Chicken Marengo

Chicken Marengo is a simple dish featuring a white wine suace, mushrooms, tomatoes and cognac.

This dish was supposedly first concocted in Italy after the battle of Marengo on June 14, 1800. It was an important battle for Napoleon leading his forces to victory over the Austrians, and effectively driving them out of Italy.

According to the legend, Napoleon refused to eat before fighting at Marengo and came off the battlefield with a ferocious hunger.

One version of the story has his chef, Dunand, creating chicken Marengo from the only ingredients he was able to procure: a chicken, bread, oil, garlic, tomatoes, eggs and crayfish. Napoleon wolves this down, and the battle then turns in his favor. Being a superstitious sort of fellow, Napoleon came to associate this dish with victory, and supposedly insisted on having it prepared whenever he went into battle thereafter.

Napoleon was well known to have bad digestion and generally inhaled his food, apparently having little time for such nonsense. He thought nothing of eating this dish served on a bed of grilled bread and topped with a fried egg. These days you are just as likely to find it without the egg and bread and many times, to simplify things the crayfish is not included either.

The easy recipe given here does not include these ingredients, but it does come with lots of great sauce, so serve it over riceor polenta to get every drop. Of course nothing is to stop you from trying this recipe the way it was first served to Napoleon. Simply place some grilled bread in a shallow bowl, ladle the poultry and sauce on top, and finally top with a fried egg.