Waterzooi

Ingredients

• Chicken — in pieces1.4 kg
• Leeks2
• Carrots3
• Celeriac200 g
• Potatoes500 g
• Onion1
• Butter60 g
• Cream250 ml
• Egg yolks3
• Bay leaves2
• Thyme3 sprig
• Parsley30 g
• Lemon1
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Simmer the chicken with the onion, bay and thyme for forty minutes and strain the broth.

   45 min

2. 2

   Cut the leek, carrot and celeriac into fine julienne of equal length.

   20 min

3. 3

   Sweat the vegetables in butter for ten minutes, without letting them colour.

   12 min

4. 4

   Add the broth and the potato in batons and cook fifteen minutes.

   17 min

5. 5

   Joint the chicken, return it to the pot and take it off the heat.

   12 min

6. 6

   Whisk the yolks with the cream and ladle in hot broth, stirring, until the bowl warms up.

   8 min

7. 7

   Pour the mixture back into the pot off the heat, warm it through without boiling, and add lemon and parsley.

   8 min

About the dish

The broth is thickened with yolks and cream and never boiled afterwards. No flour is used: an egg liaison gives a velvet quality a flour-based sauce does not.

The vegetables are cut into fine julienne of equal length. That is not aesthetics: an even cut means an even cooking time and everything finishes together.

Waterzooi was originally made with river fish, and the chicken version appeared when Ghent's rivers were polluted. Both are legitimate today, but the fish one is the elder.

Worth knowing

• — Take the pot off the heat before the yolks go in. Even a bare simmer sets them within seconds and the soup goes grainy.
• — Waterzooi is not reheated twice. The yolk liaison splits on a second heating and cannot be brought back.
• — The fish version uses eel, pike-perch and pike. They go in at the very end for five minutes; fish cooks four times faster than chicken.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

620 kcal

Protein

42 g

Fat

34 g

Carbs

34 g

More from Belgian cuisine

• Moules marinières — Mussels steamed in white wine with celery and onion. Five minutes under a lid, no longer.
• Carbonade flamande — Beef braised in dark beer with onion and a slice of mustard-spread bread that thickens the sauce.
• Liège waffles — Dense yeasted waffles from a stiff dough with pearl sugar that caramelises on the outside.