Chicken and poultry with all the sauces in your recipes

The figures are clear: in the face of inflation and the high price of beef and pork, poultry consumption is soaring to reach nearly 15 chickens per person per year! A book caught our attention, a sort of joyful and delicious encyclopedia which brings together an impressive amount of information for choosing and cooking poultry, but also learning how to build a henhouse, select breeds and feed the poultry!

The incredible variety of regional recipes

A former agricultural engineer, Pierre Coulon is the founder of La Laiterie de Paris, a social and supportive micro cheese dairy located in the Goutte d'Or district. In March 2021, he made the crazy bet of buying with friends an old cheese factory in Camembert, in Normandy, to revive this appellation with a high-quality product. Committed, he campaigns for the farming world and the rediscovered quality of products. He also built his chicken coop and learned to raise his poultry. He shared his experience in a book The good knowledge of the farmyard (First editions, €36) co-written with Meriem Lay, great reporter and director of numerous television documentaries on food and sustainable food.

The book allows you to discover the incredible variety of recipes, particularly regional (simmering with cider, Riesling, vinegar, Havraise, Vosges, etc.) and very tasty poultry charcuterie!

A little history of the rotisserie

A little anecdote before sitting down to eat: do you know the history of the rotisserie, the ancestor of the rotisserie in your oven? Spit cooking was highly prized for the quality of roasting in the Middle Ages. Until the 16th century^e century, it is a scullion called a gallopin or a spit dog, specially trained for this task and installed in a large wooden drum (like a hamster!), which activates the mechanism.

From the middle of the 16th century^e century, different automatic techniques were developed. A simple system of spring then counterweight up to the ingenious steam rotisserie, developed in the 18th century^e century and yet described by two visionaries: Leonardo da Vinci or Taqi Al Din, a Turkish scholar, also the sultan's official astronomer, who wrote a treatise on steam engines. The gas rotisserie then the electric one gradually replaced these mechanical marvels at the dawn of the industrial era.

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The recipes

► Chicken Yvetot

Recipe by Pierre Coulon, taken from the book The good knowledge of the farmyard (First editions), photography David Japy

A 100% Normandy recipe where the chicken is stewed with tender apples.

For 4 people

1 chicken

2 large onions

5 apples

80g butter

10 cl of calvados

Salt pepper

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Cut the chicken into eighths and the onions into large slices. Peel the apples, core them to remove the cores, then cut them into six.

Melt half the butter in a casserole dish, gently fry the onions until translucent. To book.

Melt the remaining butter in the casserole dish and brown the chicken pieces on each side until they brown. Remove the chicken and deglaze with the calvados.

Place half of the apples at the bottom of the casserole dish, add the chicken pieces then the onions and the rest of the apples. Salt, pepper and pour 20 cl of water, close the casserole and bake for 50 minutes.

► Chicken with monbazillac

Recipe taken from Pierre Coulon's book The good knowledge of the farmyard (First editions), photography David Japy

A recipe from the famous Andrée Mallet-Maze known as “La Mazille”, writer who wrote the first cookbook dedicated to Périgord cuisine. La Mazille, who traveled the countryside by bike to collect cooking know-how from Périgord farms. Its name is now also that of a famous Périgueux gourmet book prize.

For 6 persons

1 chicken

50 cl of monbazillac or a sweet wine

40 g duck fat

1 tablespoon of starch

Salt pepper

Cut the chicken into 8 pieces and brown them in the duck fat to brown them. Add the wine, salt, pepper and cook for 45 minutes over medium heat and uncovered. Remove the poultry and set aside.

Mix the starch with 3 spoonfuls of broth, then pour into the casserole dish to obtain a coating sauce.

Serve the meat covered with sauce.