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If you’ve never encountered Chicken Bonne Femme, it’s a classic French dish involving bacon, chicken, and potatoes. Sounds good, right? And fairly simple? Yep, right on both counts. I’ve created a stove-top version that uses a spatchcocked chicken (fancy word for cutting out the backbone and flattening the bird). Spatchcocking is easy and makes the bird cook quicker.
In case you were wondering, Bonne Femme translates to “good woman” or “good wife.” I appreciate this translation in today’s health and wellness crazed world – where restrictive diets have run amuck. Sometimes a lovely comforting dish complete with fried potatoes and bacon is just what we need! Especially on a cold night. Enjoy!!
Looking for more chicken recipes? Try my Hunter’s Chicken Stew.
Notes on Chicken Bonne Femme
I’ve been making Chicken Bonne Femme for many years. I believe I got started with Julia Child’s version, “Poulet en Cotte Bonne Femme,” and then moved on to a cajun rendition from the Galatoire’s Cookbook. Both are great, but I love trying new things. This version is my own creation but it’s actually most influenced by the Chicken Sofrito recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem Cookbook. Yep, you guessed it, I’m going to take a Jewish dish and cook everything in bacon grease and top it with bacon.
But anways, as Ottolenghi explains, sofrito is more of a cooking method than a dish. The method involves cooking the meat in a pot on the stove with oil (or bacon grease) and very little liquid. After an hour or two, the slow braising and steaming of the bird in it’s own juices, creates an intense flavor and tender meat that falls off the bone!
Chicken Bonne Femme
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 90 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Cuisine: French
Description
Juicy chicken with perfect potatoes. A great dish for a date night.
Ingredients
- 5 slices bacon
- Olive oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 small chicken, about 3.5 lbs
- 1 lemon
- 20 peeled pearl onions or 1 large onion, peeled and quartered
- 1 and ⅔ lbs Yukon gold potatoes, cut into 1-inch dice
- 15 garlic cloves, unpeeled
- Oil for frying potatoes (canola, vegetable, peanut, or safflower all work fine)
- 1 small bunch parsley, chopped
Instructions
- Cook the bacon in a large shallow pan or dutch oven. You will want to use a pan with a lid.
- While the bacon is cooking, spatchcock the chicken. Basically, use kitchen sheers to cut the backbone out. See this short video if you’ve never tried it before! Generously season the bird with salt and pepper.
- Once the bacon is cooked, transfer it to a cutting board. Chop when cool and set aside.
- Place the chicken skin side down in the bacon grease and cook over medium for 5 minutes. You can add a tbsp of olive oil if the pan is not well coated with bacon grease.
- Use tongs to turn the chicken skin side up. Reduce the heat to low. Add the onion to the pan and squeeze ½ of the lemon over the chicken. Cover the pot and simmer (total time will be about 1 hour and 30 minutes).
- After the chicken has cooked for 30 minutes, heat oil in a separate heavy bottomed skillet or sauce pan (I use my big cast iron). You should pour about 1 ¼ inches (enough to cover the potato pieces). When oil is hot, about 350 F, add potatoes and garlic. Cook for about 6 minutes. Don’t crowd the pan too much, I usually fry in 2 batches. Transfer potatoes to a paper towel lined plate and salt them.
- Transfer chicken to cutting board. Add potatoes and garlic to the cooking juices. Return chicken to pot and cook another 30 minutes. The chicken should be falling off the bone.
- When ready to serve, garnish chicken with bacon, parsley, and remaining lemon half. You can transfer the potatoes and chicken to a platter before garnishing if you like but I usually just leave it in the skillet. Bring it to the table and rest it on a hot pad.
Keywords: fried potatoes, chicken, french, bacon
Kitchen Tool Favorite: Cast Iron Pan
A large cast iron skillet is perfect frying potatoes. It’s a pretty essential kitchen tool in general. If you are in the market for one, you can’t go wrong with this Lodge skillet. I have two and use them constantly. A dutch oven is another pretty essential kitchen tool and one that is great for braising spatchcocked chickens. Le Creuset makes the arguably most well-loved model.
