Chef Juliette
Bouillabaisse à la Marseillaise
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Culinary Explorer
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Consommé Alexandra
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 539, Consommé Alexandra, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
A clear chicken consommé gains the faintest body from tapioca, then carries fine chicken julienne, long grooved quenelles, and lettuce chiffonade, each garnish distinct beneath the shimmering golden broth.
Soups & Stews
French
Dinner Party
Special Occasion
Make Ahead
25 min
Active Time
35 min cook•1 hr total
YieldAbout 2 quarts (8 first-course servings)
Consommé Alexandra (clarified chicken broth with tapioca, chicken, quenelles, and lettuce) teaches the discipline of clarity. The broth must remain brilliant enough to show every garnish beneath it, while the tapioca gives only the faintest body. One true thing before you touch a pan: if the consommé is not excellent and clear, nothing added later can disguise it.
The original assumed a saucier with chicken consommé always ready, a garnish station holding poached tapioca and quenelles, and muslin close at hand. Your honest equivalent is one saucepan, a fine sieve lined with damp cheesecloth, a warmed tureen, and the garnishes prepared in small quantities. The station is brigade scaffolding and can go; the clear consommé, separate poaching, precise ratio, and final boiling pour are the dish, so they stay. The book's quart formula is doubled here to about two quarts for eight first-course bowls, every proportion kept intact. One cook, one stove, one evening.
Done well, the broth is golden and lightly silken, with transparent tapioca, white chicken matchsticks, long grooved quenelles, and tender green ribbons holding their identities in each spoonful. Rinse the poached tapioca until the runoff is perfectly clear before it touches the consommé; that is the step that decides whether Alexandra gleams or goes murky.
Consommé Alexandra belongs to the formal Parisian dining room, where named consommés distinguished themselves through garnishes arranged with almost heraldic precision. Its title is generally linked to Queen Alexandra and to the classical custom of dedicating refined preparations to royal figures. Tapioca here is not a creamy pudding ingredient: poached until transparent, it gives the broth scarcely perceptible body while the chicken, quenelles, and lettuce remain visible and distinct.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
excellent chicken consommé
Quantity
8 cups (1.9 L / 1.9 kg)
crystal clear and fully defatted
dry small pearl tapioca
Quantity
3 tablespoons (45 ml / 30 g), yielding exactly 6 tablespoons (90 ml / 85 g) once poached
water
Quantity
6 cups (1.4 L / 1.4 kg)
for poaching and rinsing the tapioca
cooked white chicken meat
Quantity
2 tablespoons (30 ml / 25 g)
cut julienne-fashion into fine matchstick rods
prepared small chicken quenelles
Quantity
2 tablespoons (30 ml / 30 g)
poached, grooved, and long in shape
prepared Chiffonade
Quantity
2 tablespoons (30 ml / 8 g) Chiffonade (No. 215)
made with very tender lettuce
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| excellent chicken consommécrystal clear and fully defatted | 8 cups (1.9 L / 1.9 kg) |
| dry small pearl tapioca | 3 tablespoons (45 ml / 30 g), yielding exactly 6 tablespoons (90 ml / 85 g) once poached |
| waterfor poaching and rinsing the tapioca | 6 cups (1.4 L / 1.4 kg) |
| cooked white chicken meatcut julienne-fashion into fine matchstick rods | 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 25 g) |
| prepared small chicken quenellespoached, grooved, and long in shape | 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 30 g) |
| prepared Chiffonademade with very tender lettuce | 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 8 g) Chiffonade (No. 215) |
Equipment Needed
- •3-quart heavy saucepan
- •Small saucepan
- •Fine-mesh sieve
- •Damp muslin or double-layered cheesecloth
- •Slotted spoon
- •2 to 2.5-quart soup tureen
Instructions
- 1
Ready the foundation
Set the chicken consommé over gentle heat in a large saucepan. Ladle 1 cup into a smaller pan for poaching the lettuce, then fill the soup tureen and serving bowls with hot water so they lose their chill. Keep the remaining consommé below a simmer while the garnishes are prepared; prolonged boiling dulls its flavour and agitates the particles that careful clarification removed.
