Chicken Marengo - The History Behind This Legendary Meal

Napoleon swore chicken merengue was his secret weapon. He refused to let his chefs even alter a single ingredient. This was the exact meal served after one of his greatest victories. But was this last minute meal truly the key to his success? Let's find out. With only farm chicken, tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, wine, mushrooms, herbs, and a few other ingredients that we'll get to in a bit, Napoleon's chef do not had to improvise. The supply wagons were lost after the Battle of Marengo on June 4th, 1800 in northern Italy, so he whipped up a victory meal from whatever he could find. To start the prep, I'm going to break down one whole chicken. It's the best economical way to make this dish, and I'll explain why in a second. To fabricate it, you can use a chef knife or a boning knife. I personally prefer to use the latter. Locate the center sternum bone, then we're going to slice down just to the left of it and stay as close to that bone as possible to get as much meat as possible until the breast is released. Now fold the breast back to expose the wing bone. Use your knife to slice between it to separate it from the chicken. Perfect. Next, pop open the thigh to expose the joint that's connected to the body and slice in between it while flipping it over and making sure to get that coveted tenderloin on the backside. Slice around through the skin to remove the thigh and drum. From there, you simply repeat the exact same process on the other side, breaking down a whole chicken is all about carving around bones and exposing and slicing in between joints. That's it. I promise you can do this. For the breasts, I want to leave the drum in, so slice right between the flat and drum. It will cut through with ease. Now to separate the thigh from the leg, slice around the center of it to expose the joint, then simply break it in half to separate and slice right through it. Boom. Fabricated chicken in under a minute. You got this. For the leftover chicken carcass, I always say to freeze for making stock later, but here's how we make a quick 30-minute stock that'll be dang tasty, and here's why it's more economical to use a whole chicken. Chop the carcass down using a cleaver or sharp knife into about two to three inch pieces. Transfer it over to a plate and then roughly chop a half yellow onion. Now slice one each rib of celery and carrot, peeled or unpeeled. Smash one garlic clove, add a few sprigs of fresh thyme, then over to the cooktop. I'm going to make this in a three-quart sauce pot and I want to roast everything, so I'm adding in about two to three tablespoons of olive oil, turning the heat up to medium, then I'm simply adding in the chicken pieces, veg, and herbs. I'm going to give it a gentle season of salt. The goal here is to saute everything for about four to five minutes, just to start to brown everything up and build up some fond in the pan. At this stage, add in two quarts of water and continue cooking over medium heat, what should reduce by half by the time we need it. Of course, you can absolutely use a pre-made stock if you don't want to go this route. No problem. All right, let's keep going. Pat the chicken parts down on both sides with a paper towel to help remove any moisture for a better sear and deeper maillard crust. Next up, season well with coarse salt and freshly cracked pepper, and as always, season high. Be about a foot off to cover as much surface area as possible for more evenly seasoned food. Let's take this back to the cooktop. To stick to as close to the original as possible, I've got a big old eight-quart cast iron pot, but of course, a rondeau or even an enameled Dutch oven will work perfectly. Now, I'm going to add in about three to four tablespoons of olive oil. Now, butter is obviously a staple in French cuisine, so olive oil would be an unusual choice, but NapoleonChefDoNot made a great executive decision, especially in the middle of battle. Let's crank the heat up to medium and heat it up for about 60 to 90 seconds. Then, I'm going to place in the seasoned chicken skin side down. The goal here is to get a beautiful brown, crispy crust. It's okay to take your time here. We're not trying to cook it through. We just want a sear, so it's okay to cook on lower heat, which is probably going to take six to eight minutes per side, and yeah, that's what you're looking for. Beautiful. And hey, you'll almost most likely need to sear the chicken in batches unless you're using a rondeau, so in the meantime, let's crank on some more prep. I've got one pint of button mushrooms, and using a damp paper towel, just rub off any unwanted particles. This ingredient became a little controversial because it was later used for something else, and Napoleon wasn't pleased. We'll talk about that later. To prepare them, simply quarter them. That's it. And if you're looking for a bit more, feel free to use some wild mushrooms like baby bellas or even oysters. All are good to use. Next up, slice in half and peel eight to 10 small shallots, and then slice them in half again. At this stage, we're going to do the same quarter slice with six whole garlic cloves, and last but not least for the prep, remove the core and small to medium-sized dice one cup of fresh vine-ripe tomatoes. Of course, drained can is also fine to use. Okay, back to the cooktop. The