch oven. At this point, everything can sit out uncovered until ready to eat.
When ready to serve, the Dutch oven is put back onto the heat, covered, and slowly simmered for a few minutes until heated through, basting frequently.
✽ Step 11: Enrichment Butter
Now it's removed from the heat, enrichment butter is added (yum!), and the chicken is decorated with parsley sprigs! Julia suggests serving Chicken Fricassee with rice or noodles!
Whew! That's a lot. I can't rest yet though. I'll be making this dish 3 more times to try all the different sauces!
*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: chicken fricassee, chicken fricassee recipes, Julia Child chicken fricassee, chicken fricassee recipe
✽ Did you make this recipe too?
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More Chicken Recipes:
✽ Curry Sauce (chicken fricassee but with curry powder mixed in)
✽ Chicken Sauteed with Herbs and Garlic, Egg Yolk, and Butter Sauce (super delicious sauteed chicken with a creamy sauce)
✽ Casserole-roasted Chicken with Bacon, Onions, and Potatoes (a perfect roast chicken recipe with bacon)
→ 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 14, 2021 by Laura Ehlers
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