FOOD NEWS
Poulet En Croûte Is The French Take On Chicken Pot Pie
BY AUTUMN SWIERS
While the French dish Poulet en Croûte ("crusted chicken") is similar to chicken pot pie, there are notable differences in ingredients and preparation between the two.
Unlike the chicken-broth-milk sauce that adds moisture to an American chicken pot pie, the moisture component in Poulet en Croûte comes from crème fraîche, white wine, and cognac.
Furthermore, the French version uses chunked chicken rather than shredded chicken and vegetables such as chopped tarragon, green olives, shallots, and button mushrooms.
Both dishes use puff pastry crust, but the puff for Poulet en Croûte is sometimes folded into a pocket with a decorative design rather than crimped into a tart-like pie structure.
Perhaps the most notable difference is that Poulet en Croûte is a double meat dish that uses both chicken and smoky sauteed lardons — the pancetta-esque French cured meat.