Chicken Bonne Femme

"The Good Wife's Chicken" has a number of names. The base dish has been around since antebellum days. Local restaurants have created their own variations on the dish, such as Chicken Clemenceau at Antoine's or Tujague's, or Chicken Pontalba at Brennan's.

I did a podcast on Chicken Bonne Femme back in 2005, but didn't accompany it with any photos at that time. My firstborn, home for the summer from the Georgia Institute of Technology, has been regularly requesting that I cook classic Creole dishes for the family, since he doesn't get much of that in Atlanta.

The Ingredients:



(Full recipe is at the bottom.) The classic recipe calls for two whole chickens, cut up. When I make this dish for just wife and I, that's how I do it. She'll eat the white meat pieces, I'll go for the dark. The boys complicate this, though, because they're also white meat people. For this meal, I went with "chicken breast tenders." Zuppardo's Supermarket sells not only boneless, skinless chicken breasts, but they also cut them up into tender-sized pieces. This has some pluses and minuses. On the plus side, there's less fat in the dish this way, but that fat is also part of the flavoring. I also cheated by using diced-up ham, the kind you buy for omlettes and such. That helped speed things up in cooking.



The starch in Chicken Bonne Femme is fried potatoes. We call them Brabant Potatoes when served as a side course. The usual way to cook the potatoes is to cube and deep-fry them. Rather than deep-frying in vegetable oil, I usually convection-bake the potatoes in a bit of olive oil. This way, I don't have to pull out my deep-fryer, which makes the house smell like a fast-food restaurant for a day or two.




Cut up bacon into small pieces and fry. When cooked, remove bacon and reserve the fat for cooking the chicken.



Lightly dust the chicken with flour and fry in the bacon fat. I usually add a bit of ground thyme and creole seasoning to the flour.



Saute the onions and green onions until they are translucent. Add the ham, mushrooms, Tabasco, worcestershire and wine. Simmer for a few minutes. Once the mushrooms are cooked, add the potatoes. Sauce is ready to serve when the potatoes absorb the liquid.

Melt the stick of butter in a saucepan. Remove from heat, skim off foam, and add chopped or pressed garlic.

To serve, spoon some of the sauce onto a plate, Place the chicken on top of sauce, then drizzle garlic butter over chicken. Top with bacon crumbles:



Some variations of the dish will call for placing toast or a Holland rusk on the plate first, then the sauce. This helps absorb some of the sauce if the dish is a bit runny.

Congratulations, you've cooked Creole!

The formal recipe:

Ingredients

4 slices bacon, cut into 1 inch squares
2 chickens, about 3 1/2 lbs., quartered
2 Tbs. flour
1/2 cup ham, cut into tiny dice
1 cups chopped green onion tops
1 cup chopped yellow onion
2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
1 cup dry white wine
1 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp. Tabasco
2 lbs. white potatoes, peeled and diced
Vegetable oil for frying
1 stick butter
8 cloves garlic, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Fry the bacon in a large skillet until crisp, then remove. Drain excess fat, leaving about a teaspoon.
2. Dust (don't dredge) chicken quarters lightly with flour. Raise the heat to high and brown the chicken pieces on all sides. Remove the chicken pieces and keep warm.
3. In the same pan saute the ham, green onions, and yellow onions until the latter turn translucent. Add mushrooms, wine, Worcestershire, and Tabasco, and bring it up to a boil. After a minute, lower to a simmer.
4. In a separate skillet, fry the potatoes in 390-degree oil until very lightly browned. Drain them well and add to the ham, onions, etc. (The bonne femme garnish.)
5. Continue simmering sauce until all of the liquid is absorbed; lightly stir to distribute ingredients. Remove from heat.
6. Heat the butter in a small saucepan until it starts bubbling. Lower the heat, skim the foam off, and add the garlic. Cook the garlic in the hot butter for about a minute.
7. Put the chicken pieces in a broiling pan. Spoon the bonne femme garnish over and between the chicken pieces. Spoon the garlic butter over and salt and pepper the lot. Crumble the bacon over the top.
8. Put the pan into a preheated 400-degree oven and cook for 7-12 minutes. Turn the pieces, redistribute the sauce, and bake for another 5-7 minutes. If the white meat is cooked, remove it from the pan and keep warm. Continue cooking the leg quarters until the juices run clear when the thigh is pierced. Return the breasts to the mixture, and serve with lots of the garnish. Serves four.