- 2
Poach the tapioca
Bring the water to an active simmer and rain in the dry tapioca, stirring gently so the pearls don't gather on the bottom. Poach for 18 to 25 minutes, or until every pearl is transparent with no chalky white centre. Drain through a fine sieve lined with damp cheesecloth, then rinse under a thin stream of very hot water until the runoff is perfectly clear. If the pearls remain white or shed milky starch, return them to fresh simmering water for 3 to 5 minutes and rinse again. Measure exactly 6 tablespoons of cooked tapioca; the ratio is deliberate.
Use small pearl tapioca, not instant tapioca starch. The pearls should remain visible and distinct, not dissolve into a thickened broth. - 3
Poach the chiffonade
Bring the reserved cup of consommé to the barest tremble. Add the prepared Chiffonade (No. 215), made with tender lettuce, and poach it gently for 30 minutes without allowing the liquid to boil. Lift out the softened ribbons with a small sieve and keep them warm. Pass their poaching liquid through damp cheesecloth into the main saucepan without pressing on the leaves.
- 4
Warm the garnishes
Warm the chicken julienne and prepared quenelles in a ladleful of consommé for 2 to 3 minutes at a bare tremble. This is warming, not a second cooking. A hard boil roughens the chicken and can split the quenelles; if one opens, lower the heat at once and leave that piece behind. Drain the garnishes, returning their liquid through the fine sieve to the main saucepan.
- 5
Bind the consommé
Add the measured 6 tablespoons of poached tapioca to the main saucepan and raise the heat until the consommé reaches one quiet boil. Taste for seasoning without stirring aggressively. If the tapioca clouds the broth, don't whisk it. Ça se rattrape: lift out the pearls, let the liquid settle for 2 minutes, pass it through fresh damp cheesecloth without pressing, rinse the tapioca once more in hot water, and reunite the two.
- 6
Fill the tureen
Empty and dry the warmed tureen. Arrange the chicken julienne, grooved quenelles, and poached Chiffonade (No. 215) across its bottom, keeping the three garnishes distinct. Pour the boiling tapioca-bound consommé over them in one steady stream and carry it directly to the table. This soup waits for no one. À table!
Chef Tips
- •The foundation must be true chicken consommé, transparent, concentrated, and lightly gelatinous when cold. A cloudy stock may taste splendid, but it belongs in another soup because Alexandra cannot hide it.
- •Measure the tapioca after poaching. Dry pearls absorb water at different rates, while the source ratio is exact: 3 tablespoons of clear cooked tapioca for every quart of consommé.
- •Cut the chicken julienne-fashion into rods no thicker than a matchstick. Shape the quenelles with two damp teaspoons and press shallow grooves along them with fork tines; the fork is the honest home equivalent of a grooved quenelle mold.
- •Use the tender inner leaves for the Chiffonade (No. 215). Thick ribs remain coarse after poaching and disturb the delicacy of the broth.
- •Serve from a warmed tureen into warmed bowls. A dry Champagne or a mineral Chablis suits the clear, restrained character of the consommé.
Advance Preparation
- •The chicken consommé can be clarified, defatted, and chilled up to 3 days ahead, or frozen for up to 1 month. Reheat it gently so its clarity remains intact.
- •The chicken julienne and poached quenelles can be prepared 1 day ahead and refrigerated under a little consommé. Warm them at a bare tremble shortly before service.
- •The Chiffonade (No. 215) can be prepared several hours ahead, but poach it in consommé on the day of service so the lettuce remains tender and green.
- •The tapioca may be poached up to 2 hours ahead. Rinse it clear, hold it covered with cool water, then drain and rinse once more with hot water before measuring.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 255g)
Calories
60 calories
Total Fat
1 g
Saturated Fat
0 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
1 g
Cholesterol
10 mg
Sodium
800 mg
Total Carbohydrates
5 g
Dietary Fiber
0 g
Sugars
0 g
Protein
7 g
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