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Abraham Lincoln 19th Century dinner medium

Lincoln's Chicken Fricassee with Buttermilk Biscuits

Abraham Lincoln's chicken fricassee with cream gravy and flaky buttermilk biscuits — the one dish Mary Todd Lincoln could always get him to eat. Based on Eliza Leslie's Directions for Cookery (1837), the bestselling American cookbook of the nineteenth century.

Lincoln's Chicken Fricassee with Buttermilk Biscuits
Prep: 25 min
Cook: 45 min
Serves: 4
#lincoln #american #chicken #fricassee #biscuits #cream-gravy #19th-century

Abraham Lincoln’s chicken fricassee with cream gravy and flaky buttermilk biscuits. The recipe comes from Eliza Leslie’s Directions for Cookery (1837) — the bestselling American cookbook of the nineteenth century, and the book Mary Todd Lincoln kept in her White House kitchen.

Ingredients

Buttermilk Biscuits

  • 250g (2 cups) plain flour
  • 1 tbsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 85g cold butter
  • 180ml (¾ cup) buttermilk

Spice Mix

  • ¼ tsp ground mace
  • ½ tsp dried marjoram
  • ¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp black pepper

Chicken Fricassee

  • 1 whole chicken, butchered into pieces
  • Plain flour, for dredging
  • 2 tbsp butter, for browning
  • 2 tbsp plain flour, for the gravy
  • 240ml (1 cup) heavy cream
  • 240ml (1 cup) whole milk

Garnish

  • Small bunch of fresh parsley
  • 1 tbsp lard

Instructions

Make the Buttermilk Biscuits

  1. Grate the cold butter onto parchment paper and put it in the freezer for a few minutes. You want it as cold as possible so it doesn’t melt into the flour — this is what creates flaky layers.
  2. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl and whisk to combine.
  3. Add the frozen grated butter and mix with your hands until the mixture becomes clumpy.
  4. Add the buttermilk and mix just until the dough comes together — don’t overwork it.
  5. Tip onto a lightly floured surface and fold the dough over on itself 3–4 times. Each fold traps butter between sheets of dough; when it hits the oven the butter melts, steam lifts the layers apart, and you get a flaky biscuit.
  6. Shape into a rectangle roughly 3–4cm thick.
  7. Dip a round cookie cutter in flour and cut straight down through the dough — don’t twist the cutter or you’ll seal the edges and they won’t rise as well. You should get about 9 biscuits.
  8. Preheat the oven to 220°C (430°F). Bake for 12–15 minutes until golden.

Make the Spice Mix

  1. In a small bowl, combine the ground mace, dried marjoram, grated nutmeg, salt, and black pepper. Mix to combine and set aside.

Brown the Chicken

  1. Pat the chicken pieces dry and coat them all over with the spice mix. Season with a little extra salt.
  2. Dredge the seasoned chicken in plain flour, shaking off any excess.
  3. Heat the butter in a large pan over medium heat. Brown the chicken pieces on both sides until well coloured — no need to cook through at this stage. Remove and set aside.

Make the Cream Gravy

  1. Pour off most of the butter from the pan, leaving about 1 tablespoon behind.
  2. Add the 2 tablespoons of flour to the pan and cook, stirring, for about 1 minute.
  3. Pour in the heavy cream and milk, stirring to pick up any browned bits from the base of the pan.
  4. Nestle the browned chicken pieces into the sauce, cover, and cook for 10–15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Use a probe thermometer — the chicken should hit 74°C (165°F) internally.

Fry the Parsley Garnish

  1. Melt the lard in a small pan. Add the parsley and fry for about 1 minute. Drain on kitchen paper.

Serve

  1. Plate the chicken fricassee alongside the warm biscuits and spoon the cream gravy generously over both. Finish with the fried parsley. Alternatively, use fresh parsley — it works better.