Bobby Short’s Carlyle Chicken Hash

This recipe takes a nursery-food staple of the sort that both high American WASPs and low British aristocrats popularized in the middle of the last century and outfits it with culinary pearls and diamonds: foie gras and truffles. (We’ll cheat and use foie gras mousse and a dash of fake truffle oil.) It must have pleased the man whose name sits above it on the menu at the Café Carlyle: Bobby Short, the elegant saloon singer and pianist who did more than 35 years in the room. You can imagine him eating a plate of it, wiping his lips carefully with a starched and heavy napkin, then heading off into the dark night to work. As the lyric tells us, it’s a make-believe ballroom, let’s dance.

Ingredients

• One 3-to-4-pound kosher chicken
• Salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• ¼ cup medium-dry sherry
• 1 cup heavy cream
• ½ cup low-sodium chicken broth
• ½ teaspoon truffle oil (optional)
• 4 ounces duck-liver mousse (optional)
• Slices of white bread, toasted, for serving

• Nutritional Information

  • Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)

    1073 calories; 81 grams fat; 30 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 31 grams monounsaturated fat; 13 grams polyunsaturated fat; 2 grams carbohydrates; 0 grams dietary fiber; 1 gram sugars; 75 grams protein; 379 milligrams cholesterol; 393 milligrams sodium

  Note: Nutrient information is not available for all ingredients. Amount is based on available data.
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4 servings

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and roast until its juices run clear, 60 to 70 minutes. Let cool. Remove the skin and meat from the bones. Cut the breast meat into cubes. Shred the thigh and leg meat and, if feeling very uptown, reserve for another use. Otherwise, use along with breast meat.
2. In a large saucepan, reduce the sherry by half over high heat. Add the cream, chicken broth and truffle oil, if using, and boil over high heat, stirring constantly, to reduce by half again, about 10 minutes.
3. Add the chicken meat and blobs of the duck-liver mousse, if using, to the reduction and bring to a light simmer. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve hot with toast points.

About 2 hours 15 minutes