Chicken Marengo is a French and Northern Italian dish consisting of a chicken sautéed in oil with garlic and tomato, garnished with and crayfish.
History
According to a popular myth, the dish was first made after
Napoleon defeated the Austrian army at the Battle of Marengo at
Spinetta Marengo south of Alessandria, Italy, when his
chef Dunand foraged in the town for ingredients (because the
were too distant) and created the dish from what he could gather.
[Steven Gilbar, Chicken a la King and the Buffalo Wing: Food Names and the People and Places That Inspired Them (2008), p. 29-30.] According to this legend, Napoleon enjoyed the dish so much he had it served to him after every battle,
and when Dunand was later better-supplied and substituted
Edible mushrooms for crayfish and added
wine to the recipe, Napoleon refused to accept it, believing that a change would bring him bad luck.
This colorful story, however, is probably myth; Alan Davidson writes that there would have been no access to at that time, and the first published recipe for the dish omits them.
Recipe
Pellegrino Artusi's recipe in his
Science of Cooking and the Art of Eating Well is as follows (it lacks tomatoes, crayfish and eggs):
- Take a young chicken, remove the neck and legs, and cut into large pieces at the joints. Sauté in 30 grams (about 1 ounce) of butter and one tablespoon of olive oil, seasoning with Edible salt, Black pepper, and a dash of nutmeg. When the pieces have browned on both sides, skim the fat and add a level tablespoon of flour and a deciliter (about 3 ½ ) of wine. Add broth and cover, cooking over low heat until done. Before removing from the fire, garnish with a pinch of chopped parsley; arrange on a serving dish and squeeze half a lemon over it. The result is an appetizing dish.
[Pellegrino Artusi, Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well]
(University of Toronto Press trans.). p. 209
[1]
See also
-
List of chicken dishes
-
List of French dishes
Notes
