Chicken Bacon Chestnut Pâté Recipe aka “The Gateway Pâté”

This Chicken Bacon Chestnut Pâté is the perfect Holiday Party appetizer or fall picnic fair. Studded with seasonal chestnuts, garnished with fresh herbs, wrapped up in caul (or bacon or swiss chard), this pâté is both impressive and approachable.

When I started making pâté commercially in the California Foothills over 10 years ago, charcuterie was not quite hip yet and pâté was not widely appreciated. It took a lot of convincing to get my Farmer’s Market customers to give it a try. On top of general hesitancy about “strange organ meats”, many people had recently discovered that they were allergic to gluten which was another thing stacking against the humble pâté, as most pâté uses bread or flour as a binder. I developed this recipe to be a “Gateway Pâté”. To remove all the reasons not to try it. To be the pâté that you could serve at a party where everyone had different dietary preferences. This recipe is gluten-free and contains no offal. It is a Country-Style pâté- a sliceable loaf. One loaf pan serves about 30 people as an appetizer or 15 as a lunch portion, and it freezes well. Stock your freezer to have on hand for spur-of-the-moment gatherings or as luncheon meat for yourself and your family at home.

Making Country-Style Pâté is a lot like making sausage. It’s a bit of a project. For that reason, I usually triple this recipe and make enough to freeze and give away as presents. It’s just as much work to make one loaf pan as it is to make 3😉.

Steps to Making Country-Style Pâté

1. Prep the Mixture

Dice the chicken and bacon and mix with sauteed shallots, fresh herbs, and dry spices. In a separate bowl, combine the garnishes. I like textural variation in country pâté, so I dice a little bit of the chicken breast and set it aside as an internal garnish with the chestnuts. In a third bowl mix the eggs, cream, and sherry or port.

2. Grind or Chop the Meat

For small batches like this recipe, you can pulse the meat in your food processor or put it through the grinder, or buy the chicken already ground and hand mince the bacon by hand. If you scale this recipe up through, I recommend a good grinder. I grind half the mixture through the medium die and half through the course die, that’s a personal preference.

3. Mix the Meat

This is how you hand mix pâté or sausage. Mix the meat, add the cream, eggs, and sherry or port and mix for 5 minutes. Make sure the mixture is very cold when you start. You may want to put it in the freezer for 30 minutes after grinding. For a small batch like this recipe, you could use your kitchen aid mixer and the paddle attachment.

Once the seasoned meat is mixed with the liquid mix, fold in the garnishes. In this case, the chopped chestnuts and diced chicken breast.

4. Wrap the Pâté Loaf

Oil the loaf pan. Line it with caul fat. Alternatively, you can line it with overlapping bacon slices or you could use swiss chard leaves (destemmed). Swiss chard leaves give the pâté a dramatic look. You can use swiss chard leaves and caul fat together (as I have done) with the caul on the outside of the loaf. I use swiss chard leaves on the pâté that is going to be eaten within a couple of days. The pâté that I plan to store and freeze, I make without the swiss chard because I believe it decreases the shelf life of the product.

Another variation to making a full loaf is to wrap individual portions with caul to make “crepinettes”. Pack these crepinettes into the loaf pan so they fit snugly. If you don’t have a vacuum sealer, I think this works best for long-term storage as the caul fat prevents oxygen from having direct contact with the pâté.

Bake the Pâté

Bake the pâté for about 1 hour to 1 hour and 15minutes in a 300F oven. Temp the center, it should be 155.

Cool and Weight the Pate

Let the pâté sit on a cooling rack until just warmer than room temperature. If you have a cool garage, go ahead and let it rest in there. Press plastic wrap onto the surface of the pâté and wrap the loaf pan thoroughly. Cut a piece of cardboard to fit the loaf pan. Set it inside the loaf pan on top of the pâté and place a couple of cans from your pantry on it. Place the loaf pan in the fridge on a wire rack to facilitate cooling.

