Chicken à la crème (w/ Claudine Pépin)

TL;DR

Adam Ragusea makes Jacques Pépin's mother's creamy French chicken, with Claudine Pépin debunking cream's calorie-dense reputation.

Key Points

• 1.The recipe adapts Jacques Pépin's mother's classic dish with personal tweaks. Ragusea debones the thighs (unlike JP), skips the skin to avoid sliminess in a wet dish, and browns the meat first — which he argues makes it taste better than a traditional blanquette.
• 2.A simple velouté forms the base of the sauce. Flour is scattered into the fat to prevent lumps, deglazed with white wine, then chicken stock is added most of the way up the meat and simmered 20–30 minutes until thick.
• 3.Claudine Pépin and husband Raleigh provide a key nutritional context on cream. A tablespoon of heavy cream has only 25 calories vs. 120 for olive oil and 100 for butter, making cream a far less calorically dense sauce finisher — about one tablespoon of cream per chicken piece is used here.
• 4.Crispy chicken skin crackling is made as a garnish, Mama Pépin's way. Fat trimmings are rendered for cooking rice, and the removed skins are baked at 400°F/200°C for ~20 minutes until crispy, then placed on the finished plate alongside rice (toasted in fat) with peas, tarragon, and wild alliums.