The Long French Lunch and Poulet Nomade ~ Nomad’s Chicken (Herb Poached Chicken in a Jar)

~ The Long French Lunch ~

Poulet Nomade ~ Nomad’s Chicken

(Herb Poached Chicken in a Jar)

Yes, it’s still raining, even in France where I am now for the summer……each day brings more shades of grey, and different levels of drizzle and dampness…….We’ve had ONE sunny day, when I had the picnic at the bottom of the garden, and enjoyed a Pan Bagnat for lunch…..and there is still the need for duvets on the bed! But, if there is one thing that I can still enjoy, it’s the Long French Lunch, albeit inside and at the kitchen table.  The Long French Lunch……the first one I enjoyed in France was about 8 or 9 years ago, we met some friends for lunch at a little port village called Port Maubert, and the restaurant in question was L’Écluse; a fabulous unpretentious restaurant specialising in seafood and fish, especially caviar and sturgeon caught in the Gironde estuary, on which the port sits. We met our friends at Midday; we being me and my husband and my parents who were visiting us from England. We were a large party of 14, and we rather took over the outside terrace, sitting at an assortment of odd-shaped tables pushed together on the wooden decking and right by the estuary. We had aperitifs for an hour whilst we pondered over the menu ~ which is simply de rigueur in France!

The Long French Lunch and Poulet Nomade ~ Nomad’s Chicken (Herb Poached Chicken in a Jar)

The menu at the time, as I remember it, offered three or four appetisers, three main course options as well as a cheese board and choice of three or four desserts…..so not a huge amount to choose from but enough to need two or three Pastis to make the correct culinary decisions! They were famous for their seafood buffet as one of the appetiser options ~ an amazing array of fresh seafood including oysters, mussels, clams, razer clams, prawns, whelks, cockles and also roll-mop herrings too. I chose the buffet option followed by the fish of day, which was fresh sturgeon cooked over wood and was absolutely delectable ~ served simply with a huge baked potato and a slab of local salted butter. The cheeseboard was something to behold ~ an enormous wooden plank that was the size of a ship’s rudder, on which there were at least TWENTY types of French cheese…….and bizarrely nestled amongst the cheese were tiny plastic goats and cows ~ they looked like they had been stolen from a child’s toy farmyard set and they set me off laughing hysterically ~ just the sight of assorted plastic goats mounting a slab of artisan Chèvre and stumbling over a wedge of Camembert was just too much to take ~ or maybe I was just a little giddy due to the pastis and wine?

The Long French Lunch and Poulet Nomade ~ Nomad’s Chicken (Herb Poached Chicken in a Jar)

Each course was beautifully cooked and presented and the whole lunch took us FOUR hours……..absolute bliss ~ no waiters hovering around and breathing down your neck, nobody constantly asking “if everything is okay” even though you know they couldn’t care less half the time and all they want is your table……just simple, old-fashioned hospitality with really amazing local, freshly cooked food ~ and served with quiet efficiency. Anyway enough about that for now, I decided to cook the following recipe today, as per my meal plan on Monday, it’s a chicken dish, as I bought a rather enticing Red Label chicken yesterday, and my plan is that whilst the weather continues to be foul, or should I say fowl (sorry!) we are going to enjoy a Long French Lunch at home……

The Long French Lunch and Poulet Nomade ~ Nomad’s Chicken (Herb Poached Chicken in a Jar)

This recipe for potted chicken ~ Nomad’s chicken, is JUST fabulous; I found this recipe in a French magazine, (Femme Actuelle) whilst waiting in the doctor’s surgery, and yes I did tear the page out of the magazine ~ but I did ask!  It’s such a great idea for portable chicken, hence its name. Chicken breasts are poached in a court-bouillon broth with garlic and thyme; the chicken is then mixed with fresh chèvre (goat’s cheese) and artichokes and is popped into a kilner jar with a little flavoured oil. Eh voila! It is ready to pack into a hamper for a picnic. C’est parfait! Serve this wonderful moist chicken salad mixture with crusty baguette or artisan bread, using the flavoured oil for dipping and dunking. This can be stored once cooked in the fridge for 1 to 2 days. (In the sealed kilner jar.) If you have fresh artichokes available, use them in preference to tinned ones.