Store Until Ready to Serve

After a day or 2 in the fridge, remove the pâté to serve or prep for long-term storage. Use a small spatula to separate the pâté from the loaf pan, or set the loaf pan in some hot water for about 1 minute to melt the fat inside. Invert the loaf pan onto a cutting board. Slice the pâté to serve or cut chunks of it, vacuum seal or wrap very tightly with plastic wrap and freeze in portions.

In the loaf pan, this pâté will last about 1 week in the fridge. Vacuum sealed in portions, it will last for 1-2 months in the fridge.

Chicken Bacon Chestnut Pâté Recipe. 1 Loaf Pan

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• Author: Kara Taylor- Home Cooks Guide
• Prep Time: 1 hour
• Cook Time: 1 hour
• Total Time: 2 hours
• Yield: 1 loaf 1x
• Category: Charcuterie
• Method: Baking
• Cuisine: French
• Diet: Gluten Free

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Description

This recipe has been scaled down to make 1 loaf pan.

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

1 1/2 lb chicken (boneless skinless thigh/ breast)

1/3 lb bacon (preferably Dry-Cured)

20 grams (3 T) diced shallot or onion

1/3 cup chopped fresh herbs (thyme, chives, parsley, tarragon, and/or sage)

12 grams salt

1.3 grams Curing Salt #1 (optional)

2 grams ground black pepper

pinch of ground nutmeg

pinch of ground ginger

pinch of ground coriander

pinch of ground clove

1 gram ground allspice

2 bay leaves ground (easier if you to this with the peppercorns)

1 eggs

2 T Sherry or Tawny Port

1/3 cup cream

1/3 cup chopped prepared chestnuts (fresh roasted and peeled, jar or frozen)

caul, thinly sliced bacon or swiss chard for wrapping

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Instructions

In a large bowl, add the diced chicken, diced bacon, sauteed onion, and minced herbs.  If you want to, reserve some diced chicken breast for the garnish.

In a small bowl bowl, mix together all the dry spices then add these to the meat and mix to combine.

In another small, add the chopped chestnuts and diced chicken breast if you would like to include that in the garnish.  Refrigerate this.

In another bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk the egg, cream and port or sherry.  Refrigerate this.

Grind or chop the meat, either using a grinder or pulse it in your food processor in small batches.

Place the meat mixture in the freezer for 30 minutes or the refrigerator for 1 hour.  This is a good time to get reorganized and do some dishes.

Preheat the oven to 300 F.

Once the meat is nice and chilled, put it in your stand mixer (or you can mix this by hand).  Add the cream and egg mixture and mix on medium for about 5 minutes or until well combined and sticky looking.

Fold in the chestnuts and diced chicken breast (if you reserved some).

Oil your loaf pan.  Line it with caul, or overlapping bacon slices.  If you would like, layer swiss chard leaves on top of the caul.  Then fill with the force meat.  Pressing down as you go to minimize air bubbles.  Fold the caul (or bacon) over the top of the pâté.

Bake the pâté for 60-75 minutes or until your probe thermometer reads 155 F (That’s not a typo.  For more info on cooking temperatures I recommend this read, How to Cook Meat Part 1) Remove the pâté.  Let it cool in the loaf pan on a cooling rack until it is about room temperature.

Cut a piece of cardboard to fit inside the loaf pan.  Press plastic wrap onto the surface of the pâté and fully wrap the loaf pan.  Place the cardboard on top of the pâté and weight it down with cans from your pantry.  Refrigerate for 1-2 days before serving.

To Serve:

Loosen the pâté from the loaf pan with a spatula or set it in hot water to melt the fat.  Invert the loaf pan onto a clean cutting board and slice it into portions.  

Store about 1 weeks worth in the fridge. With the rest, cut it into portions and very tightly wrap with plastic wrap or vacuum sealed.  Vacuum sealed it will last 1-2 months.  It will freeze for up to 6 months.

Serve this pâté with good bread or crackers, preserved fruit, nuts, cornichons, and/or mustard.

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Equipment

| Kitchen Aid 6 Qt Stand Mixer |

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