Vincent Price’s Chicken in Champagne Sauce
Ingredients
Scale
For The Chicken
- 1 x 3lb chicken
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 cups dry French champagne
For The Sauce:
- 4 cups cream
- 3 shallots, finely chopped
- 4 mushrooms crushed with a bottle or rolling pin
- 1 sprig parsley chopped
- 2 bay leaves
- pinch of thyme
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1 glass dry champagne
Instructions
For The Chicken:
- Preheat the oven to 350F / 180C / Gas mark 4.
- Season the chicken with the salt.
- Truss it and place in a small casserole with the butter and the two cups of Champagne.
- Cook in a moderate oven about 45 minutes.
- Baste every eight minutes and turn until the chicken is an even golden brown on all sides.
- Remove chicken, cut off string and keep warm on a hot platter.
For The Sauce:
- Add to the juices in the casserole the cream, shallots, mushrooms, parsley, bay leaves and thyme.
- Simmer on top of stove until the sauce has reduced to two thirds of the original amount.
- Strain through a fine sieve into a clean saucepan.
- Place over a medium heat and swirl in the butter.
- Add the glass of champagne
For The Presentation
- Spoon some of the sauce over the chicken. Serve the rest separately.
- This recipe is originally from Le Pavillon in New York. To serve the chicken as per Le Pavillon take the chicken to the table whole and carve it there.