Summer chicken

6 servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
2 Lemons
2 tablespoons Parsley; chopped (garnish)
3½ pounds Chicken, roasting
1¼ cup Almond-pistachio butter
5 larges Garlic clove
2 teaspoons Lemon juice (to taste)
½ cup Carrot; coarsely chopped
½ cup Heavy cream
2½ cup Onions; chopped
Salt
⅓ cup Parsley; chopped
Rochester, NY Times-Union, Monday, July 29, 1991

Directions

Quarter one of the lemons and put it in the chicken. Chop the other and combine it in a deep nonreactive kettle with the garlic, carrot, onions, and ⅓ cup parsley.

Put the chicken on the vegetable bed, breast side up, and pour in enough boiling water to come one-third of the way up the sides.

Cover the pot, put it over medium heat, and simmer for 30 minutes.

Using tongs, turn the chicken on its breast, then cook, covered, for 20 minutes more.

By now the breast should be cooked. Take the pot from the heat and the chicken from the pot. As soon as it's cool enough to handle, carve off the breast meat and set it aside, tightly covered. Cut the rest of the chicken into serving pieces and return it to the kettle.

Put the kettle over medium heat and cook the chicken, uncovered, for 25 to 35 minutes more, or until it is fully cooked. Set the dark meat aside with the light, tightly covered; strain the broth and return it to the kettle.

Boil the liquid over high heat until it is reduced to about 2½ cups-- the exact amount cannot be given because what you actually want is 2 cups of defatted broth and chickens vary enormously in fattiness. Pour the broth into a shallow, heatproof bowl, cool to tepid, then set in thefreezer until the fat rises and solidifies.

Remove the fat and discard.

Re-warm the defatted broth along with any juices that have escaped from the reserved chicken meat. Put the almond-pistachio butter in a bowl and slowly stir in the warmed broth and lemon juice. Let the sauce cool, then whip the cream to limp peaks and fold it in. Add salt and additional lemon juice to taste.

Skin the chicken (and bone it if desired). Arrange the meat on a wide, shallow platter and pour the sauce over to blanket it. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours, up to a full day, then allow to warm almost but not quite to room temperature before sprinkling with the last 3 table- spoons of parsley and serving. Accompany with pita or crusty French bread for mopping up--and cutting the richness of--the sauce. An elegant presentation of cold poached chicken with an almond-pistachio sauce of almost unimaginable richness. Keep the rest of the meal light and delicate, so the chicken is neither overwhelmed nor overwhelming.

Submitted By SAM WARING On 07-24-95

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