Le Poulet

“A chicken in every peasant’s pot every Sunday,” or something to that effect, is attributed to Henri IV. He supposedly made the statement during his coronation address around the end of the 16th century. Four hundred years later, the French come close to his proposal. Today, each person in France consumes about 9 chickens (along with 1 turkey, 1 duck, 1 guinea fowl, and 2 kg of other poultry such as goose, quail, and pigeon). This could mean that each family of four, assuming that they share a single chicken at a meal, eats a chicken about two out of every three weeks. But the reality today is that the French, like other nationalities, also eat some of their chicken in the form of Chicken McNuggets, Burger King Chicken Sandwiches, and other forms of ground and reshaped chicken meat.

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Chickens have been around for a long time. Scientists today generally believe that our domestic chickens descended primarily from the Red Jungle Fowl (Gallus bankiva) of Southeast Asia. There is evidence of domesticated chickens in India as early as 3,200 BC, and in China and Egypt about 1,400 BC. Whether these birds were bred for food or cockfighting is unclear. By the time Henri IV made his pronouncement, chickens were certainly used for both purposes in France. Today, there are approximately 60 breeds of chickens world-wide; only a handful are produced in France.

In 1999, the French produced over one-million metric tons of chickens. France is the largest poultry producer in the European Union and fourth largest in the world after the United States, China, and Brazil. Slightly more than 40 percent of the French production is exported, mainly to the Middle East. Three large producers — Doux, LDC, and BSA-Bourgoin — account for about two-thirds of the country’s total production. Although factory-produced chickens dominate the market, about 15 percent of the production is now free-range chickens. This percentage is growing as customers become increasingly wary of factory production in the wake of “mad cow” disease and the Belgium dioxin scandal.

About 30 years ago, the French government developed a free-range production program. Chickens produced within this program meet a wide range of production criteria such as genetics (or breed), feed, and duration of grow out. The French Ministry of Agriculture grants the Red Label (Label Rouge) to farmers’ groups or cooperatives whose production matches the program’s standards. Red Label poultry production is subject to thorough controls at each stage of the process to ensure minimum quality standards. Chickens produced under the Red Label program come from special breeds, selected for their low growth rate, high meat quality, and good skin. These birds have a longer growing period that is approximately twice as long as factory chickens. They are reared in the open air in small groups and fed a natural cereal-based feed. No animal matter or growth factors can be used in the feed.

For many in France, the ultimate chicken is the poulet de Bresse. This is the only type of chicken with an A.O.C. Following an initial period not exceeding 35 days, the birds are raised on a grassy area which provides their primary food. This is supplemented by local cereals and skimmed milk for a period of 9 weeks in the case of young chickens, 11 weeks for hens, and 23 weeks for capons. Each chicken must have a minimum of 10 square meters of space and a single flock cannot exceed 500 birds. The final phase of the growing process is done in wooden cages in a dim, quiet, and well-ventilated structure. The chickens are caged for at least 8 days and capons and hens for 4 weeks.

Arguably, the most common method of cooking a chicken in a French home is not in the oven, but on top of the stove in a pot; ovens are a relatively new occurrence in the average French home. The ten recipes presented with this article are all prepared in a saucepan using cut-up chickens. (Although I do use an oven for keeping parts of the dish warm.) I have a preference for cutting a whole chicken into 13 pieces with a method I learned in the Jura. The advantage of this method over the usual eight-piece division is that each of four guests can be served three pieces that are closer to the same size as what’s served the other guests. The extra piece can be served to the hungriest guest! In all the recipes, the chicken pieces are browned in fat. Then aromatics are added. This is followed by braising liquids and the chicken cooking is completed. Finally, the cooked chicken pieces, and sometimes the aromatics, are set aside, and the sauce is reduced. The time to cook the chicken varies depending on the breed and the part of the chicken, i.e. leg, breast, thigh, or wing.

References:
[1]	GAIN Report #FR0069, Foreign Agricultural Service/USDA, August 2000.
[2]	Council Regulation (EEC) No 2081/92 Application for Registration: Art. 17, Comité Interprofessionnel de la Volaille de Bresse, undated.
[3]	Syndicat National des Labels Avicoles de France (Label Rouge) web site, http://www.synalaf.com/.
[4]	“Henry IV, king of France,” citation in The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2001. Columbia University Press.
[5]	What Is a Chicken?, University of Illinois Extension web site, http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/eggs/res08-whatis.html.

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