Fricassee is a French way of cooking that simply means the meat is sauteed and braised. Gordon Ramsay’s Chicken Fricassee is really easy to cook, and takes 15-20 minutes, including preparation time! The dish looks dowdy, but it is surprisingly tasty.

ps: I don’t use measurements; I agar agar throw ingredients in by instincts. And if I can’t find a certain ingredient, I’ll substitute it with another. Home cooking is supposed to be easy!

Ingredients
Chicken pieces (I used chicken breast)
Chicken stock
Chestnut Mushrooms (halved. I used Shiitake)
Garlic (smashed cloves, don’t need to chop)
Pancetta (diced. I used generic back bacon)
Fresh Thyme (I found fresh thyme but bottled dried thyme is fine)
Fresh Bay Leaves (I used dried bottled ones)
Fresh Rosemary (I used dried bottled ones)
Fresh Parsley (My supermarket ran out, so I used coriander)
Cognac (I didn’t use this)
Olive Oil (I stopped using olive oil; I am using coconut oil these days.)
Butter (optional)
Salt & Pepper

1. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Heat pan with olive oil on medium heat. Brown both sides of chicken. (3-4 minutes per side.)

2. As your chicken is browning, use the time to chop other ingredients. When you finish cutting each ingredient, just throw it in. The order is not important. Throw in diced bacon, thyme, bay leaves, rosemary, mushroom, and smashed garlic.

3. (Optional) Slide in pats of butter by the side. Ramsay didn’t do this but I figure that it’s a French dish and French use lots of butter in their food.

4. (Optional) When both sides of chicken are browned and ingredients thrown in, add cognac and flambe. (I didn’t do this because I couldn’t find a small bottle of cognac.)

5. Add chicken stock until it covers the chicken. Bring to a boil, and then simmer for 10 minutes, or until the stock is reduced to 1/4. DONE! (Note: when simmering, you can cover the pan partially, but leave a gap so that steam can escape. If not, your stock will never reduce.)

6. Add parsley to garnish. (I used coriander. Parsley and coriander look the same, so they must taste the same, right? HAHA.) Add salt and pepper to taste. (CAUTION: the bacon is already salty. So taste the dish before you add salt.)

You may want to serve with sauteed potatoes, or even rice. I ate it with toasted bread.

Here’s the Gordon Ramsey’s video. Start from 14:20:

Written by A. Nathanael Ho.