Coronation chicken

LUCKY DIP (PART THREE)

During my investigations into Rosemary Hume and the Cordon Bleu I saw that Rosemary Hume - who ran the British Cordon Bleu school for many years, invented a dish, originally called poulet reine Elizabeth for the coronation banquet. And also that Constance Spry, her flamboyant business partner of the time, basically took credit for it. I can't find out anything more about their relationship but it could be really interesting. Poulet reine Elizabeth has popularly been called Coronation Chicken since then and is a standard British dish although a bit retro and as Felicity Cloake says:

"From royal favourite to sadly soggy sandwich-filling in a single reign, coronation chicken has experienced a decline in fortunes that would give even Fergie's accountant cause for concern."

And so she embarks on a quest to produce the perfect Coronation Chicken that would accord with modern tastes which demand: "more spice and a lighter, fresher, flavour."

In the course of her investigation she gives the original recipe and a couple of other variations through the years since 1953 (I think it was 1953). As does the Daily Telegraph.

So how did it evolve? I remember the coronation well - I would have been ten. We had a big party at home and watched it all on our tiny little black and white television set. Rationing was still in operation and so the dish was designed not to be too extravagant. Basically it is a poached chicken salad in a curry flavoured mayonnaise - which sounds awful, but really it surely would not have lasted so long without it being tasty. In those days the mayonnaise would have been bottled (maybe even for the queen), and there would only have been one curry powder to choose from - if you could find that in the shops anyway. Why curry powder? Well as the Telegraph says, "it elegantly nodded to the monarch’s role as colonial ruler while delivering a crowd-pleasing mild flavour."

Which is interesting, because the Queen celebrated her Diamond Jubilee not so many years ago and there in Jamie Oliver's book Jamie's Great Britain is a dish he calls ER's Diamond Jubilee Chicken - which as he says is his version of the sadly bowdlerised Coronation Chicken that is mostly found these days. And it too has very Indian overtones, but my guess is that nowadays this is not so much a nod to the colonial age, but a nod to all the Indians and Pakistanis now living in England. And the spice mix is made up by the cook, not bought in a packet - and boosted by things like pineapple and cashews. No mayonnaise either - just yoghurt.

Felicity Cloake worked her way through the original, a complicated version made from roast chicken and a couple of other ones too, arriving at her own version, in which the mayonnaise is lightened with yoghurt and the curry powder is boosted with a whole host of other spices and mango chutney too. All of which would not have been readily available back in 1953.

I guess the basic question is whether it's worth reviving or not - well it seems it hasn't really gone away. This is a picture of her version, which does look pretty tempting and cool for a summer's day. And if you had a bit less sauce it would be nice in a sandwich too.