chicken looks awesome. I'm going to briefly set it to the side on a plate, and then in that same pot with olive oil and all that chicken-rendered fat goodness, let's add in the shrooms and shallots. Give it a gentle season of salt to draw out any more moisture for a better sear. Crank up the heat to medium-high, and we're gonna saute this while constantly stirring for six to eight minutes and brown these up. Both of these ingredients become umami bombs when seared and caramelized. They should at least look like this in the end. Delicious, and golly, does it smell good in here. Let's hit it with the garlic and cook it just until it becomes fragrant, which really only takes about 30 to 45 seconds, and then to ensure we have a nice thick sauce, I'm sprinkling in a quarter cup of all-purpose flour. Then I'm gonna mix it and cook it over low-medium heat while frequently stirring for three to four minutes to darken it up a bit more to create a blonde roux, which will give it more flavor. At this stage, we're going to add another controversial ingredient. That's right, one cup of dry white wine. It adds to the depth of flavor in the dish, so me, I'm all about it. As soon as it's in there, let's add in the tomatoes. Now, these weren't quite used yet in French cuisine, obviously more widely used in Italy, which made this dish incredibly interesting with the combination of French and Italian flavors. We're going to continue cooking these just for an additional three to four minutes to break them down just a bit more. Let's now grab our reduced on-the-spot chicken stock, and I'm going to strain it through a chinois. Of course, any fine mesh strainer will work, and be sure to push as much of that liquid through as possible. That's that goodness. For a bit more love, I'm adding in one bay leaf and four to five sprigs of fresh thyme. Let's give it a quick season of salt and pepper, stir it up, and of course, try it out. See what else it needs. Maybe it needs more salt and pepper. You be the judge. If it's good to go, add the chicken back in, along with any juices left on the plate, and make sure the burner is still at low to medium, and cook it for 30 to 35 minutes uncovered. For another option, pop it in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for the same amount of time. Once it's done, the chicken should be cooked through, and as you can see, the liquid has reduced even a bit more. This smells incredible. No joke. Now, this is what would be considered a modern-day version of chicken meringue, and it is so close to what they would have been served on the battlefield, and I'll show you how to do that in just a few seconds, but first, Napoleon was incredibly superstitious. He ate the meal, won the battle, and called it his lucky dish. From then on, he demanded it before every single fight, refusing any changes, and that includes those extra ingredients I showed you at the beginning. Let me show you what we do. Now, in a large nonstick frying pan, add in some olive oil, turn the heat up to medium, crack in a few eggs, and fry them to your desired doneness. For me, I'm all about that sunny side up, so just a few minutes here. Sorry, I don't care what anyone says. Runny yolks is where it's at. And now for the ingredient that's one of the original stars of the dish that has mostly been removed and swapped out, crawfish. This is what set it apart from the usual soldier rations of salt and meat and bread. Now, legend has it that when chef do not later swap crawfish for mushrooms, Napoleon wasn't happy. However, shrimp is a great option and commonly used in addition to those mushrooms, unless, of course, you live in Louisiana where you can get crawfish just about anywhere at any time of year. I'm going to saute this one pound of giant eight to 12 shrimps in the same pan with a bit more olive oil over medium heat. Season them with salt and pepper and cook them for maybe only two to two and a half minutes max. And once they turn pink like this and firm up, set them to the side on a plate. And now for one of my favorite things with this original recipe, we're gonna make some toast. Now, I prefer to use a good sourdough so I can make some big thick slices with that tasty crust still intact. However, feel free to use a baguette or even a plain white loaf. Now, to soak up all that goodness that was already cooked in that same pan, let's make some shrimp toast until both sides are brown and crusty like this. Yep, gonna be dang good. To plate this up, serve up the chicken, add in all that sauteed shrimp along with the shrimp toast and that fried egg on top. And my word, amazing. And if you haven't noticed, chicken meringue has evolved over the years with chefs swapping crawfish for mushrooms and dropping the fried eggs and toast. Some still cook it the original way as a tribute to Napoleon while debate lingers, was wine always in the recipe or a later twist? Regardless, this is one delicious meal. And be sure to drop me a comment below. Is this something you would eat before a big challenge? I mean, I don't know, I'll let you know in a second. But first, if you like this, you absolutely do not wanna miss another historical recipe. It has to do with World War II and it's awesome. Got a great video, I'll catch you over there. I don't know, I'm thinking maybe I could assemble some IKEA furniture without the instructions. Who knows? It's good.