la poule au pot

I have two heros in the French history : Vercingetorix because he always looked so sexy on his pictures with his wild long hair and Henry the 4th  because he was very tolerant for his time and he seems to care about his people.
I know you are going to wander what all this has to do with food. Vercingetorix not much. I don't know much about the Gaulois culinary taste. I learned in an old history book that they had feast were they eat so much they will get sick and will go on the back of the tent and will tickle their throat with feather and throw up so they could go and eat some more. yes sickening.
I was rather thinking about the good king Henry 4th of France (not the horrible one from England)  who said every French man should have a chicken in the pot every Sunday. Meat every Sunday Oh La La!
 When I was young it was still in the habit to have a chicken on Sunday most of the time roasted in the oven.
What I mean by the" Poule au pot " of" Henry the 4th" is a chicken simmered slowly with vegetables.
I like to simmer a chicken this way . First you get a delicious stock and then chicken you can use in a lot of different ways
Here is my recipe for boiled chicken and stock,

Ingredients

I nice large chicken  preferably organic ( or 2 if you want to have more frozen chicken)
2 large carrots
2 branches of celery
1 large onion studded with a few cloves
1 leak
2 Bay leaves
a few branches of thyme and 1 branch of  rosemary ( or a pinch of" Italian seasoning" or" herbes de Provence"
salt and pepper

Directions
Peel the onions and cut in quarters
clean the carrots and slice
clean the celery and slice
 clean the leak and slice ( make sure you rinse the leak well it is very sandy)
Take the giblets out of the chicken and rinse the chicken
Put all the vegetables and the chicken in a large stock pan
Cover the chicken with water
Add the Bay leaves the herbs and the spices.
Bring to a boil if there is some foam forming on the top remove
bring the heat on low and simmer the chicken for about 2 hours
check for doneness by pulling the leg and make sure it is cook

When you are sure it is cook
Let the chicken cool down
Strained the chicken
keep the stock and let it cool




The stock

I freeze the stock in individual ice tray and then in plastic bags
and some in small plastic containers
so I have ready stock any time I need it

The chicken
I have shred the chicken
I keep some in the refrigerator to cook right away and I freeze some in individual plastic bags for later use
I always keep the skin and a few part for my dogs they love it when it is "boiling chicken day)

 I used the chicken stock in different way
in Italian wedding soup
to make risotto
to cook my grits and in a lot of different chicken dish including chicken pot pie and Pho

I used the chicken in a lot of different dishes
my favorites are

Chicken salad
chicken tetrazzini
Philadelphia chicken sandwiches
chicken pot pies
and quite a few other chicken dishes

I will enter all these recipes in following post


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