1 3 or 4 lb. chicken 2 tsp. salt Several slices of onion 1 hard-cooked egg 1 pimiento Several sprigs of parsley
Clean, dress, and cut up the chicken. Put it into a saucepan and cover with boiling water. Season with the salt and add the slices of onion. Cook slowly until the meat will fall from the bones. Remove the chicken from the saucepan, take the meat from the bones, and chop it into small pieces. Reduce the stock to about 1 1/2 cupfuls, strain it, and skim off the fat. With this done, place slices of the hard-cooked egg in the bottom of a wet mold. Chop the pimiento and sprigs of parsley and mix them with the chopped meat. Put the mixture on top of the sliced egg, and pour the stock over the whole. Keep in a cool place until it is set. If the stock is not reduced and more jelly is desired, unflavored gelatine may be dissolved and added to coagulate the liquid. To serve jellied chicken, remove from the mold, turn upside down, so that the eggs are on top and act as a garnish, and then cut in thin slices.
CHICKEN BECHAMEL.--Still another chicken dish that may be used to break the monotony of meals is chicken bechamel, the word bechamel being the name of a sauce invented by Bechamel, who was steward to Louis XIV, a king of France.
CHICKEN BECHAMEL
1 good-sized chicken 2 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. pepper 1 c. small mushrooms 1/4 c. chopped pimiento 3 Tb. flour 1 c. thin cream
Clean, dress, and cut up the chicken. Place the pieces into a saucepan, and cover with boiling water. Add the salt and the pepper, and allow to come to the boiling point. Remove the scum and simmer the chicken slowly until it is tender. Remove the chicken from the liquid, take the meat from the bones, and cut it into small pieces. Add to these the mushrooms and chopped pimiento. Reduce the stock to 1 cupful and thicken it with the flour added to the thin cream. Cook until the sauce is thickened. Then add to it the chopped chicken with the other ingredients. Heat all thoroughly and serve on toast points or in timbale cases, the making of which is explained in Meat, Part 2.
COOKING OF GIBLETS.--As has been pointed out, the giblets--that is, the liver, heart, and gizzard of all kinds of fowl--are used in gravy making and as an ingredient for stuffing. When poultry is stewed, as in making stewed chicken, it is not uncommon to cook the giblets with the pieces of chicken. The gizzard and heart especially require long, slow cooking to make them tender enough to be eaten. Therefore, when poultry is broiled, fried, or roasted, some other cookery method must be resorted to, as these processes are too rigid for the preparation of giblets. In such cases, the best plan is to cook them in water until they are tender and then saute them in butter. When cooked in this way, they may be served with the poultry, for to many persons they are very palatable.
