I ended up having this insatiable craving to have dressing this past weekend, despite the fact that I had not planned on having a traditional Thanksgiving meal. For me, the feast is not totally translatable here, without the rest of my family, and besides I was busy with the ultimate 
wine salon. But by Saturday, the overwhelming desire for dressing won out!
If I was going to make dressing, then I had to find a bird! I had resolved several years ago, to not eat any poultry that did not live a happier free range life. I feel guilty enough eating what little meat I do, so being the appreciative carnivore that I am, I decided on one of the most renown and sought out birds in France; the Poulet de Bresse, which is perfect for two!
These royal plumed beauties are the only poultry in France that has ever received an Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée, or AOC. These pampered poultry are chickens, poulardes, capons, and turkeys that all have very strict rules in raising them.
They all must have been born and raised on completely free range farms from a limited area around Bourg en Bresse, which is slightly west of southern Burgundy in the department of Ain, near the Swiss border and Geneva.
Farms must allot enough land to ensure at least 10 square meters of land per chicken. In addition to diet of pecking ab lib, they are given grains, along with milk and buttermilk, that all must come exclusively from Bresse.
The only time they are restricted is the last few weeks of their life to ensure a fattening up period. This ensures that they will have a very tender texture, that literally almost melts in your mouth. The flavour has a finesse not found in other breeds; an exquisite sweetness of the finest chicken that must be tasted in order to fully appreciate the difference.
Generally they are only found in high end poultry and butcher shops in Paris. Where as, when I lived briefly in a small village near Bresse, I would see them for sale in the open markets, because it is after all their local pride and joy!
I was happy to discover that in my own arrondissement , Boucherie du Square as seen in the photo, specialises in AOC poultry from Bresse. The birds have a lovely snow white plumage , with a very red crete or comb and blue feet. Perfect tricolour of the French flag!
All of this gustatory pleasure though, comes with a hefty price , selling for around 20 euros a kilo. Unfortunately the whole uncleaned chicken, head, feet and all is weighed to determine the price, before the butcher trims it up for you.
As Monsieur Le Bourdais was busily preparing my treasured bird for the roasting pan, he took great pride in telling me that all his AOC poultry de Bresse, arrives weekly from the area and must be authenticated with the tricolour badge, and the farmer’s name band.
He was especially proud and rightfully so, of being selected to be on the jury that determines the very best birds during a festival in Bourg en Bresse, where the acclaimed poultry are wildly celebrated with much fanfare close to Noel.
After paying 41 euros for the gustatory honour of serving one on my holiday table; believe me, I took great care in roasting it to perfection. With only some onion, fresh parsley and sprigs of thyme tucked in the vent, it was started in a cold oven, as recommended at 120C( 250F) for 30 minutes , then raised the temperature to 180C(350F) till done, so as to not initially “seize” the delicate flesh.
With other free range chickens, I have generally started them in a hot 180C oven with excellent results, so I might try this cold start method to see if I prefer it exclusively. Most important, is not to overcook them!
Basting with melted butter, madera and a little Armagnac, every 15 minutes, it became a lovely golden brown towards the end. By that time, the glorious aroma had overtaken the apartment making us all salivate.
It is essential to let the chicken rest for approximately 20 so minutes after you take it out of the oven, to allow the juices to recede back into the flesh. The rich pan juices are deglazed with a little of my own chicken stock that I had made for the dressing, and after the the seasoning is rectified, it is ready to serve.
For the two of us, I was able to get three meals out of it, and last night alone, I savoured the lightly grilled gizzards and liver medium rare, served with the last of the pan juices. Accompanied by a julienne of celery root, red onions and a smidgen of chopped mountain ham, the left over meal, however modest was wonderful!
Out of respect for the sacrificed animal and in light of the cost, nothing is put to waste! I made some more chicken stock, which I am in the habit of routinely doing anyway with all leftover chicken carcases. Leftover skin was grilled till it was crackling brown, as seen in photo, making for a a good snack.
My dressing was a pure southern rendition of cornbread dressing that I grew up with, but with a French twist. Adding chopped Montbéliards sausages and a few roasted chestnuts takes an ordinary cornbread dressing to new dimensions.
