Eugene Walter’s ‘chicken custard’ that is really a British batter pudding.

Walter, a strange and wonderful figure, claimed to dislike anything British but contradiction and fabulation did not much trouble him. The misnomer and absence of attribution may be results of his putative Anglophobia. The long list of ingredients makes the recipe look artificially complicated. Four servings.

• a chicken cut into eight pieces or about 3½ lb chicken thighs
• 1 teaspoon salt
• pepper
• about 1 heated ¼ teaspoon mace
• ¼ lb unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon neutral oil
• ½ cup chopped cooked ham
• 2 peeled and chopped big carrots
• a smallish peeled onion stabbed with a few cloves
• a handful of parsley sprigs
• about ¾ cup chicken stock
• about 16 pearl onions (frozen are fine, thawed)
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• ¼ cup dry or medium dry Sherry or Rainwater Madeira
• heaped Tablespoon chopped parsley
• ½ cup minced scallion greens
• 4 or 5 eggs
• 6 Tablespoons flour (preferably Wondra)
• heaped teaspoon baking powder
• ½ cup heavy cream

1. Season the chicken with the salt, pepper and mace, then let it stand at room temperature for at least half an hour.
2. Heat 3 Tablespoons of the butter with the oil in a big heavy skillet over medium low heat.
3. Cook the ham and carrots until the carrots soften, usually in about ten minutes, then remove them from the skillet.
4. Melt another 3 Tablespoons of butter in the same skillet over medium heat and add the chicken pieces skin side down: Do not crowd the chicken, you can cook it in batches if necessary.
5. Fry the chicken until deep gold on both sides, usually in about 10 minutes altogether.
6. Return the ham and carrot to the pan, then add the injured onion, parsley and stock, scraping all the debris off the surface of the skillet.
7. Bring the chicken mixture to a boil, then reduce it to the gentlest simmer, cover the pan and cook the mix for about 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375˚.

8. Butter a 2 inch deep 2 quart oven proof dish.
9. Melt the last of the butter in a smaller skillet over medium heat, then add the onions, sprinkle them with the sugar and stir fry the onions until golden: It will not take long.
10. Pour the wine into the skillet and continue cooking the onions until the wine evaporates.
11. Throw away the onion and parsley sprigs.
12. Drop the chicken skin side up in the dish and surround it with the ham, carrot and onions before pouring the stock around the mixture.
13. Top it with the parsley and scallion.
14. Savagely beat the eggs, then add to them the flour, baking powder, cream and any accumulated pan juices. Whisk the batter until uniform and smooth.
15. Pour the batter evenly into the dish and bake it until puffy and brown, usually in about half an hour.

Notes:

-Walter likes dry vermouth instead of our fortified wine options.

-The more traditional method results in a crispy batter bottom. Make the batter first and let it stand for at least 40 minutes. Substitute about 2 teaspoons of oil for the butter at Step 8. Put the oiled but otherwise empty dish in the oven while you cook the onions at Steps 8 and 9: You want the dish hot and the oil sizzling when you assemble the pudding. Then follow the rest of the recipe but add the batter to the dish before following Steps 12 and 13.

-Some dry mustard, like Colman’s, makes a good addition at Step 7; so does a splash of Worcestershire.