Suprêmes de Volaille Alexandra

Suprêmes de Volaille Alexandra (dry-poached chicken breast fillets with truffle, Mornay cheese sauce, and buttered asparagus tips) teaches the discipline of finishing before the meat is finished. A suprême is the breast fillet of a fowl, and here it is cooked without browning, veiled with black truffle and Mornay, then glazed just long enough for the surface to catch gold. The one true thing to know before touching a pan is this: the chicken must leave its dry poach a little shy of done, because the glaze supplies the final heat.

The original recipe assumed a saucier on staff, chicken essence drawn from a stock never off the fire, and a salamander fierce enough to color sauce in moments. At home, reduce one cup of unsalted stock to a concentrated spoonful, make a small Mornay in one saucepan, and use a fully heated broiler over a broiler-safe platter. The brigade's holding pans and service quantities are scaffolding and can go; the dry poach, truffle, chicken-flavored Mornay, fast glaze, and asparagus heads bound with butter are the dish and must stay. This version feeds four, one cook, one stove, one evening.

When it lands correctly, the suprêmes are ivory and succulent beneath a thin golden veil, black truffle showing through, with bright green asparagus tips gathered around the edge in buttery little heaps. Watch the thermometer and the broiler, not the clock. Overcooked breast cannot be uncooked, but a thick or split Mornay can be brought back before glazing. Ça se rattrape, and the method tells you where.