Waterzooi recipe

A Ghent chicken broth bound off the heat with egg yolks and cream, poured over julienned vegetables rather than thickened with flour.

1 hour and 20 minutesmedium12 ingredients

Ingredients

• 3 egg yolks
• 200 ml heavy cream
• 4 chicken
• 2 leeks
• 4 carrots
• 1 celeriac
• 4 potatoes
• 1200 ml chicken broth
• 50 g butter
• 1 bunch fresh parsley
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp salt

How to make Waterzooi

1. Cut 4 carrots, 2 leeks and half a celeriac into fine matchsticks about 5 cm long; the julienne is part of how the dish looks and eats.
2. Melt 50 g of butter in a large pot and sweat the vegetables gently for 10 minutes without colouring them.
3. Lay 4 chicken thighs or a jointed chicken on top, add 1.2 litres of chicken broth, 2 bay leaves and 1 teaspoon of salt, and poach at a bare simmer for 40 minutes. Do not brown the chicken first; this is a pale, delicate broth.
4. Add 4 peeled potatoes cut into chunks for the last 20 minutes.
5. Lift out the chicken, pull the meat off the bones in large pieces and keep it warm.
6. Whisk 3 egg yolks with 200 ml of heavy cream in a bowl.
7. Ladle in 2 ladlefuls of hot broth one at a time, whisking constantly, to temper the yolks.
8. Take the pot completely off the heat and stir the liaison back in. It must not boil again or the yolks will scramble and the broth will split.
9. Return the chicken, scatter with chopped parsley and serve in deep bowls with bread.

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