Chicken chasseur

Mise en place first: slice the shallots, roughly cut the carrot and onion for the mirepoix, remove the germ from the garlic and peel and trim it, have the flour and tomato paste weighed, trim the mushrooms, debone the chicken and keep the bones, and chop the parsley and herbs.

Heat a bit of oil in a stock pot over high heat.

Chop the carcass into small pieces and brown it to a real brown colour, watching the fine line between browning and burning.

Add 50 g of onion and carrot mirepoix and let everything sweat for about 10 minutes.

Pour the veal or beef stock straight in while it is hot enough to sizzle, so it detaches the brown juices at the bottom.

When the stock boils again add the garlic, the bouquet garni, the mushroom trimmings and a good tablespoon of tomato paste, and mix.

Cover and let the stock cook for 30 minutes.

Season the four chicken pieces with salt and pepper and turn them in plain flour, tapping off the excess.

Brown the chicken in very hot oil in a cast iron pan, skin side first, two or three minutes a side, to a golden brown.

Preheat the oven, given as 180 degrees Celsius or 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Put a lid on the pan and cook the chicken gently in the oven at about 180C, 'for like 400F'. The time is contradictory: 'After 50 minutes, I'll take it out. When your meat is cooked, 10 to 15 minutes, put it in a tray'.

Hold the cooked chicken in a tray under foil in the oven.

Discard the bouquet garni and the bones, pass the stock through a sieve and put the clean stock into another pan.

Thicken the stock with a beurre manie, equal parts butter and flour rolled into little balls, added a few at a time over medium heat at a gentle boil and whisked in, until it reaches napping consistency and coats the back of a spoon. Arrowroot or corn flour would do the same job.

In the same pan the chicken was browned in, cook the mushrooms cut small over medium to high heat for about three, four, maybe five minutes until nicely browned.

Add the sliced shallots, mix well and cook another minute.

With the pan hot, add cognac and light it, then mix and let the cognac reduce.

Add white wine and leave it to reduce, which lifts everything off the pan and into the sauce.

Add the thickened stock and simmer three to four minutes.

Mix about half the chopped parsley and half the chopped tarragon through the sauce for freshness.

Off the heat, finish the sauce with a little butter for a silky finish.

Lay the chicken pieces on the plate and pour the sauce over until they are covered.