Chicken a La Marengo 1908

*If you want to check out this recipe- it is here


I love chicken, I love mushrooms, and I'm a fan of tomatoes,  to begin with I was thinking that this combination is bound to be wonderful, and it was. 


Cooking it though, wasn't quite the smooth sailing I had hoped.  In looking at the recipe before making it, I couldn't quite visualize it.  Usually when I'm cooking from a recipe I've been thinking about it for awhile, and I kind of work my way thorough the steps in my head, so that when I go to make the recipe, it goes pretty smoothly.  That did not really happen here. I kept running back and forth to my laptop, running into the kitchen, trying to remember what point in the process, I was, going back to the table to chop things, and then repeating that process.  While it was funny to watch- My friend Helena seemed amused by my crazy pacing around the kitchen, I'm hoping that doesn't happen too much. (or at least if it does, while I'm alone so only the cat can see my crazy and disorganized mess)


I think this could probably be solved by better mis en place.


I also doubled the recipe, so that made for a lot of cooking of chicken (two four pound chicken cut up into parts is a lot of cooking going on. Also, it took a lot longer to cook the chicken than I had anticipated.

I started with the sauce, simmering tomato, onion, celery, carrot and parsley for about an hour.


Then I smashed a garlic clove, and started cooking chicken.  I used a dutch oven and my mom's biggest frying pan, and after putting all the pieces into the pans at once, switched over to cooking the chicken in batches, and it seemed to go a lot smoother after that.




Once the sauce was done simmering, I put it through the potato ricer (I don't have a food mill) which turned out a little less liquid than I thought it would, but it turned out that that was okay.

Once the chicken was done, I sauteed the mushrooms, and added the tomato sauce, and things were smelling quite amazing.

Chicken on the platter

Along with the chicken, I served steamed spinach, and mashed red skin potatoes. I knew the chicken was going to be challenging, so I picked sides that I knew would be quick and easy, and go well with the chicken dish. 

If every time cooking from the book is going to be this wonderful, I'm in for a great ride.  The chicken was really good, and the sauce was luscious, the potatoes were creamy and buttery. 

Many thanks for my Mom, my Dad, (especially my Dad, who heroically did all the dishes. I generated a lot of dishes) my cousin Amy, and my auntie Ange and Uncle Dave for coming for dinner and telling me that they liked it.  These guys were here at the first dinner, and I hope they'll be at the last one of the project, which I am definitely going to go all out for. 

Three recipes down, 1000+ to go!