The Long French Lunch and Poulet Nomade ~ Nomad’s Chicken (Herb Poached Chicken in a Jar)

I served this for lunch today at the kitchen table ~ it’s raining again as I mentioned before, so no chance of an “al fresco” meal. We ate it with crusty baguette, fresh tomatoes and spring onion, and by the way, we DID eat this in the manner of a Long French Lunch, with wooden serving platters and glasses of chilled Chardonnay, almost like an indoor picnic ~ with no sense of urgency, I hope you enjoy this recipe if you try it……….a bientôt! Karen. 

Poulet Nomade ~ Nomad’s Chicken (Herb Poached Chicken in a Jar)

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Serves	3 to 4
Prep time	5 minutes
Cook time	45 minutes
Total time	50 minutes
Allergy	Tree Nuts
Meal type	Appetizer, Lunch, Side Dish, Snack, Starter
Misc	Gourmet, Pre-preparable, Serve Cold
Occasion	Barbecue, Birthday Party, Casual Party, Easter, Valentines day
Region	French
By author	Karen S Burns-Booth

This is such a great idea for portable chicken, hence its name. Chicken breasts are poached in a court-bouillon broth with garlic and thyme; the chicken is then mixed with fresh chèvre (goat’s cheese) and artichokes and is popped into a kilner jar with a little flavoured oil. Eh voila! It is ready to pack into a hamper for a picnic. C’est parfait! Serve this wonderful moist chicken salad mixture with crusty baguette or artisan bread, using the flavoured oil for dipping and dunking. This can be stored once cooked in the fridge for 1 to 2 days. (In the sealed kilner jar.) If you have fresh artichokes available, use them in preference to tinned ones.

Ingredients

• 800g chicken breasts, skinned and boned
• 80g almonds, slivered and toasted
• 4 tinned/canned artichoke hearts, diced
• salt, to taste
• fresh ground black pepper, to taste
• 1 - 2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
• fresh thyme (2 sprigs)
• 150g fresh goat's cheese (NO rind)
• 250ml white wine (optional)
• 1 litre water
• 1 vegetable stock cube (court-bouillon cube)
• 2 tablespoons pumpkin oil or 2 tablespoons olive oil

Note

This is such a great idea for portable chicken, hence its name. Chicken breasts are poached in a court-bouillon broth with garlic and thyme; the chicken is then mixed with fresh chèvre (goat’s cheese) and artichokes and is popped into a kilner jar with a little flavoured oil. Eh voila! It is ready to pack into a hamper for a picnic. C’est parfait! Serve this wonderful moist chicken salad mixture with crusty baguette or artisan bread, using the flavoured oil for dipping and dunking. This can be stored once cooked in the fridge for 1 to 2 days. (In the sealed kilner jar.) If you have fresh artichokes available, use them in preference to tinned ones.

Directions

Step 1	Gently poach the chicken breasts in a saucepan with the water, into which the court-bouillon cube has been dissolved. Poach them over a low to medium heat for 12 to 15 minutes, then turn off the heat, cover the saucepan with a lid and allow to cool in the liquid for about 30 to 45 minutes. (You can add a little white wine to the water if you wish, reduce the water to 750ml and add 250ml of white wine)
Step 2	Once cool enough to handle, drain and cut the chicken into small bite sized pieces. In a bowl, crush the fresh chèvre (goat's cheese) with a fork, until roughly crumbled with the leaves from the fresh thyme sprigs. Add the black pepper, salt and garlic to taste. Mix gently, then add the chicken pieces and then the chopped artichoke hearts and the toasted slivered almonds. Mix gently before adding the oil - then decant the chicken salad into a clean/sterilised glass jar, such as a kilner jar, which has an airtight lid.
Step 3	Seal with the lid before storing in the fridge until needed, for up to 1 to 2 days. Turn the jar upside down a few times throughout the day making sure that the oil covers the chicken.
Step 4	Serve at the table from the jar or on a picnic with plenty of paper napkins and crusty, rustic bread! Salad leaves would also be a great addition to this chicken salad.

The Long French Lunch and Poulet Nomade ~ Nomad’s Chicken (Herb Poached Chicken in a Jar)

Have you ever enjoyed a Long French Lunch?

If so, was it in France or at home for Sunday Lunch?