Fricassee De Volaille Au Gamay De La Cote Roannaise

Ingredients
1 x 1.5 kg Chicken
100 grams continental Smoked Bacon (Kaiserfleisch)
250 ml Red Wine (try to use a Cote de Rhone)
15 cloves Garlic unpeeled
1 tablespoon Tomato Paste
50 ml Chicken Blood to bind the sauce (if possible)
Bouquet Garni (Parsley Stalks Thyme Bay Leaf)
Salt And Pepper
40 grams Butter
4 Leeks white part only to garnish

Method

Cut the chicken into eight casseroling pieces. Season them with salt and pepper.

Cut the kaiserfleisch into bite-sized pieces, blanch the pieces and drain and set aside. Slice the leeks finely.

In the base of a cast-iron skillet or casserole, melt 10 grams butter and saute the kaiserfleisch pieces until crisp. Remove from the pan, add a further 30 grams of butter and saute the chicken pieces, skin side down first, until a golden brown on all sides. Add the garlic, unpeeled, cover the pan and let cook slowly for 20 minutes. Take off the lid and pour out the grease from the pan carefully, then deglaze the pan with the red wine, the tomato paste and the bouquet garni. Cover again for a further 10 minutes, then remove the chicken pieces to a serving plate. Pass the sauce through a chinois or other fine sieve, pressing strongly to extract all the juices from the garlic. This fine puree will add thickeness to the sauce, as well as giving it flavour. The blood is the final touch to bind the sauce, but the dish can be made without blood if it is unobtainable. Instead you can bind with a little more butter (about 30 grams). Note: add blood only at the last moment, preferably off the stove, for high heat makes it coagulate and add grittiness rather than a simple liaison effect to the sauce.

To garnish:

in a separate pan, melt about 40 grams butter, add the bacon pieces from the above dish and then the leeks. Sweat (i.e. cook slowly, covered) for about 20 minutes without allowing any colouration to take place. A tiny bit of water may be added to prevent catching.