Recipe #14 – Brouet d’allemaigne de char…

Scully’s title for this recipe is “To make a German Meat Broth of rabbit, chicken or of some other meat.”  I am not sure what makes this dish “German” but I found it to be very tasty. I used chicken and it combined nicely with the creamy almond milk, the spices and a sweetness of the cooked onions.

This is the original french recipe…

Pour faire brouet d’allemaigne de char, de connin, de poulaille. Avant soit despechie par pieches et suffrit avoec ognons menu hachiez ; prenez lait d’amandes grant foison, gingembre, canelle, nois muscades, graine et saffren et faictez tout boullir ensamble avoecques bon boullon et jettez par dessus vostre grain.

Scully translated this into…

 To make a German Meat Broth of rabbit, chicken or of some other meat. It should be cut up into pieces and sauteed with finely chopped onions; get a lot of almond milk, and ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, grains of paradise and saffron; boil everything together with good bouillon. Pour it over your meat.

Here is how I made the dish…

 

I gathered the ingredients listed in the recipe. I chose to use chicken breast as it is what I prefer and it was on sale at the store. The almond milk for the dish was homemade. I used the same method to make my almond milk as I did in THIS recipe. My almond milk was not as white as it usually would be as I did not let the almonds soak long enough to remove the color from the skins. I used store bought chicken broth as I forgot to thaw out the broth in my freezer.

 

 

 

 

Once all of the ingredients were accounted for it was time for the prep work. I had a giant white onion so I only used about half of it and chopped it finely. Then I cut the chicken into bite sized pieces. The onions and chicken were added to a pan with a little lard and cooked stirring frequently.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While the chicken and onions cooked I made the broth. Almond milk, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, grains of paradise, and saffron were added to a pot along with chicken broth and brought to a hard boil. I checked the spices after it had boiled a few minutes and chose to add a bit more ginger and grains of paradise. I also added some salt at this point as I realized that I had gotten low sodium chicken broth and it was a bit bland. I kept the broth boiling until it had reduced and thickened a little bit. This happened to be just about how long it took for the chicken to finish cooking as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To serve I put the meat and onions into a bowl and spooned the broth over it. When I added the broth I made sure to stir well just before to suspend the spices that had settled to the bottom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Verdict….

One of my favorites so far! The chicken was tender and juicy. The onions added just enough sweetness. The almond milk was creamy and rich. And the spices were just enough to bring good flavor without overwhelming the dish.
When I make this again I will be trying a mix of long pepper and grains of paradise. I enjoyed the earthiness of the grains but I would enjoy the kick from the long pepper as well.