Ask any Luxembourger, young or old – everybody loves a Bouchée à la Reine! A buttery vol-au-vent pastry filled with a creamy chicken and mushroom ragout. Traditionally,
veal sweetbreads were added to the filling, but these days, the recipe is most often limited to chicken.
This recipe was filmed as part of my ‘Tastes of Luxembourg’ series for RTL Today. You can watch it here on RTL Play.
For the chicken:
1 chicken (1.3kg)
2 chicken legs
1 carrot
1 onion, peeled
1 leek
2 bay leaves
1 tsp black peppercorns
3 cloves
¼ lemon
100ml white wine
1 tsp salt
For the sauce:
500g mushrooms
120g butter
250ml white wine
100g flour
250ml cream
juice of ½ lemon
a pinch of nutmeg
salt and pepper
8 vol-au-vent puff pastries
To serve:
chopped parsley
potato chips or rice
Serves 8
Put the chicken and legs in a saucepan with cold water and bring to the boil, skimming off any scum.
Add the carrot, onion, leek, bay leaves, peppercorns, cloves, lemon, white wine and salt. Cover and cook for 1 ½ hours until the meat is really tender and falling off the bone.
Take the chicken out of the broth and set aside to cool for about 15 minutes.
Pour the chicken stock through a sieve and set aside (you will need some for the sauce).
While the chicken is cooling, slice the mushrooms. Fry the mushrooms in 30g of butter with a pinch of salt until the juices are released, then add 100ml of wine.
Cook for about 10 minutes on a high heat until all the liquid has evaporated and the mushrooms have browned. Transfer into a bowl and set aside.
Once the chicken is cool enough to handle, take off the skin and discard. Pull the meat off the bones, shredding it into bite-sized pieces. Set aside.
In a large saucepan, melt 90g of butter and add the flour. Fry on a medium heat for 5 minutes until it begins to turn golden and fragrant.
Add the remaining 150ml of wine followed by 1.1l of the chicken stock while stirring constantly. Bring back to the boil between additions, so that it thickens and you get a smooth sauce.
Add the cream and bring back to the boil, leave to cook for 5 minutes on a medium heat, while stirring constantly.
After 5 minutes, add the chicken and the mushrooms and cook for another 5 minutes. Adjust the seasoning with salt, pepper and lemon juice.
While the sauce is cooking, put the vol-au-vent puff pastries into a 120°C fan oven and warm through for 10 minutes.
Cut open the lids of the vol-au-vent puff pastries, place on 8 plates and fill each pastry generously with the chicken ragout, then top with a pastry lid.
Sprinkle with parsley and serve with chips or rice.
