Stewed Chicken, Cardinal Style

Stuffed chicken and chopped vegetables simmered gently and served with glazed truffles and other garnishes.

Soak two chickens in a basin of cold water for about an hour; take them out and let them drain, then lift up the skin from the breasts and legs as much as possible without tearing it, and fill the cavity with forcemeat of fowl, colored with lobster spawn to a deep red; truss the fowls as if for boiling, cover them with thin layers of fat bacon, put them in a stewpan with some chopped vegetables, cover with stock and simmer gently. Care must be taken that they do not boil fast or the force will burst the skin of the fowl, and so look unsightly when served. Dish with an ornamental croustade of fried bread in the center of the dish, garnish with quenelles of fowls, both red and white, glazed truffles, cockscombs, crayfish tails and button mushrooms, and on each side of the croustade put a larded sweetbread. Serve with cardinal sauce and garnish with ornamental silver skewers set in the croustade.