Castellar poulet à la florentine, or Castellar Chicken Florentine, is a dish from southern France that deliciously documents a history of Medieval trade wars and treaties in this corner of the Mediterranean. Don't worry, you don't need to know any of that to enjoy this meal brimming with summer flavours; the perfect balance of lightness and hearty satisfaction.
This is one of those dishes I often return to at this time of year when temperatures rise. It was first cooked for me in Provence by a friend originally from Castellar, a picturesque hilltop town in the Alpes-Maritimes overlooking the sea near the Italian border. So, no surprise that it's a combination of Italian influences and southern French traditions.
In the 13th century, the great Italian city states of Naples, Genoa and Florence were all competing for trade with Provence and the wider South of France. Despite Genoa being closer, the wily Florentines won out. To celebrate their trade deal with Florence, the merchants of Castellar created a version of a local chicken speciality "in the Florentine manner", or so the story goes.
This is a two-stage dish. It's perfectly fine to do the initial chicken "stew"—cooked on the hob rather than in the oven as with many similar dishes from the region— a day or two before. Simply store in a sealed container in the fridge before the final stages finished in the oven. Many argue that this actually enhances the flavours. The underlying chicken stew is very similar to Provençal cuisine in ingredients, but is finished with a decidedly Italian flourish. So, yes, very old fusion cooking from the Middle Ages...
Here, I'm using chicken breasts simply because I had a couple in the fridge that needed to be used. But, it's more often made with skinless, deboned chicken thigh fillets.
Quantities are for two diners. Scale up or down as needed. This one is also a great dish for the low or no-carb crowd because the only carbs in it are either optional accompaniments or easily picked off the final dish and not cooked into it.
Shopping list
for the chicken "stew"
2 boneless, skinless chicken thighs per diner (i.e. x 2). Alternatively, use 1 skinless chicken breast per diner
I large brown onion, roughly diced
3 or 4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced, NOT crushed or grated
1 large sweet red pepper, sliced
A handful of pitted green olives (only green, not black), sliced
Approx. 150g large closed cup white or chestnut mushrooms, thickly sliced
1 x 400g tin of whole, peeled Italian plum tomatoes in tomato juice
2 bay leaves
100g of thick-cut smoked bacon lardons; not pancetta and do not remove the fat
A glass of dry white wine
1 vegetable stock cube or jelly, diluted
a generous dash of olive oil
2 tbspns dried Hebes de Provence (thyme, marjoram, rosemary, oregano, savory, basil, tarragon)
A clutch of finely chopped fresh basil
A tspn of turmeric
Fresh lemon zest of approx. ½ a lemon
Salt and pepper to taste
for the Florentine flair
2 tbspns unsalted butter
2.5 heaped tbspns sifted plain flour
Approx. 200ml milk
2 or 3 cloves,
4 tbspns of grated hard cheese of preference (I prefer Comté, but any mature hard cheese works well. You can also simply leave the cheese out)
3 tbspns of single cream (optional; use slightly less milk if using the cream)
salt and pepper to taste
2 eggs (one egg per diner if you're scaling it up)
300g of baby leaf fresh spinach steamed/wilted and drained
accompaniments
Rustic bread of choice
Salad ingredients of choice—in this case I'm keeping it "regional"; mixed leaves, sliced raw onion, chopped sweet peppers, cherry tomatoes, sliced radishes, small bitter oranges and small capers etc. Choose what works for you as a salad. It's also great with steamed green beans.
