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August 11, 2023

Marengo Chicken – What’s Napoleon got to do with it, got to do with it? *

As a child, we visited a great-great-aunt of mine who lived in the country.  At the back of her property, in a fenced-in pen, she had a chicken coop and about a dozen or so chickens, and a proud rooster running about the place.  She cautioned my brothers and me to make sure to close the gate, to make sure that the chickens stayed in the pen because “they will eat everything in sight.”  My older brother told my little 3-year-old brother to behave, or he would be fed to the chickens.  Tommy screamed in horror, ran away, and did not move from Mom’s side during our whole stay.  Was my kid brother scarred for life?  No.  When we returned to visit the following year, Tommy realized that my older brother and I were not being devoured by the chickens, when we were sent to collect their eggs for breakfast.  So he mustered up enough courage and joined us in the hunt for eggs.


Chickens are omnivores.  They will eat everything from seeds, plants, worms, insects, even young mice, lizards, and small snakes.  We even witnessed them eating the left-over table scraps.  My older brother and I were even astonished when they devoured “their own brothers” when my aunt fed them some of that evening's leftover chicken dinner.


My aunt found it easy and economical to raise chickens.  Of course, she would have fresh eggs daily.  She had a separate coop for the chickens to be reared for meat.  Those chickens got to lay eggs and then brood or incubate the eggs.  After 21 days of incubation, the chicks hatch.  The cycle would start all over again once the chicks grew up.  Another coop was reserved for producing eggs.


Nothing went to waste.  Auntie would slaughter a chicken when needed for dinner.  She would pluck the chickens herself.  The feathers were washed and dried.  A local upholsterer would purchase them to use as stuffing for furniture cushions. 


When my aunt prepared meals kitchen waste became food for the chickens: potato peels, onion peels, carrot tops, shelled pea or bean pods, stale bread, you name it, even the eggshells.  If it was organic, it ended up as food for her chickens.  Besides leftover table scraps, the chickens would even pick at the cooked chicken bones and cartilage.


Chicken meat is so versatile and can be prepared in many different ways: boiling, frying, baking, grilling, and barbecuing, among the most common.


One of the special meals Auntie prepared for us was Marengo Chicken.


Did you know that Marengo Chicken is a traditional French recipe?  It was first prepared for Napoleon Bonaparte after his historic victory on June 14, 1800, at the battle of Marengo.  For the victory meal, his chef improvised by using all the local products to be found around the battlefield.  Legend has it that this victory chicken was one of Napoleon’s favorite recipes. 


And it has become one of our family’s favorites too.


Marengo Chicken Recipe


Ingredients

Chicken cut up

40g butter (or 20g butter and 20ml extra virgin olive oil)

200 g chanterelle mushrooms (or any fresh mushrooms of your preference, or 1 can of Champignon mushrooms)

1/8 l chicken broth (or 1 chicken bouillon cube), or white wine

salt

pepper, black

1 can tomatoes, peeled and halved, 400g (or 5-6 fresh, peeled and halved tomatoes)

6-8 small onions, 150g, sliced (or 1 medium onion, sliced)

1 T sugar

1 T parsley, chopped


Instructions

In a large skillet, sauté the sliced onions in ½ of the butter until they are translucent.  Remove to a plate.


Add the remaining butter/olive oil to the pan and heat to medium.  Add the chicken to the pan and sauté.  Turn the chicken frequently, until nicely browned on all sides.  Remove to a plate.


In the same skillet, sauté the mushrooms.  When soft, add back the chicken pieces and spoon the sautéed mushrooms and onions on top of the chicken:


Add the tomatoes including juice by spooning them on top of the chicken mixture.  


Next, add the chicken broth and spices, and simmer for about 30 minutes.  Make sure you spoon the juices over the chicken every few minutes to keep it moist and marinated.  This will also impart more flavor to the chicken.


Serve over rice, pasta, or boiled potatoes.


Bon Appetit.


Confession: When I made the recipe last week, instead of using a fresh chicken, I actually used an already prepared grilled supermarket chicken. Cut it up, deboned it and reheated it, and followed the rest of the recipe.  Result: it came out tasty as ever!


Homage 

*  Just in case you did not notice it, the title for this post is to pay homage to Tina Turner and her song "What's Love Got to Do with it"

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