# Chicken chasseur

Chicken chasseur (lit. 'hunter's chicken', but unrelated to the British dish of that name) is a French dish, known in France as poulet chasseur, poulet à la chasseur or poulet sauté chasseur. It consists of fried chicken served hot, with sauce chasseur, which is based on mushrooms, onions or shallots, tomatoes and wine, and may also contain stock and various herbs.

## Etymology

Chasseur is the French for 'hunter', and sauce chasseur shares a multilingual connection with other cuisines. In The Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson writes that the phrase, meaning 'huntsmen-style', occurs in many languages: "Italians say alla cacciatora, Poles say bigos and the French chasseur." The term, according to Davidson, usually indicates the presence of forest mushrooms. The Dictionnaire de l'Académie française dates the term chasseur to the 12th century; the dictionary refers to its culinary use, but does not give any indication of when it was first used in that context. The earliest citation of the culinary use of the word in English given by the Oxford English Dictionary dates from the 1880s.

## History

In 1865, Bailey's Magazine recorded a dish of poulet à la chasseur served in a Parisian restaurant and costing the equivalent of half a guinea a head. In Le Figaro in 1870, Eugène Morand recorded a lunch eaten by a group of army officers at which—after two types of sausage, York and Bayonne ham, fried eggs, fillet steak, and macaroni with Parmesan—they concluded the savoury part of the meal with poulet à la chasseur ("Ah! quel plaisir d'être soldat!" (lit. 'Ah! What a pleasure to be a soldier'), commented Morand). The dish is mentioned in the American and British press during the later years of the 19th century.

## Ingredients

Chicken chasseur is prepared using sautéed chicken, served with a chasseur sauce. All the following writers specify chopped or sliced mushrooms, and shallots or other types of onion, but vary as to the other ingredients of the sauce. Most recipes call for the addition of herbs: the most frequently specified are parsley and tarragon; others are basil, bay leaf, chervil, and thyme.
| Writer | Onions | Tomatoes | Herbs | Alcohol | Stock | Other |
| Beck, Bertholle and Child | Shallots or green onions | Fresh tomatoes | Basil, parsley or tarragon | White wine or dry vermouth | Brown stock | Garlic |
| Paul Bocuse | Shallots | Fresh tomatoes | Bay leaf, tarragon, thyme, parsley | White wine | – | Celery leaves, garlic |
| La Mère Brazier | Shallots | Tomato purée | Chervil, parsley, tarragon | White wine | – | – |
| Robert Carrier | Onions | Fresh tomatoes | Tarragon and thyme | Dry white wine and brandy | Chicken stock | – |
| Louis Diat | Shallots | Tomato sauce | Parsley and tarragon | Dry white wine | Brown stock | – |
| Auguste Escoffier | Shallots | Tomato sauce | Parsley | Cognac and white wine | Demi-glace | – |
| Jane Grigson | Shallots | Tomato sauce | Chervil, parsley and tarragon | Dry white wine | Brown stock | – |
| Prosper Montagné | Shallot | Tomato sauce | Chervil, parsley and tarragon | White wine and brandy | Veal stock | – |
| Édouard de Pomiane | Small onions | – | – | White wine | – | Bacon |
| Stéphane Reynaud | Shallots | Fresh tomatoes | Bouquet garni, parsley, tarragon | White wine | – | Potatoes |
| Madame Saint-Ange | Shallots | Tomato paste | Chervil, parsley and tarragon | White wine | Beef stock | – |
| Louis Saulnier | Shallots | Fresh tomatoes | Parsley | White wine and brandy | Demi-glace | – |
| Anne Willan | Shallots | Tomato sauce or tomato paste | Parsley or tarragon | White wine | Brown stock | – |
A dish with the English name "hunter's chicken" exists, but is unrelated to chicken chasseur. It consists of skinless and boneless chicken breasts wrapped in bacon, baked, and covered with barbecue sauce and melted cheese.