Richard Olney's Chicken Gratin

Really good. Served with a side of rice and Ina Garten's Parmesan Roasted Broccoli.

This was an absolute hit, served with roasted endive with walnut vinaigrette (also on this site). A simple tomato salad would have rounded it out beautifully. Next time!

I've been making this once a month now. I love the smell and the taste of the curdled sauce. When I first tried, I thought it would be a heavy dish but nooooo... My husband who doesn't like any dish with heavy cream or cheese loved it. He said "whoa, this has really deep and wonderful flavor. Tonight I just made (carefully made my bread crumbs with french loaf bread and carefully cooked!) this dish with mixed thigh & breast and serve to our guest and I received amazing compliment. Definitely doubled the crumbs and almost doubled the amount of the cheese, so good!.

Made this last night - really adored the curdled sauce. Definitely keeping this recipe to make again soon! Turned out exactly as recipe specified and sooo delicious. Doubled up on bread crumbs as well (highly recommend).

Made this as directed and it was great. I don't know if my sauce "broke" or not, but it was delicious. Made it with all thighs, and I'd probably do a mix next time. Also, the cheese custard and the bread crumbs cooked in the chicken fat were so good I'm gonna try doubling up on both of those parts next time to see how it goes. We thought it was almost like a stuffing, so there's always room for more of that!

I just made this a couple weeks ago with chicken thighs. We thought the flavor was absolutely to die for! My sauce was a hot mess, though; I'm SO glad I didn't make it for company. I definitely want to try it again, though. Is it pretty much a consensus that the lemon juice was what made the sauce break? And adding it at the end remedies that?

As I don't use wine, is it OK to leave it out altogether or is there a substitute I could use?

After reviewing all the comments, I'm surprised that nobody thought of doing the custard with a half and half rather than 35% cream. For this dish I would use both whole eggs AND 10% to reduce the caloric content. Forty years ago and in rural France where this dish originated, people probably cooked with a lot more fat than they do today.

I had bookmarked this recipe and decided to make it last night. Boy, was I ever disappointed! I followed the recipe almost exactly with the exception of the lemon juice b/c I didn't want a curdled custard sauce. However, I didn't note that the wine could contribute to that also. YUCK! It looked like vomit, and was most unappetizing. If this is a Community Pick, I'd better move! : )))

Now THAT was delicious. Chicken legs, and exactly as written (except pecorino in place of gruyere.) Served with bulgur, sliced tomatos and green beans. Sauce is rich, creamy and perfect!

Very good, but I over salted...my fault. Even though I used unsalted butter, I think the cheese must have added some salt...I'd recommend adding it later, if needed.

I was a little hesitant to make this recipe after reading some of the comments about curdling, but I am so very happy that I disregarded my hesitation!

I followed this recipe exactly and my goodness, it was truly amazing.
If you were to consider this recipe less as containing a custard, and more about creating a beautifully decadent sauce that alternates between spoons of rich cheesy creaminess to buttery lemony smoothness. This is a beautifully broken sauce which gives a diversity of flavors.
If you read the note from Richard Olney, the original author of this recipe in his book, 'Simple French Food', a plain homogeneous sauce was not what this recipe was intended or created to produce.

We used a plump, corn fed French hen which I trimmed the excess fat and skin from, some nutty Gruyere cheese from Switzerland and made the breadcrumbs from a French country style loaf of bread which I dried slightly in the oven to 'stale it'. The homemade breadcrumbs from a fresh loaf are larger and softer than than store bought crumbs and they fried nicely in the chicken juices, and browned perfectly on the finished dish and are definitely worth taking the extra couple of minutes to make.
I did need to bake this dish a little longer to reach the correct internal temperature for the chicken as it was quite plump.

My partner was so very delighted with this dish that he insisted that I must make this again for a dinner party that we are hosting this week. I highly recommend this recipe if you are looking for a show stopping main course that is very simple to prepare with quality ingredients and is delightfully French.

I made this pretty much as written but added the lemon juice at the end, just before serving and it was perfect. The lemon flavor is essential but by adding the juice at the end you avoid curdling the custard.

In response to gingerroot's suggestion for partially cooking the chicken and finishing the dish the following night, see link on food safety: http://www.livestrong.com/article/543621-can-you-partially-cook-a-chicken-then-finish-cooking-it-later/

If you used lemon zest for flavor would that eliminate the custard curdle?

This was such a great recipe tonight, I didn't have a huge amount of cooking energy, so I am delighted with how easy this was! My custard curdled, but the lemony taste was *delicious* with everything. Will definitely make this again! I served it with Buttered Saffron Rice with Parsley, and steam-fried greens.

I adore this dish and have made it on numerous occasions. I always omit the lemon as I prefer an uncurled sauce. The results are always amazing, smooth silky custard and I don't think the flavour of the custard is in any way diminished by omitting the lemon. So for all the reviewers below who don't like the texture of the curdled sauce I highly recommend making it again and leaving out the lemon - this is what causes the sauce to break.

Wow, I made this last night with a wild turkey breast. Delicious.

I think the flavor outweighs the curdle texture of the sauce. Made just a couple of adjustments to the recipe as written - added fresh thyme, teaspoon of Coleman's mustard powder and used zest of one lemon instead of the juice. I also used panko instead of bread. I used skinless, bone-in chicken breasts, thighs and legs (made a double recipe and put the breasts in a separate gratin dish from the legs). I also found the chicken needed about 40 minutes to cook through (maybe because I had the two gratin dishes in the oven). Next time I will make sure to cook the pieces more thoroughly on the stove top in step 1. Overall, delicious and special chicken dish. I served it with roasted asparagus sprinkled with salt and red pepper flakes.

Made this tonight, and while the sauce "broke", I found it to be delicious. Kids really enjoyed it and the Mrs. thought it was "good". We used all chicken thighs, and found it fattier than I think the recipe intended, but that was expected and I didn't mind it at all. Will try this at a lower temp next time to see if we can keep the custard from breaking, but it won't be a deal breaker if it happens again.