Chicken Timbales II

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp butter
• ¼ cup stale bread crumbs
• ⅔ cup milk
• 1 cup chopped cooked chicken
• ½ tbsp chopped parsley
• 2 eggs
• salt
• pepper

Method

Heat 30g butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Once foaming, add 60g stale breadcrumbs and stir constantly for one minute to coat them evenly. The butter must coat every crumb — this is your base for binding. Pour in 160ml milk and continue stirring. The breadcrumbs will hydrate and soften within two to three minutes, thickening the milk into a loose paste. This dairy-and-bread mixture is an emulsion that will hold the forcemeat together during cooking. After five minutes total, when the mixture pulls away from the pan sides slightly and shows no liquid pooling underneath the spoon, remove from heat.

Fold in 240g chopped cooked chicken — it should be fine-diced, not shredded. Add 7g parsley and 2 beaten egg|eggs. The eggs act as both binder and aerator; the beating introduces air pockets that will set into a tender crumb during baking. Season aggressively with salt and white pepper — the mixture will taste underseasoned at this stage, which is correct. Stir until homogeneous but do not overwork it. Overbeating at this point toughens the finished timbale.

Divide the forcemeat between four buttered dariole moulds or ramekins, filling each two-thirds full. The headspace prevents overflow as the mixture expands slightly with heat. Arrange the moulds in a roasting pan and pour boiling water around them until it reaches halfway up their sides — this baking|bain-marie creates gentle, even heat transfer from all sides. The water conducts heat far more efficiently and steadily than air alone, protecting the delicate custard-like structure from curdling. Cover the moulds loosely with buttered greaseproof paper to prevent a tough skin forming on top.

Bake at 180°C for eighteen to twenty minutes. The timbale is set when the surface barely dimples under light finger pressure and a skewer inserted into the centre comes away clean. The residual heat will continue to cook it for a minute or two after removal — pull it from the oven while still fractionally underdone. Run a thin blade around the rim of each mould and turn out onto a warm plate. Serve immediately with béchamel sauce spooned around the base.