Marengo Chicken
Napoleon's victory dish.Did you know that the poulet Marengo (Marengo chicken) is here because of Napoleon Bonaparte? The dish was created to celebrate his victory over the Austrian army in Italy near the village of Marengo on the 14th of June 1800. The recipe was prepared with very few ingredients right there on the battlefield amidst war cannons that were still smoking. I’ve tried to recreate this dish using what the military chef had available at the time but I added mushroom instead of crayfish.
Ingredients
1 whole chicken cut in pieces (keep the bones and carcasses for the stock)
1 tin 400 ml /13.5 fl oz of good quality chopped tomatoes
400 ml (2 cups) of water
4 cloves of garlic
100 ml (3.4 fl oz) of cognac (Courvoisier)
4 slices of white bread (crust removed)
4 eggs
200 g (7 oz) of button or forest mushrooms
Salt and pepper to season
150 ml (5 fl oz) of olive oil
Parsley to decorate
NOTES
The written recipe here will feed 4 people while in the video I use ingredients for 2 people.
PROCEDURE
In a large frying pan on medium to high heat add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and add all of the chopped chicken bones from the carcass. Leave to brown for 10 minutes, moving the bones around in the pan every 3 minutes or so. Once the chicken bones are browned, reduce the heat to medium and add the water and scrape the bottom of the pan to detach the caramelized meat juices. After 2 minutes turn the heat off and pour the stock into a small bowl or container.
Now place the pan back on the stove over medium heat, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and leave to warm up a little. While the oil is heating up, season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper. Add the chicken to the pan and leave it to brown for 5 minutes on each side. Once done, place the chicken on a plate and set it aside.
To prepare the sauce, use the same pan you used to cook the chicken and add garlic mixing it in with the oil. As a safety measure before you add the cognac, turn the heat off. Add the cognac and let it reduce a little before adding the chicken stock you made before. Now turn the heat back to medium and leave the stock to reduce to a semi syrupy consistency as shown in the video. Add the chopped tomatoes and mix in with the stock.
Add the chicken pieces on top of the sauce and reduce the heat to low. Allow the chicken to simmer for 15 minutes or more depending on the size of your chicken. Turn the pieces of chicken every 5 minutes to ensure they are well cooked.
While the chicken is cooking, prepare the garnish by pan-frying the mushrooms in a small amount of olive oil with salt and pepper until golden. Then pan-fry the bread pieces in plenty of olive oil to make the croutons. Finally, fry the eggs.
Serve one or two pieces of chicken per person on a plate covered with tomato sauce. Garnish with the sautéed mushrooms, croutons and topped with a fried egg. Voila! Now you just need to imagine you’re Napoleon tasting victory on the battlefield.