TABELIAAUTHENTIC RECIPE
Bouchées à la ReineBouchées à la Reine with Chicken and Mushrooms
- Total
- 2 hr 2 min
- Difficulty
- ★★★☆☆
- Serves
- 4 servings
- Prep 1 hr 2 min
- Cook 1 hr
Scalloped puff-pastry cases are filled with chicken breast poached in an aromatic vegetable broth and mushrooms cooked without browning, all combined in a creamy sauce. A warm French appetizer.
AUTHENTICITY SCORE
Authenticity Score
This is the standard recipe, exactly as it’s made where it comes from — the highest Authenticity Score possible. Substituting ingredients changes this score; the app shows exactly how, ingredient by ingredient.
Ingredients (4 servings)
100Authenticity- Frozen all-butter puff pastry750 g750 g total; roll into two sheets about 27 × 36 cm and 3 mm thick. Before starting, thaw in the refrigerator according to the package directions until flexible but still cold. Allow this variable advance preparation in addition to the recipe time; keep thawed pastry refrigerated.
- Plain cake flour10 gFor dusting. Use plain soft-wheat cake flour without added starch or leavening.
- Egg for glazing1 eggBeat before using
- Chicken breasts500 g2 breasts; remove the skin
- Water1020 ml1L to poach the chicken, reserving the broth for the sauce, and 20ml for the mushrooms
- Onion100 gHalve
- Carrot80 gHalve lengthwise
- Bay leaf1 leaf
- Fresh thyme2 sprigs
- Salt for poaching8 gFor the poaching water
- White button mushrooms200 gTrim the stem ends and cut into 4 wedges
- 100% lemon juice10 mlFor cooking the mushrooms without browning
- Unsalted butter52 g12g for the mushrooms and 40g for the roux
- Salt for mushrooms and sauce4 g2g for the mushrooms and 2g for the sauce
- Plain cake flour40 gFor the roux. Use plain soft-wheat cake flour without added starch or leavening.
- Heavy cream, at least 35% milk fat100 mlMix with the yolk to finish the sauce
- Egg yolk1 yolkTo finish the sauce
- Ground white peppera littleTo finish the sauce
- Ground nutmega littleTo finish the sauce
Method
Check the thawed cold pastry
- 1 Check that 750 g pastry has thawed in the refrigerator according to its package directions. Keep it cold until rolling.
Ready when
Continue when the pastry bends without breaking but remains cold.
Cut scalloped rounds and stack bases and rings into cases
- 1 On a work surface dusted with cake flour, roll the 750 g cold pastry into two sheets about 3 mm thick and 27 × 36 cm. Cut 16 rounds with a scalloped cutter 9 cm across.
- 2 Cut the centers from 8 of the 16 rounds with a circular cutter 5.5cm across to form rings. Keep the 8 cut-out centers for lids.
- 3 Mist the baking sheet with water. Turn the 8 uncut rounds upside down, arrange on the sheet and brush egg over a border 1cm wide.
- 4 Stack a ring on each base, aligning the edges, and brush egg on the upper surface of the rings only.
- 5 Arrange the 8 lids on the baking sheet and brush their tops with egg.
- 6 Refrigerate the baking sheet for at least 30 minutes while completing steps 3–4.
Ready when
Continue when the base and ring edges align and no egg has dripped down the sides.
Tips
Turning the cut pastry upside down helps the edges compressed by the cutter straighten during baking, allowing an upright rise.
Start poaching the chicken in cold water with aromatics
- 1 Put 1L water, 500g skinless chicken breast, 100g halved onion, 80g carrot halved lengthwise, 1 bay leaf, 2 thyme sprigs and 8g poaching salt in a pot over medium heat.
- 2 When boiling, skim the foam and reduce to low heat so the surface moves gently.
Ready when
Continue when no more foam appears and the liquid surface moves only slightly.
Cook the chicken through and simmer the mushrooms without browning
- 1 Simmer over low heat for 15–20 minutes. Cut into the thickest part to check that the chicken is white and cooked through to the center.
- 2 Transfer the chicken to a plate, strain the broth and reserve 500ml.
- 3 MeanwhileWhile the chicken cooks, preheat the oven to 180°C.
- 4 MeanwhileAt the same time, bring 20ml water, 12g unsalted butter, 2g salt and 10ml lemon juice to a boil in a small saucepan. Add 200g mushrooms cut into 4 wedges, cover and cook over high heat for 5 minutes, then transfer with their liquid to a bowl.
Ready when
Continue when the chicken has no redness at the center and the mushrooms are cooked without browning.
Bake the cases at 180°C and dice the chicken
- 1 After the cases have chilled for at least 30 minutes, put the baking sheet on the middle oven rack at 180°C and bake for 15 minutes.
- 2 Immediately after baking, remove the soft pastry from inside the cases with a fork.
- 3 MeanwhileWhile baking, cut the chicken breast into 1.5cm cubes.
Ready when
The cases are baked when they have risen upright to about 3–4cm high and are deep golden throughout.
Caution
Opening the door during baking can collapse the layers before they have finished rising.
Make a broth-based sauce and finish with yolk and cream
- 1 Strain the mushrooms, separating them from their cooking liquid.
- 2 Melt 40g unsalted butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add 40g cake flour and cook for 2–3 minutes without browning.
- 3 Gradually whisk in the reserved 500ml broth and mushroom cooking liquid, then simmer over low heat for 10 minutes, stirring as it reduces.
- 4 Mix 100ml cream and 1 yolk in a bowl.
- 5 Take the saucepan off the heat, mix in the yolk and cream, then return to very low heat and stir for 1 minute without boiling.
- 6 Season with 2g salt, 0.2g white pepper and 0.2g nutmeg.
Ready when
Continue when the sauce is smooth, lightly coats a spatula and holds a line traced across it.
Caution
Boiling the sauce after adding the yolk makes it set into grainy curds.
Warm the chicken and mushrooms in sauce and fill the cases
- 1 Return the cases and lids to the oven at 180°C for 5 minutes to warm.
- 2 Add the diced chicken and mushrooms to the sauce and warm over very low heat for 2 minutes without boiling.
- 3 Place 2 warm cases on each plate, fill to the rims with the hot filling and put on the lids.
- 4 Pour the remaining filling around the cases and serve immediately.
Ready when
The dish is ready when the filling is steaming hot and the case edges are still crisp.
Tips
If left after filling, moisture from the sauce softens the bottoms of the cases.
About this dish
In Alsace, bouchées à la reine are said to be customary at meals celebrating Communion, as well as on Sundays and festive days. Since 2003, Strasbourg has held a regional competition for traditional bouchées à la reine at its fairgrounds each September.
The “queen” in the name is said to be Marie Leszczyńska, wife of Louis XV. Some accounts credit her with the idea of making an individual-sized vol-au-vent, a filled puff-pastry case; others credit her cook. The origin remains uncertain.
In Belgium, France’s northern neighbor, the same dish is called vol-au-vent. Chicken in a cream sauce is often combined with mushrooms and small meatballs and served with fries. Brussels held an event in 2025 to choose the city’s best vol-au-vent.
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