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
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