Escoffier's four types of chicken

I'm learning french and thought I would check out the master himself, auguste escoffier, and I bought "Ma Cuisine" on my kindle. In looking at the poultry section, he identifies four types of chicken.

The four types are:

Les Poulardes et Chapons (fattened chickens)
Les Poulets dits <<a la Reine>> (chicken that says "to the queen") ????
Les Poulets de grain
Les Poussins (chicks?? ewwwww)

I think 1 and 4 I basically understand, but I couldn't find anything on "dits <<a la Reine>>"

chicken french-cuisine

Best Answer

I am French, and while I am not an Escoffier specialist and could not guarantee what is exactly his recipe of "poulet à la reine" (which here would translate more as "chicken queens' style), but I can bring some elements of clarification :)

It is a recipe based on a vol-au-vent ("windblown") which is basically a little bowl of savory puff pastry in which you can put a lot of delicious things: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vol-au-vent

This vol-au-vent becomes a 'bouchée à la reine" when they are filled with specific ingredients like chicken, mushrooms and a sauce like béchamel (honestly now we tend to not make the difference anymore between vol-en-vent and bouchée à la reine, except for the purists).

It is called à la reine as an hommage to the queen Marie Leszczynska, Louis XV's wife, for whom the recipe was created in the 18th century. There is no English Wikipedia page, so here is the French one: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouch%C3%A9e_%C3%A0_la_reine

Voilà ! Hope you managed to finish the book!