Chicken Ala King

[Karla]

Does anyone have a traditional recipe for Chicken Ala King?

[Will Owen]

Paraphrased from the Gourmet Cookbook, c. 1950:

Poach a 6-lb. chicken slowly in stock for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Flavor the stock with a half-cup each of chopped carrots, white turnips and green celery, 2 leeks, 6 sprigs of parsley, 2 bay leaves, a sprig of thyme, 5 cloves, 6 peppercorns, and a tsp salt for each cup of liquid. Let cool in broth, then discard skin and bones and dice meat. Slice thinly a half pound of mushrooms, 2 large green bell peppers and a half-cup of drained canned pimentos. Sauté these in 2 Tbs butter until soft, drain off butter and mix with the chicken meat.

Into 3 cups medium white sauce beat 3 small egg yolks, stir in the chicken etc., and season to taste with salt, white pepper, and a few grains of nutmeg. Reheat this without letting it boil and stir in 1/4 to 1/3 cup dry sherry. Serve on toast or in hot patty shells.

I can see lots of room for simplifying here, but I wouldn't want to deviate much. I think I'd want to make that white sauce with some of the broth plus some half-and-half. The bell pepper would be a deal breaker in my house; canned mild green chiles would be emphatically non-traditional, but I think it'd be good. Dang, I want this for lunch!

[Karl S]

Given the time mentioned, it's obvious they mean real poaching, done in the range of 160-180F. Not simmering just below a boil at 212F. You'd want a thermometer in this to monitor the temp carefully.

[Monty]

Needless to say, one can use a roast chicken from the store, shreadded, bones and skin tossed. I think a coupole of essentials in chicken ala king are the sherry, the grating of nutmeg and the mushrooms. Have never ut green pepper in mine. Oh, also the pimentos. I like to serve it on toast points.with a sprinkle of paprika on top.

I've also never bothered with egg yolks in the bechemal suace. Adding a little cream however, makes things a little richer.

[Mrs. Smith]

Thanks Will. I will be making this soon.

[Fleur]

The recipe is good,similar to the one used by Grandmaman. I never heard of green pepper in C à la K . Usually, baby green peas are used.
Grandmaman used to serve this on waffles for Saturday supper.

[Karla]

Thanks for the great recipe. I'm definately going to try it. I'm sorry I didn't get back sooner to thank y'all. I had to compromise when the time came, limited on ingredients, but I had frozen some sour cream dough, and I remembered the puff pastry cups my mother bought for chicken ala king. I rolled out the dough and backed it on a cookie sheet, and whadya know? It puffed and was perfect. I was without internet connection, and went to a library near by, and must have gone through 30 American cookbooks, and finally found the original recipe in "Grandma's Wartime Kitchen, World War II and the Way We Cooked". Gourmet magazine, I learned, made a point of never offering wartime recipes. The original recipe had 2 cups of medium cream sauce, 2 cups cooked chicken, 1/2 cup of peas, 3 tbs pimient, 4 baked puff pastry cups.