frigasse

The technique called fricassée has turned up all over Europe under many different names over the past few hundred years (in English alone you might get fricace, frigasie, fricasey, frigacy...), so it's no surprise that there's an Irish variant, which dates back to at least the late 17th century. While these days "fricaseeing" something normally means to sauté the meat and then cook it further in a sauce, originally the term meant to cook sliced meat by boiling or stewing it; then the sauce would be added. The sauce usually involved eggs and cream, along with seasonings or spices meant to sharpen the effect. This is one of the ways the Irish dish is done: though in local usage, frigasses might also be made with a brown or beef-based sauce, and could include other meats -- lamb, veal, rabbit -- and vegetables.

This typical chicken frigasse is adapted from an eighteenth-century recipe from County Cavan. Like most other frigasses of the period, it's garnished with button onions and mushrooms.

Click "read more" for the recipe.