Chicken Fillets with Asparagus

Chicken fillets stewed in cream sauce with asparagus, lemon juice and cayenne.

Take two fat birds and cut them up so that the breast and breast-bone will be one piece and the back and legs another. Put the back parts into a saucepan with one gallon of water, and, when it boils, add the breasts. When these have boiled for an hour or so and are quite tender, take them out and let them cool. Put a few vegetables in the liquor and boil fast until it is reduced to one-half its original bulk; then strain it through a cloth into another saucepan and add two tablespoonfuls of each of butter and flour previously worked together in a pan over the fire, to thicken it, and place the pan on the side of the fire where its contents will simmer gently. Skim frequently, and when the liquor is reduced to one quart pour in a small quantity of mushroom liquor, prepared by boiling button mushrooms in stock. Reduce again, and when it is less than one quart and getting thick add one tablespoonful of butter, a little lemon juice, salt and cayenne. Have in the meantime one breakfast cupful of cream boiling, add it to the liquor in the other pan a little at a time to make it the required consistence and then pass all through a strainer. Cut the meat away from the breastbone and trim it into shape, plunge the pieces into boiling chicken broth to get thoroughly warmed through, place them on a dish and pour the sauce over them. Cut from the stalks some asparagus heads, boil them in salted water like peas, drain, shake in a pan with melted butter, and place on the dish with the fillets.