Poulet Basquaise

There are so many recipes for Poulet Basquaise online! You could try any of many pages of a Google search for your own delectation.

One essential ingredient, apart from the chicken, of course, is present in every recipe: sweet red peppers. Together with a variety of spices, depending on the chef’s whim, the chicken pieces and pepper slices are stewed in a large pot and served piping hot.

I felt so sorry for Mme LeBlanc, trying to make the dish of her native region without those red peppers. I simply could not imagine that in the north of France she would have had the capacity to grow the capsicums, let alone ripen them from green to red. And then too, of course, she was very poor.

But she was clearly a proud woman, and if she wanted to call her offering poulet basquaise, who am I to dissemble?