Clean and wash the chicken, cut it up as for frying, lay it in a stew-pan with water to cover it; add a teaspoonful of salt and half as much pepper; set it to boil very gently, take off all scum as it rises. When the chicken is tender, which will be in an hour, take a teacup of butter, a tablespoonful of flour worked in it, and a bunch of parsley, put them in the stew-pan with the chicken; let all stew twenty minutes, and serve on toasted bread. Egg-balls around the toast add much to the beauty of this dish.
CHICKEN FRICASSEE A LA MARENGO
Cut the chicken up as for a fricassee, put it in a sauce-pan with a wineglassful of salad oil, and allow it to cook rather briskly for twenty minutes; then put in with it a quarter of a pound of truffles cut up, a bunch of parsley, six chives or small green eschalots, a bruised clove of garlic, and pepper and salt; let them stew for twenty minutes; then pour off the oil and take out the parsley. If only one chicken is used, throw in half a pint of button mushrooms, a ladleful of brown gravy sauce, and the juice of a lemon. Garnish this dish with pieces of fried bread and large crayfish.
ROAST CHICKENS
Draw them and stuff with rich bread and butter stuffing; baste them with butter and a little fat bacon, seasoned with sweet herbs; brown nicely, and serve with their own gravy made by sifting in a tablespoonful of flour and a cup of hot water; add a little chopped parsley, and serve with hard-boiled eggs on the dish with the chickens.
CHICKEN SAUTE WITH OYSTER SAUCE
Cut up the chicken as for frying, roll each piece in salt, pepper, and sifted flour, and fry a light brown. Pour off most of the grease the chicken was fried in, and in the same pan put three dozen oysters with a pint of their juice, and a spoonful of lemon juice. Let them simmer a few minutes, and serve with pieces of fried bread around the dish.
COLD CHICKEN ESCALLOPED
Mince cold chicken without the skin, wet it with gravy or hot water (gravy is best), and season with salt and pepper. To the minced meat of one chicken, put two ounces of sweet, fresh butter, cut small. Rub tin or silver scallop pans with butter, strew over the bottom powdered cracker, lay the minced chicken in, strew cracker over the top, and bake in a hot oven long enough to brown the top. Serve with celery or pickle.
TO BROIL A CHICKEN