Coronation was 'designed' (!) to provide a third course of one of the coronation banquets of Queen Elizabeth II, where etiquette required a cold third course, which in those days, not only at Buckingham Palace's state banquets but also the banquets of the upper aristocracy on State occasions. It had to be poultry. The first course would be soup in the French style - and, back then, the chefs would all have trained at the Cordon Bleu School of Cookery in Paris - so the menu would have been designed to conform with the formalities of the time - then fish, then poultry, not game, then two main courses, red meat or fish like turbot, followed by English strawberries, which have a wonderful taste. Etiquette required, then as it is today, something that the majority of guests were happy and yet suitable for an occasion of high state like the coronation of the queen of the Commonwealth countries. Of course, these things of State are slightly less formal these, but back then, Coronation Chicken was an amazingly impressive surprise - who would have seen the Queen eating curry back then! I think it went quickly out of fashion because of the pale imitations and cheap versions that suddenly appeared, first because the British weren't used to that kind, and secondly because the cheap versions didn't taste very good! Any way, here is the recipe:
2 young roasting chickens, poached in homemade stock
1 bouquet garni
salt and pepper
Cream of curry sauce:
1 tbs canola
20z onion finely chopped
1 dessertful curry powder, like the one you used to get
1 tsp tomato puree
1 wineglass dry red wine
3/4 glass water
1 bay leaf
salt, sugar, pepper to taste
lemon juice to taste (fresh)
1 - apricot purèe
34 pint mayonnaise (Helmann's is perfect)
2-3 lightly whipped cream
A little extra cream
Cook the chicken, take the meat off the bones and shred
Make up the sauce in the order of the ingredients, but heat the curry powder in hot oil first. Check everything for taste as you go. Combine the chicken with the sauce. Serve on a bed of lettuce leaves.
di reston
Enough is never as good as a feast Oscar Wilde