Montbéliards and the larger Morteau, which are IGP( Indications Geographiques Protagée), are perhaps the most wonderful sausages in the whole world, coming from the Jura area of France . These delicious sausages, and like the Bresse chickens, have strict laws concerning making and smoking them in special farm chimneys.
Since I hadn’t planned on bringing my cartons of wine home from the salon till Monday, I fortunately still had one lovely bottle of 2009 Saint Émilion left in my cave. This very perfumed wine went beautiful with the absolutely sublime roasted poulet de Bresse, sautéed fresh brussels sprouts, and my marvellous smokey and nutty dressing.
Pecan pie had likewise been on my mind , but since I did not make it up to Rue Tiquetonne, to buy my pecans at G. Detou, I had to quickly change my dessert plans to a chestnut cake that went far beyond fantastic.
Since I already had chestnuts and chestnut flour, I was ready to go. The recipe is from Rose Beranbaum, a wonderfully gifted American baker and cookbook author.
I find her recipes for genoise cakes practically foolproof, as the chestnut genoise proved to be. I do reduce the amount of sugar called for in the cakes and fillings, as I find Americans continually to over sugar their cakes and pastries way too much.
Cut in half, the genoise layers are imbibed with rum syrup and filled with a chestnut mousse cream. The chestnut mousse is simply slightly sweetened chestnut puree folded into plain whipped cream.
I added chocolate bands around the circumference of the cake for a little chocolate tease, as chocolate, chestnuts and whipped cream, make for a perfect marriage of flavours. Not having any candied chestnuts on hands, I dipped some chestnuts in caramelised sugar for the decoration of top.
Pretty to look at, but what is important, is was absolutely fabulous and luscious on the tongue. So, even though I did not have all the trimmings of a traditional Thanksgiving meal, it made for glorious autumn feast and delicious leftovers!
Oh my goodness…all sounds fabulous. I can picture you two at your
candlelit autumn feast. Would have loved to share your wonderful feast
and celebrated with two of the most genuine and dearest of friends.
Please keep me posted of your next visit to the states.
Thank you Anne! I wish you could have flown over, especially for the wine salon, which I hope some day you will attend with me! The feast was mostly last minute planned, but the bird and the cake made it great! Of course there were many candles lit, as I just can’t really enjoy my meal to the fullest without them. Ditto for wines!
I can only imagine the incredible Thanksgivings you must with all the kids au table! That is the way it should be! Hugs to you both.
Cherry, you have a knack for being so descriptive about the things that you write about. It sounds as though you had a sumptueously delicious Thanksgiving meal, with a little Parisian “twists” to it all; it all sounds so delectably delicious, esp. in comparison to my retiree “house-husband” cooking efforts . . . . LOL.
One of my wife, June’s, ideosycrocies is that she can only cook in strict accordance with a recipe; whereas I take the basics of a recipe andjust ad lib with whatever we happen to have in the pantry or refrigerator. I think that there has only been one meal that might have turned out to be a little questionable in taste . . . Ha! I tend to use almost the same ingrediants for most of what we cook. Your culinary skills are certainly light years beyond what I cook.
Gosh, 41 Euros ($55.00) for a bird? A few days ago on NPR – National Public Radio,they had a program about a couple of guys attempts to raise wild geese to produce a rather exotic pate . . . they finally gave up after the fourth year. It was a rather complex procedure to raising them “in the wild”; and one could not even touch the hachlings,the scent from the human skin oils transferred in the handling of the hacklings had some type of detrimental impact on them . . . a little amazing to say the least. So, under the circumstances, I guess that the 41 Euro birds are understandable.
having been raised as a southern guy on a lot of fried foods, I just don’t have the developed palete for a lot of the finer cusine, esp. French cusine. In thirty years of marriage, June has never fried ANY type of foods. And over the years, we have slowly reduced our eating of red meats. In south Florida we have an abundance of Cuban and Latino cusine which contain a lot of red meats; but we do limit our consumption of most of that. Also, our use of cooking oils is mostly restricted to the use of quality, virgin olive oils which are supposed to be a lot more healthful; but we use a little real butter occassionally to enhance the tastes of some foods.
