Chef Juliette
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Culinary Explorer
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Consommé aux Diablotins
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 560, Consommé aux Diablotins, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
Clear chicken consommé meets crisp flute rounds crowned with cayenne-sharp Béchamel and Gruyère, glazed gold at the last minute. The lesson is timing: keep broth brilliant, keep diablotins proud, and unite them only at service.
Soups & Stews
French
Dinner Party
Special Occasion
Make Ahead
20 min
Active Time
20 min cook•40 min total
YieldAbout 2 quarts (8 first-course servings)
Consommé aux Diablotins (clear chicken broth with cayenne-cheese flute rounds) teaches the discipline of last-minute contrast. The consommé must remain brilliant and the diablotins must reach it crisp at the edges, melting at the crown. Marry them early and both lose the thing that makes them worth serving. Before you touch a pan, know this: the garnish waits for the broth, never the broth for the garnish.
The original assumed a saucier on staff, a stock never off the fire, and a salamander ready to glaze each tray. At home, finished chicken consommé, one small saucepan, and an overhead broiler do the same jobs. The brigade's repeated holding and replenishing are scaffolding and can go; this version makes one two-quart dinner-party tureen, using the source ratio twice, while the Béchamel reduction, off-heat Gruyère, domed shape, and last-minute glaze remain untouched. A French soup flute is simply a long crisp roll, and a slender baguette is its honest home equivalent. One cook, one stove, one evening.
Reduce the Béchamel until a spoon drawn across the pan leaves a furrow that stays open. That thickness is the hinge: too loose and the domes slump before they can glaze. Get the reduction right before the Gruyère goes in, and the rest is timing.
Consommé aux Diablotins belongs to the classical Parisian dining room, where a clear consommé was often named for the garnish added at service rather than for a change made to the broth. Diablotins are crisp bread rounds capped with cheese and cayenne, their little-devils name pointing to the pepper's heat, not to a province or rustic soup tradition. The garnish passed naturally from grand kitchens to bourgeois dinner tables because the consommé and Béchamel could wait, while the rounds needed only a final glaze before the tureen appeared.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
finished chicken consommé
Quantity
8 cups (1.9 L / 1.9 kg)
finished Béchamel
Quantity
1 cup (240 ml / 245 g)
French soup flute (long crisp roll), or a slender baguette
Quantity
24 slices, each 1/4 inch (6 mm) thick, about 3 oz (85 g) total
cut into even rounds
Gruyère cheese
Quantity
4 heaped tablespoons (about 80 ml / 45 g)
finely grated
cayenne pepper
Quantity
1/8 teaspoon (0.6 ml / 0.2 g)
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| finished chicken consommé | 8 cups (1.9 L / 1.9 kg) |
| finished Béchamel | 1 cup (240 ml / 245 g) |
| French soup flute (long crisp roll), or a slender baguettecut into even rounds | 24 slices, each 1/4 inch (6 mm) thick, about 3 oz (85 g) total |
| Gruyère cheesefinely grated | 4 heaped tablespoons (about 80 ml / 45 g) |
| cayenne pepper | 1/8 teaspoon (0.6 ml / 0.2 g) |
Equipment Needed
- •Small heavy-bottomed saucepan
- •3-quart saucepan with lid
- •Rimmed sheet pan lined with parchment
- •Small offset spatula or two teaspoons
- •Overhead broiler
- •2 1/2-quart soup tureen
- •Soup ladle
Instructions
- 1
Prepare the flute rounds
Cut 24 even rounds from the soup flute, each 1/4 inch (6 mm) thick. A narrow, crisp roll gives small rounds that float without taking command of the bowl. Arrange them in one layer on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Do not oil or butter them; the Béchamel and Gruyère supply all the richness they need.
If the bread has a soft crust, leave the slices uncovered while you prepare the topping. A little surface drying helps the edges crisp beneath the broiler. - 2
Reduce the Béchamel
Put the finished Béchamel in a small heavy saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir continuously with a heatproof spatula for 5 to 8 minutes, scraping the corners, until it has reduced to about 3/4 cup (180 ml), falls heavily from the spatula, and holds a furrow across the pan for several seconds. Take the pan completely off the heat. Stir in the Gruyère and cayenne just until the cheese melts and the mixture becomes smooth. The off-heat addition matters: fierce heat makes Gruyère stringy and oily.
If the Béchamel catches on the pan floor, stop stirring and transfer the clean upper portion to another pan without scraping the scorched layer. A scorched flavor cannot be whisked away. - 3
Build the domes
While the mixture is still pliable, place about 2 teaspoons on each flute round. Use the back of a teaspoon or a small offset spatula to shape each portion into a neat rounded dome, keeping it just inside the bread's edge. If the topping spreads flat, it is too warm or slightly under-reduced. Ça se rattrape: chill the tray for 5 to 10 minutes, then lift the topping back into domes before glazing.
- 4
Heat the consommé
Set an oven rack 5 to 6 inches (13 to 15 cm) below the broiler and preheat it on high. Meanwhile, fill the soup tureen with hot water to warm it. Heat the chicken consommé in a covered saucepan until the surface quivers and the first small bubbles appear at the edge. Keep it at that bare simmer, not a rolling boil, while the diablotins glaze.
- 5
Glaze under the broiler
Slide the tray beneath the fully heated broiler and watch without leaving the stove. Glaze the diablotins for 1 to 3 minutes, until the domes swell slightly, the Gruyère melts, and the tops turn butter-gold with deeper bronze freckles. If the tray colors unevenly, rotate it once. Lift out any rounds that brown ahead of the others rather than sacrificing them while the pale ones catch up.
- 6
Assemble at the table
Empty and dry the warmed tureen, then pour in the hot consommé. Lift the diablotins from the tray with a thin spatula and float them gently on the broth. Serve immediately, allowing three diablotins per person. They soften if held and can cloud the consommé, so this final minute is part of the technique, not ceremony. À table!
Chef Tips
- •A consommé is not merely good chicken stock. It must be thoroughly clarified, free of grease, and seasoned enough to taste complete on its own; the diablotins enrich it, but they cannot give a cloudy broth its missing discipline.
- •Choose the narrowest crisp flute or baguette available. Broad slices overwhelm a consommé cup and require too much topping, while small rounds float neatly and leave room for the broth.
- •Grate the Gruyère finely from a piece. Coarse shreds melt unevenly, and packaged grated cheese is often dusted with starch that dulls the smooth Béchamel crown.
- •The cayenne should sharpen the finish, not announce itself before the chicken. Taste the cheese mixture off the heat, remembering that the hot consommé will carry the pepper more clearly.
- •Serve with dry Champagne or a mineral Chablis. Both cut through the Gruyère while leaving the consommé's delicate chicken flavor intact.
Advance Preparation
- •The finished chicken consommé can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 3 months. Reheat it gently and remove any fat that has set on the surface before serving.
- •The Béchamel can be reduced and mixed with the Gruyère and cayenne a day ahead. Press parchment directly against its surface, refrigerate it, then let it stand for about 15 minutes and stir until spreadable. Do not heat it hard once the cheese is in.
- •The flute rounds may be sliced earlier in the day and kept dry at room temperature. Shape and glaze the diablotins only near serving time so the bread stays crisp.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 280g)
Calories
120 calories
Total Fat
5 g
Saturated Fat
3 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
2 g
Cholesterol
20 mg
Sodium
910 mg
Total Carbohydrates
10 g
Dietary Fiber
0 g
Sugars
2 g
Protein
9 g
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