This classic dish comes from the need to eat old farmyard roosters rather than tender young hens. For this reason it is better if an older chicken is used — in Germany you can use a “suppenhuhn ” or a similar “soup chicken.” If these don’t exist, you could use a free range chicken or even, as a last resort, an ordinary chicken. Here I used two “ayam kampung” or “village chickens.”
Also the footage of sauteing the onions did not come out. This occurs after the chicken in the same oil/butter mixture.
Recipe (serves 4-6 as a main course):
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Day 1:
1 rooster or similar weighing 2-3 kg.
1 bottle of robust red wine
2-3 carrots, sliced
2-3 garlic cloves, bruised
2 bay leaves
Day 2: Additionally:
250g mushrooms (champignons)
250g bacon, cut into lardons and browned, drained of fat
80g butter
2-3 T olive oil
1 onion, juienned
1 boquet garni (at least bay laurel and parsley, but you can add some other herbs as well — this is really just some herbs tied together with yarn or leek leaves for easy retrieval)
1T salt
1T powdered chicken stock (optional)
For finishing:
1-2T butter
1-2T flour
Day 1:
Cut chicken into pieces. Add carrots, garlic, and bay leaves. Cover with red wine and marinate in the fridge for 12-24 hrs.
You can brown the bacon at this time if you like.
Day 2:
Heat butter and oil in a casserole dish, and sear the chicken in it. Once you are done there, then saute the onions until starting to brown. You can add the mushrooms at this stage though I sometimes prefer to add them later.
Add the reserved marinade, salt, and chicken stock if you are using. Add the boquet garni here. If you haven’t added the mushrooms do so here.
Cover with water. Bring to a boil and then leave to simmer for an hour.
Kneed the butter and flour together to form a cold rioux. Dilute with hot broth and pour this in to thicken. Boil for a bit longer.
Serve with bread.