French Chicken with Mustard - POULET À LA MOUTARDE
Back in the day, when I lived in Paris..
Back in the day, when I lived in Paris for a few months for work, I used to love taking the train from Gare de Lyon to Deauville-Trouville and then the bus to Honfleur. My friend lived there, she'd just finished Le Cordon Bleu and was working as a trainee in one of the fancy restaurants... and Honfleur, even though it's a tiny town, has many great restaurants and brasseries. Every Saturday there was a market in the main square, "place Sainte Catherine", right next to the cathedral of the same name... The oysters were 50 cents each, the muscles were almost free, and you could practically go to that market and have a hearty breakfast for free, just by sampling the cheeses, fruit, charcuterie and pastries. You could also get quite tipsy as the farmers were more than happy to give away samples of their cider! But we didn't do that... almost never.
This dish is the memory of those days - my friend cooked the whole pot of it when I and some of her friends arrived to celebrate her birthday. It was winter, off-season, cold winds from the sea, and she cooked something to warm us up after the road, very traditional for Normandy, poulet à la moutarde.
Ingredients:
4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs and 5 drumsticks
1 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Black pepper
1/2 tsp Sweet Paprika
3 tbsp Dijon Mustard
2 Shallots
Few sprigs of thyme
1 bay leaf
2 tbsp Butter
1 cup Dry White Wine
1/2 cup Chicken stock
4 tbsp Crème fraîche or sour cream
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
Parsley
Kitchen utensils: large heavy-bottomed pan, spatula, chopping board, knife, large bowl, plate and serving platter.