Your Thanksgiving meal was almost indescribably delicious; but you did a terrific job od describing it so well (but I don’t think you mentioned the size/weight of the bird). You must have had a lot of influence on your son becoming a chef.
Since June works nine and a half hours a day, I try to do most of the cooking, such as it is . . . Ha! Cooking for just the two of us is not a big deal; we are rather light eaters, and generally have rather simple meals, mostly vegitarian with a small amount of fish or fowl, and occassionally a little red meat; but not too often. In time, someday, I might manage to advance to something akin to your more exotic recipes. Frankly, I don’t mind, and somewhat enjoy doing a little cooking; but probably need to develop an appreciation for finer cooking. The extent of my baking includes throwing in different types of chopped up nuts . . . pecans, pistachios, almonds, cashews . . . and cinimon, and a few other spices into pies, and pastries; thatis about the extent of my ad libbing recipes; but it is a lot more than June does . . . Ha! Cooking and baking can be enjoyable in some ways . . . I certainly don’t mind it; maybe some day I can try some of your more developed recipes.
It sounds as though you and your daughter had a very delectable Parisian style American Thanksgiving meal. It just makes me think that perhaps I should try to cook some of these more developed recipes and types of meals that you describe . . . don’t know if I will ever develop the knack for that though . . . Ha!
Wish you the best for the holiday season.
Thank you David for your comment! Sounds like you are a very creative cook, who likes to play with different flavours. Virgin olive oils and good butters are essential in my kitchen too. My favourite oils are from Crete, and the south of France! June is lucky to have a lovely meal waiting for her at the end of her day . I would love that too! The most important thing is to use best fresh ingredients you can find seasonally and make it with love!
I could rant on and on about importance of using real foods, and staying away from anything prepared and processed, which I have always felt hazardous to our health.
Setting a special time to share your foods with family and kids, in a lovely setting is likewise very important in creating intimacy. As I have said many times before, it was de rigueur in my home, no excuses allowed!
Well Cherry,I don’t think that you could classify me as being anywhere near to being a “creative cook”. . . . Ha! I just get the gist of the recipe and then ad libit with whatever is in the pantry or refrigerator. June is somewhat of a fanatic against “processed foods” of any type. Having not had the perhaps arduous tasks of cooking for a family to 40+ years, my dabbling in cooking just provides something different to do. Unfortunately, we, esp. June, are rather light eaters; and June, at best, only samples a little of any pastries or pies that I bake occassionally. Sometimes I give half of it away to the in-laws or the kids. It’s a little difficult to cook for “one and a quarter persons” (June being the 1/4) . . . Ha!.
The fresh foods that you get in Paris at the street markets are enviable. We have a few fresh markets;and Whole Foods stores; but one has to drive to all of them. (Of course we have to drive to get to almost anywhere from out in the subburbs . . . a twenty or thirty minue drive is just a short trip across town to us.) We occassionally make trips to a couple of the U-Pick-Em farms in NW and SW Miami-Dade County and a few other places.
I’m finally getting around to palnting my small garden plots in the (sic. small) rear and side part of our yard; and we’ll have our own “fresh vegetables” for a while . . . that is IF the squirrels and birds that I feed daily don’t eat it all. It is an enjoyable past time having a couple of garden plots; and there are plants that grow almost year round in south Florida, except during the heat of July and August when it is all desvestated by the summer heat . . . it just wilts during that time.
Finding ways to enjoy this third-third of life can seem to be challenging at times; and a little gardening and cooking can be interesting and satisfying in some ways . . . at least it is a little different fromwhat I used to do. Your descriptions of your French market shopping and cooking is a little “inspiring” to try to emulate a little of that. It sounds enjoyable to walk or stroll to the street markets every day or so for fresh foods. Your Parisian life style appears to be rather appealing, and perhaps a little envious in many ways. (But south Florida is awfully nice in its own ways too.)
It is refreshingly nice of you to share your experiences with everyone on your blog.