A little extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar or a good old-fashioned vinaigrette
Cooking Method
the chicken "stew"
Season the chicken thighs (or breasts) with a smidgen of olive oil, salt and pepper and the finely chopped fresh basil. Place to one side while you start the dish
In a saucepan (ideally a large, reasonably shallow one with a lid; a pot in which the ingredients have "room to move") heat a generous dash of olive oil on a medium heat, rolling the pot, ensuring it coats the entire bottom surface. Add the sliced garlic, cover and sweat for about 4 to 5 min, stirring if needed
Add the onions and mix in with the garlic. Cover and sweat both. You don't want to brown the onions and garlic, only to soften them. Once they begin to soften, add the sliced sweet pepper. Stir, cover and allow to sweat for a further 4 to 5 mins
Push the ingredients towards the edges of the pot. Place the chicken thighs/breasts in the centre, cooking on one side for 5 mins. Garnish with a bit more black pepper and turn onto the other side and allow it to cook for about 4 to 5 mins
While the second sides of the chicken are cooking, add the bacon lardons and stir to ensure they seal properly. Then pour in the white wine. Allow it to bubble and simmer off without moving the chicken
Add the bay leaves, turmeric and sliced olives on top of the chicken and place the sliced mushrooms around the edge of the pot. Sprinkle the herbes de Provence and lemon zest throughout the pot. Cover and simmer for 4 to 5 mins
Once the the liquid has boiled off—stir with a spatula to prevent sticking if necessary—spoon the whole plum tomatoes into the pot, placing them towards the edge. Add the stock cube/jelly to the tomato tin with the remaining tomato juice and dilute with boiling water. Gently add this mixture to the pot. Add a little more (or reduce the liquid you add) to ensure that the ingredients are barely covered by the liquid
Turn up the heat, cover and boil for 4 to 5 mins. Then stir gently (don't break up the whole tomatoes or mushroom slices), re-cover and reduce the heat
Simmer on a low heat, allowing the liquid to slowly reduce. You can do this on a slightly higher heat in about 1 hour if you're pressed for time. But, like all such dishes "slower at lower" is better. Remember, this is chicken and bacon, so don't go for the full "whole day" approach that a lot of Italian beef dishes use unless you want a thick soup. I recommend the ideal is cooking it slowly over about 2.5 hours, stirring occasionally being careful to not break up the tomatoes or chicken, though a natural degree of "flaking" will happen, which is fine. The sauce will reduce naturally, but if it has still not sufficiently thickened by the time you need to decant to the oven dish, use my favourite trick and reduce by grating in a chunk of dark (i.e. min 70% cacao fat) chocolate while stirring
Remove from the heat and rest for at least 10 mins before transferring to an ovenproof dish. (Alternatively, cool and store in the fridge until ready for the oven finishing stage)
the other sauce
Pretty much the same as a béchamel or Mornay sauce, start by heating the butter on a high heat in a small saucepan
When it begins to bubble, reduce to a medium heat, chuck in the sifted flour and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon to create the roux. Then, a bit at a time, pour in the milk, constantly stirring, until you eradicate any lumps and the mixture begins to thicken. Repeat the process of adding milk and thickening the sauce
Once you have added about half of the milk, season with salt and pepper and throw in the preferred cheese, again stirring vigorously to get rid of any lumps
Repeat until you have used all of the milk (or added the single cream in the later stages) and achieved the desired, thickened consistency
Remove from the heat and allow to cool
The Florentine finish
Place the chicken thighs/breasts towards the centre of a reasonably deep ovenproof dish. Spoon the remainder of the stew into the dish
Gently spoon the drained spinach into the dish, covering the stew, so that it, in turn, it is also evenly distributed
Pour over the white/cheese sauce so that it covers the contents of the dish evenly. Ensure it covers the spinach: this is at most risk of burning in the oven during the final stage. Note, it's highly likely that you will not need all of the white sauce. Don't overdo it. The excess will keep well in a sealed container the fridge for up to week and can be used with other dishes
Using something firm such as a standard dining fork or spoon, create the relevant number of "wells", clearing a deep indent in the contents of the ingredients. If these indents as not deep enough, the raw eggs as simply likely to slide off the surface of the dish when you move it to the oven. Gently break the raw eggs into these fairly evenly spaced "wells". Sprinkle a little additional grated cheese (optional)
Place into a pre-heated hot oven at 250°C/480°F/Gas Mark 9. Bake for about 15 to 20 min or until the eggs are fully cooked and the surface has turned golden
Allow to cool for 5 to 10 mins. Plate the salad (or prepare in a salad bowl) and take to table to allow diners to serve themselves accompanied by rustic bread
Pairings
The overarching aspect of this dish is its fresh, summery flavours, so, really anything that works with that. Traditionally I serve it with a rosé, but seeing as today's outing was a bit make-do-and-mend, it worked very well with a supermarket Sicilian Catarratto I'd never heard of before. Knock yourselves out.
Alternatives
Make a great veggie version by simply leaving out the chicken and bacon lardons and increasing the quantity of mushrooms and plums tomatoes. Complete steps 1 to 8 of the "stew", then add either Quorn or tofu and cook the dish as above. But, do NOT add either Quorn or tofu too early in this "slow cook" dish: you'll end up with sludge
If you're lactose-intolerant, you can completely leave out the béchamel/white sauce altogether. Instead of layering the spinach over the chicken "stew", mix it in with it (otherwise it will burn in the oven baking stage) and gently break the eggs on top of this. It's slightly different, but equally delicious. I can vouch for it: I've done it often when I couldn't be buggered to make the béchamel
Forget Florence. A bit like the option above. It's very easy to see how the evolution of this dish was by adding the "Florentine style" of the spinach, béchamel and eggs to a, no doubt, older regional one-pot chicken dish. I often simply stopping cooking at the point that the delicious chicken stew is ready and serve with salad, bread or white and wild rice cooked together
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