Main Ingredients:

See below ingredients and instructions of the recipe

Cooking Preparation of the Recipe:

3 lb Chicken parts (or there -tb. oil
-abouts) Salt
3 tb Clarified butter or olive Freshly ground pepper
-oil or 2 tb. butter and 1 pn Tarragon or thyme

-----------------DEGLAZING SAUCE (OPTIONAL----------------------
1 tb Shallots or scallions, 2 tb Butter for final sauce,
-minced -optional
1/2 c Chicken stock 2 tb Fresh parsley, chives or
1/2 c Dry white wine or dry white -tarragon, minced
-french vermouth

--------------------PROVENCAL VARIATION-------------------------
2 c Tomato pulp -and tarragon (a sprinkling)
Mixed fresh thyme, parsley 2 Garlic cloves, pureed

Be sure the chicken is well dried or it will not brown properly. Set
the frying pan over moderately high heat; add the oil and/ or butter.
when it is hot but not smoking, lay in the chicken pieces skin side
down. (Do not crowd the pan; there should be a little air space
between each piece for proper browning. Do the chicken in 2 batches,
if necessary.) Turn the chicken every 20 seconds or so, allowing it
to color a fairly even walnut brown on all sides. If you've a mixture
of white meat and dark meat, remove the white meat to a side dish
after browning; it takes a little less time to cook than the dark
meat.

Finishing the cooking; cover the pan, lower the heat to moderate, and
if you've removed the white meat, cook the dark meat slowly (it
should sizzle gently) about 6 minutes, turning once. Then return the
white meat to the pan. Baste the chicken pieces with the accumulated
fat and juices in the pan; season the chicken pieces lightly with
salt, pepper and optional herbs. Cover the pan again and cook another
6 minutes. Turn the chicken, baste again, and continue cooking 7 to 8
minutes more, basting konce again.

You can tell the chicken is done when the thickest parts of the
drumsticks and thighs are tender when pressed, and when the juices of
any pieces of the chicken pricked with a fork, run clear yellow with
no traces of pink-it should be juicy.

Deglazing Sauce: Remove the chicken pieces to a hot platter. Rapidly
spoon all but a few tablespoons of fat from the pan. Stir in the
tablespoon of chopped shallots or scallions and cook for a few
seconds over high heat, stirring. Pour in the 1/2 cup of chicken
stock and of wine, and boil, scraping up coagulated juices from the
bottom of the pan; continue boiling and swirling the pan for a moment
until the liquid has boiled down to almost syrupy consistancy. Remove
the pan from the heat and, if you wish, swirl in a tablespoon or two
of butter by spoonfuls-to smooth out and enrich the chicken, strew on
the optional herbs, and serve as soon as possible.

NOTE: sauteed chicken is at its best when served almost at once. It
may be browned in advance, but if you allow it to cool and then
reheat, it will always taste like reheated precooked chicken. Sauteed
chicken is delicious cold, however.

Dieting notes: Sauteed chicken is not usually for dieters, but
thoroughly degresing the final juices and removing the chicken skin
after sauteeing will dispense with a lot of calories

PROVENCALE: Provencale always means with tomatoes, garlic and olive
oil and often olives and other ingredients from the sunny clime.
Saute the chicken in olive oil, as in the master recipe, remove it to
a side dish and spoon the fat but not the juices, out of the pan.
Stir in 2 cups of red ripe tomato pulp, a sprinkling of mixed
provencale herbs, and a couple of pureed garlic cloves. Boil several
minutes to thicken the sauce, correct seasoning, stir in several
tablespoonfuls of dry French Vermouth, and return chciken to the pan.
Baste it with the sauce. Cover and simmer several minutes to warm
through.

NOTE: Tomato pulp: You must seed and juice your tomatoes. To do so,
halve the peeled tomato crosswise (not through the core). Then hold
the half over a sieve set in a bowl, gently squeeze to dislodge most
of the jelly like substance, juice and seeds. Finally, poke out the
residue with your little finger. Press the juices out of the residue
in the sieve and use in soup or sauce or as a refreshing drink for
the cook. Use the tomato halves for the tomato pulp.

Gleaned from Julia Child's "The Way To Cook" by Mary Riemerman
Submitted By MARY RIEMERMAN On 03-28-95

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