Poulet poché sauce Suprême (Whole poached chicken served with a white creamy sauce)

Sauce suprême. Sounds hard. It’s not. It’s basically a velouté with cream. I already learned about velouté when I made Sole Dieppoise. All I needed now was cream.
After 40+ cups of stock lately, I feel like a pro, and that’s basically how this recipe starts. I put a whole chicken in a pot to poach, along with the regular aromatics (carrots, onion studded with clove, and a Bouquet Garni). The stock from the poaching is used in the sauce.

To start the sauce for the chicken, you make a blond roux, which is a butter and flour mixture cooked just long enough to eliminate the taste of raw flour without coloring the mixture. Then, the stock is added and cooked until smooth and flavorful. Finally, the cream is added and brought to a simmer. A bit of salt and pepper round out the sauce. Some Suprême sauces also have mushrooms, which I think would be a great addition.

Recipe

from Le Cordon Bleu at Home

For the chicken and stock:
1 4½ pound whole chicken
2 medium onions, each studded with a clove
about 2 carrots, chopped
1 Bouquet Garni
salt and pepper
water to cover

For the sauce:
2 tablespoons butter
¼ cup flour
2½ cups chicken stock
1 cup heavy cream
salt and pepper

In a large soup pot, put the chicken, onions, carrots, and Bouquet Garni. Cover with water. Bring to a simmer and skim. Simmer for about 1½ hours. Remove the chicken and tent while you make the sauce.

For the sauce, melt the butter. Add the flour and cook for 1-2 minutes. Slowly stir in the stock and whisk until smooth. Simmer for about 15 minutes. Then, slowly add the cream, and bring to a simmer. Simmer for another 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Tasting Notes
This is a basic dish for supper. I had to add a lot of salt and pepper to make this dish flavorful. Poached chicken, as well, doesn’t have much flavor, but the stock it poaches in does. This makes the sauce critical. Next time, I would like to try it with mushrooms.

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Running total: $408.23 + $22.96 = $431.19

Butter used so far: 4 pounds, 32 tablespoons