When there is no dislike to onions, they may be fried nicely with boiled onions cut in rings, and laid over the pieces of chicken.
BROILED CHICKENS.—
These are very dry and tasteless if merely split and broiled plain, which is the usual way. It seems to be supposed by many that no chicken is too poor for broiling, and therefore it is often difficult to get more than two or three small mouthfuls of flesh off their bones. On the contrary, poor chickens are not worth broiling or cooking in any way. To have broiled chickens good, choose those that are fat and fleshy. Having cleaned them well, and washed them, and wiped them dry, split and divide them into four quarters; flattening the bones with a steak mallet. They will be much improved by stewing or boiling in a little water for ten minutes. Then draining them and saving the liquor for gravy. Boil in this the neck, feet, heart, gizzard and liver. Strain it after boiling, and save the liver to mash into the gravy. Season the gravy with grated carrot and minced parsley, or sweet marjoram, and a little cayenne, adding a small piece of fresh butter dredged in flour. Have ready plenty of fine bread-crumbs, seasoned with nutmeg, and in another pan four yolks of eggs well beaten. The quarters of the chickens having become quite cold, dip each one first into the egg, and then into the crumbs. Set the gridiron over a clear fire, and broil the chicken well, first laying down the inside. Having prepared the gravy as above, give it a short boil, then send it to table in a sauce-boat with the chickens.
The excellence of chickens broiled in this way amply repays the trouble. This is a breakfast dish.
Serve up with the broiled chicken a dish of mashed potato cakes, browned with a salamander or red-hot shovel.
FRICASSEED CHICKEN.—
Have ready a pair of fine plump full-grown fowls nicely prepared for cooking. Strip off all the skin, and carve the fowls neatly. Reserve all the white meat and best pieces for the fricassee, putting them in a dish by themselves, and save all the inferior pieces or black meat to make the gravy. Season with pepper and salt slightly, and add a bunch of sweet herbs cut small, and four small bits of fresh butter dredged with flour. Put the black meat, herbs, &c., into a stew-pan. Pour in a pint and a half of water, and stew it gently, skimming off every particle of fat. When reduced to less than one half, strain the gravy. Arrange the pieces of white meat in a very clean stew-pan, and pour over them the gravy of the inferior parts; add mace, nutmeg, and a little cayenne. Mix into half a pint of boiling cream, a large tea-spoonful of arrow-root, and shake the pan briskly round, while adding the beaten yolks of two fresh eggs, mixed with more cream, (two table-spoonfuls.) Shake it gently over the fire till it begins to simmer again, but do not allow it to boil, or it will curdle in an instant. Watch it carefully.
This is a fine side-dish for company. There is no better way of fricasseeing fowls. A fricassee is not a fry, but a stew.