To Boil Chickens, 1846

Boiled chicken with drawn butter and parsley.
And potatoes and parsnips.

 

 

Tried another approach to boiled chicken, this time from The Young Housekeeper's Friend (Boston, 1846):

To Boil Chickens.---STUFF them with the same as directed for a boiled turkey, or boil them without stuffing if preferred. Skewer them up into a good shape, as when prepared to roast, and boil them one hour. Eat them with drawn butter and cut parsley. It is an improvement to mash the livers and put into the butter. If they can be carefully skimmed, they need no cloth around them.

It's not horribly dissimilar from my last attempt. I did take the receipt's permission to not stuff the bird, and to omit tying a cloth around it. The skewers rather defeated me, though I did manage to tie the drumsticks. I skimmed the fat off the water as indicated, and threw in some marjoram in a nod to the boiled turkey receipt on an earlier page. I also boiled the chicken for 1 hour rather than 2--and it still was soft enough to fall apart when I tried to lift it from the water. I set the chicken in a low oven (325F) to dry while I made up the sauce, which improved it nicely. Salt and pepper were added before serving.

For the sauce, I made drawn butter with parsley per the instructions on the following page:

To Make Drawn Butter.---TAKE a teacup full of butter and rub into it a half a table spoonful of flour, or the starch which is made for puddings, then pour upon it about a teacup full of boiling water, stirring it constantly. Set it upon the coals and let it boil up. If it is suffered to remain boiling it will become oily. Some persons prefer to add two or three spoonfuls of milk. When melted butter is used with boiled fowls, lamb, veal, or fresh fish, it is greatly improved by the addition of parsley. Tie a few sprigs together with a thread, and throw them into boiling water two or three minutes, then take them out, and cut them fine and add to the butter.

I made the mistake of chopping the parsley first, but saved it by use of a tea strainer. The boiling water turned faintly green as a result, but the parsley did not visually change much. Meanwhile, I took 4oz of unsalted butter, rubbed it over 1/2 Tbsp flour, and set it on the stove with 4 oz boiling water. I stirred the butter together, allowing it to come up to a boil once, then stirred in the parsley. I found the sauce greatly improved by a pinch of salt (it was pretty insipid without this addition); I really need to remember to use salted butter in these sorts of things in the first place. I did not mash the chicken liver for inclusion in the butter, because I didn't particularly want to.

Overall, I found this dish perfectly palatable. Compared to the last time I boiled chicken, I was pleasantly surprised at how well it turned out. I think the drying the chicken in the oven really added something to it--though the shorter boiling time may also have played a role. The butter and parsley was quite tasty on the meat and both vegetables (once that salt was added), and the whole cooking process felt less onerous than it seemed like it should. I certainly have a high opinion of boiled chicken than I did after the last receipt.