Curriculum Resource: French Revolution Recipe--Bastille Chicken

Today in our history coop we were covering the French Revolution.  We had read some books prior to the class, and then we heard various presentations and did different activities related to that time period up through the Napoleonic wars.

Since my son enjoys learning to cook, we thought we would bring the lesson home by making a related dinner tonight.  However, due to our various allergies, we didn't like any of the "authentic" recipes we found.  So we came up with our own dinner, based on our invention of "Chicken Bastille."

We were working on the theme of the French Revolutionary flag.  Red and Blue were the traditional colors of Paris, and White was the color of France.  However, since there are so few foods that are naturally colored Blue, we substituted Green in the form of Haricot Vert, or French Green Beans.

So this is what we did.  Sorry, I'm not a measuring cook, so this is not an official recipe.  But it gives you an idea about how we created a meal that relates to the French Revolution in our own minds, at least.

First, we mixed some of our favorite spices with flour.  Then we covered chicken breasts with the flour/spice mixture.  We selected 4-6 green beans and put them in the middle of our chicken breasts, then rolled the breasts around them.  We did that with all the chicken breasts/green beans.

We had a bag of red creamer potatoes.  We cut them into relatively equal slices, then mixed them with chunks of onions, then poured a little olive oil and salt and pepper on them.  On top of that, we placed the chicken breasts rolled around haricots vert (or green beans).    That gave us red (potatoes), white (chicken breasts in flour), and green (beans) instead of blue.

We also made a cream sauce to pour on top and emphasize the white/French aspect.  We sauteed some garlic in olive oil, then added an equal amount of flour to make a roux.  Once that browned, we added some white wine and then some cream.  Voila---garlic wine cream sauce!  How much more French could you get?

We served this with a salad vinaigrette and a French baguette.   Bon Appetit!

PS--This meal was also inspired by my friend Doug, a master chef, who turned 50 today.  Happy Birthday, Doug!  We love you!