Tasty Tuesday: Brown Fricassee of #Chicken #colonial #dinner #cooking #whatsfordinner #recipes

Today’s Tasty Tuesday recipe is pretty easy and pretty good! Fricasseed chicken doesn’t take too long and is quite a nice dish to serve up. At least the way I made it. Let’s first take a look at the original recipe and then I’ll talk about my adaptations and what I’d do differently next time.

To make a Brown Fricasey.

You must take your rabbits or chickens and skin them, then cut them into small pieces, and rub them over with yolks of eggs. Have ready some grated bread, a little beaten mace, and a little grated nutmeg mixed together, and then roll them in it: put a little butter into a stew-pan, and when it is melted put in your meat. Fry it of a fine brown, take care they do not stick to the bottom of the pan, then pour the butter from them, and pour in half a pint of brown gravy, a glass of white-wine, a few mushrooms, or two spoonfuls of the pickle, a little salt, (if wanted), and a piece of butter rolled in flour. When it is of a fine thickness dish it up, and send it to table.

Thankfully, I could buy boneless and skinless chicken breasts and simply cut them into bite-sized pieces. If you’d prefer to do your own hunting and skinning, then be sure to include that step in your prep time. <grin> I do recall one time decades ago when my dad, who lived with me and my family, returned from a trip carrying three dead rabbits for me to skin and cook. That was a one-time thing for me, let me tell ya! The rabbit stew I made wasn’t too bad, but the prep was not pleasant since I really had no idea of the proper method for skinning rabbits and cutting them up.

Back to our chicken dish. I didn’t change much to this recipe, and the steps are fairly easy to follow. I didn’t know what “the pickle” meant, but I had some mushrooms so used them.

For the “grated bread” I had some hot dog buns hanging around, so I toasted some and crumbled them. Obviously, you can make your own like I did, or buy them at the store ready to use. If you have seasoned bread crumbs you wouldn’t need to add other seasonings unless you wanted something specific, so that might save you some time and effort as well.

Okay, so here’s the recipe from what I made:

Betty’s Chicken Fricassee

Ingredients

1 lb. chicken breasts, cut into pieces

1 egg, beaten

1 cup bread crumbs/pieces

1/8 tsp mace

1/8 tsp nutmeg

2 T butter

½ cup brown gravy

½ cup white wine

6 mushrooms, sliced or diced

1 T butter rolled in flour

Instructions

Put cut up chicken breasts into a mixing bowl.

Pour egg over chicken and stir to coat evenly.

In a separate bowl, mix bread and seasonings. Add to chicken and stir to coat evenly.

Melt butter in a deep skillet.

Brown chicken, stirring frequently to prevent sticking.

Add remaining ingredients.

Simmer until sauce thickens and serve.

I’ve mentioned this before but just to be clear, I’ve decided to not use mace so much as they did back then. It’s a very strong spice, to my taste, and so I know that if/when I make this again I will use milder herbs and spices instead of the mace and nutmeg. Also, instead of the brown gravy I used this time, I’ll likely use a cup of beef bouillon to simmer the chicken and flavor the sauce.

What do you think? Sound like something you’d like to try?

One more thing! I’m thrilled to share that my new novella, Elizabeth’s Hope, is now up for pre-order! Elizabeth’s story will release on November 3, 2017. This prequel novella for the A More Perfect Union historical romance series shares the longed-for story of how Emily and Frank find themselves at 6’s and 9’s at the beginning of Emily’s Vow. I’ve been sharing it with my newsletter subscribers all year, one chapter at a time. But finally her story will be available to a larger audience! Here’s what it’s about in a nutshell…

CAUGHT BETWEEN DUTY AND LOVE

Joining the revolutionary army was the honorable thing to do—but Jedediah Thomson hadn’t realized how long he’d be away from the lovely, spirited Miss Elizabeth Sullivan. They’d only begun their courtship when the occupation of Charles Town, South Carolina, trapped her in the city, making it dangerous to get to her.

Elizabeth Sullivan feared for her brothers, fighting for American freedom; for her father, pretending to be a loyalist; for family and friends, caught between beliefs; and most of all for Jedediah, the man she loves, who was doing his duty. She cherished every moment they had together, knowing how swiftly it could be taken away.

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That’s my news for this week! Until next time!

Betty

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