Catskills Style Chicken Fricassee Recipes

CHICKEN FRICASSEE WITH TOMATO BASIL PILAF

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Dredge chicken in flour and shake off excess. Heat half the clarified butter (1/8 cup) in a large saute pan, and brown the chicken on both sides over medium heat, cooking about 8 to 10 minutes. Remove to an ovenproof casserole. Add the rest of the clarified butter (the other 1/8 cup) to the same saute pan, and add the tomatoes and chopped basil, cooking gently over low heat for 2 minutes. Then, add the white wine and reduce the liquid by half. When the liquid in the saute pan is reduced, add the vegetable stock and heavy cream and bring to a gentle boil. Let the sauce cook until mixture starts to thicken about 5 to 10 minutes. Pour the sauce directly over the chicken in the casserole and bake covered in the oven until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer, about 25 to 35 minutes.
• While the chicken is cooking, begin the rice. Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepot and saute onion and garlic until translucent. Add rice and toast lightly. Pour in the 5 cups of chicken stock and add the poultry seasoning and season with salt and pepper. Return to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer until tender, about 25 minutes, keeping covered at all times.
• When the chicken is done, transfer the pieces to a utility platter. The chicken should still have sauce on top. You can spoon some more sauce on top of the chicken if desired, but most of the remaining sauce in the casserole will be used for the rice. Finish the rice by adding the tomato/basil sauce and combining well. Spoon the rice onto center of serving plate, top with a piece of chicken and garnish with basil.

CATSKILLS STYLE CHICKEN FRICASSEE

Steps:

• Make Chicken Stock from the chicken backs and wings. Firm up the gizzards and chicken hearts in the hot stock.
• Save the stock in your fridge.
• Remove the skin and meat from the chicken backs and wings. Discard the bones. Save the bigger pieces of chicken meat in your fridge for chicken salad.
• Place the chicken fat and gristle and odd chicken meat pieces in a teflon pan on medium. Add in the chopped onions. When the onions get translucent, add in the crushed tomatoes, garlic, paprika, and pepper. Then add in the chicken gizzards and/or hearts and reduce the heat to low. Stir it all up every 10 to 15 minutes or so. It'll be done in less than an hour. The flavor improves when stored overnight.
• Chicken necks are also often added in, but are not sold separately that often any more and are hard to find. Cooking up chicken necks in the stock, and then taking the meat off the necks for the fricassee is nice to do.
• This recipe has no added salt because canned tomatoes are usually salted. Caterers often add pimento stuffed olives to this just before serving.