Chicken Maque Choux

This dish is the Cajun festival of corn. When corn is in season, it is a wonderful way to mark the event.

When my little girl was just that, still in footed pajamas, I would find her on a Saturday morning slouching gamely in her high chair, Seaboard Coastline Railroad cap cocked back against her curls: she would be waiting, fork in fist, patiently enough, but thoroughly evincing earnest demand - and what she was waiting for was corn maque choux.

Yes, even for breakfast.

I was still in school, working a part-time night job, living on that and what was left of my GI bill. Things were kind of tight. In a fit of extravagance I had purchased Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen. I couldn’t help myself - it was just out, and the pictures were glorious. As Fate would have it, the first recipe I tried - and that was probably because I could actually afford the ingredients - was corn maque choux. The little one liked it, and she never ever tired of it.

Corn maque choux - pronounced “mock shoo” - is pure Cajun, perhaps going all the way back to the landing - when the dispossessed Acadians, having achieved their Aeneid, chose  Southern Louisiana to make their stand. Most sources say that “maque choux” is a French rendering of some long lost Indian name. For the Acadians had no word of their own for such an exotic dish.

And the name Acadian would in time contract to “Cajun,” but you probably already knew that.

Prudhomme’s corn maque choux isn’t like anybody else’s. There’s no bell pepper, no celery, no tomato. It’s sweeter - but still savory. And it’s finished with an egg cream mixture which gives it the feel of a custard. It’s a great side dish, so good with pork. But that’s another story.

The Cajuns have a way of doing it with chicken. This recipe is tweaked a little in the Prudhomme direction.

One chicken cut up (or 8 thighs)

1/4 C bacon fat

1/4 C flour

2 C chopped onion

3/4 C chopped bell pepper - red and green

3/4 C chopped celery

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 C finely chopped andouille sausage

6 C kernel corn - cut off the cob from 8 ears; scrape as much milk from the cob as possible. Don’t hesitate to use a percentage of canned corn - it actually helps (somehow) with the overall texture. In fact, if you don’t have fresh corn, there is nothing wrong with using frozen or canned. It will still be delicious.

2 medium tomatoes, filleted, then chopped

1 T sugar

1 t salt

3/4 t white pepper

1/2 t red pepper

1/2 t black pepper

2 t tomato paste

3 C chicken broth + 1 C cream, combined, reduced by a third

1 C Sliced green onions - not just the whites, get some green - and much more for garnish;

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1) Preheat oven to 375;

2) Salt and pepper chicken pieces. In Dutch oven (5 quarts is exactly the right size) fry chicken in bacon fat, skin down first, in batches, until lightly browned and crisp, 4-5 minutes per side. Remove chicken from pan, and drain on paper towels. 

3) Sprinkle flour into the bacon grease. With a spatula, over medium heat, stir - constantly, smearing and mashing any clumps, scraping at the brown bits on the bottom - until the flour browns enough to make a blond roux.  

4) Combine onion, peppers, celery, garlic and finely chopped andouille; throw half of the mixture into the Dutch oven, and saute for about 5 minutes, or until lightly browning;

5) Add the rest of the mixture and saute a few minutes more;

6) Then add the corn, tomatoes, spices, and tomato paste, stirring well. Break out your wooden spoon and stir, thoroughly scraping the bottom of the pan. Cover the pot for a few minutes, rendering the juices, then stir and scrape some more. Repeat the process until there are puddles of bubbling liquid dotting the surface. Altogether this should take about 20 minutes.

7) Add the chicken broth/cream mixture, and blend well. Bring to a high simmer, and on medium high heat, still stirring periodically, reduce the liquid until the corn is barely submerged. Maybe about 30 - 40 minutes.

8) Blend in the green onion;

9) Arrange chicken pieces on top of corn mixture, skin side up, with as much skin as possible exposed;

10) Braise in oven, covered, for 40 minutes

11) Remove cover and braise 20 more minutes.

12) Braising can yield a lot more liquid. This next step is sort of like they do with Beef Bourguignon. Remove the chicken to some handy dish, and spoon as much of the liquid as you can into a saucepan. Bring it to a boil over high heat, continuously stirring, until it is nicely thickened. Then blend it back into the corn mixture. Now it’s less like a soup and more like a proper casserole. Replace the chicken, and there you are.

You can easily bring it back up to temp when you are ready to serve. And that can be, with tongs and spoon, straight from the pot.

Or from a platter.  

Garnish with more green onions. 

Goes beautifully with crusty bread or rice - especially dirty rice.