February 12th, 2022: Tarteletter med høns i asparges (Danish Chicken and Asparagus Tartlets) & Agurkesalat (Danish Cucumber Salad) (Denmark)

“Our World Chicken Dish tour continues tonight in Denmark. What do people who live near the Arctic Circle do with chicken?

Turns out it’s Tarteletter and Agurkesalat!

Basically a chicken and asparagus open pie, and a cucumber and onion salad. One thing I’m present to is that they don’t use spice in Denmark! So we added some white pepper and peri peri to make it edible.

We used muffin tins to make the tarts with puff pastry. I pre-cooked them to give them a chance to be crisp.

The chicken was par-boiled in chicken stock before being cut up into bite size chunks.

We used canned asparagus given the time of year. The recipe called for white asparagus but we could only find green.

The sauce was made with butter, flour, milk and a little of the chicken stock. The sauce was seasoned with salt and black pepper.

The pies were filled with chicken, asparagus, and sauce, then chopped with parsley and put in the 350-degree oven till the crust browned, about 30-minutes.

The salad was a cucumber and sweet onion salad. It was marinated in a vinegar, sugar and salt bath in the fridge for about an hour.

A comfort food sort of meal. Something I would expect north of the Arctic Circle!”

Chef Chasan Recipe Notes

Tarteletter med høns i asparges (Danish Chicken and Asparagus Tartlets)

• Prep Time: 40-minutes
• Cook Time: 10-minutes
• Serves: 4-6

Ingredients:

• 3 boned, skinned chicken thighs
• 6 c. water
• 3/4 c. chicken bone stock
• 3/4 c. milk
• 5.5 T. butter
• 4 T. flour
• salt & black pepper, to taste
• 2 tsp. white pepper
• 1/2 tsp. peri peri
• 14 oz. canned green asparagus or fresh asparagus; preferably white asparagus
• frozen puff pastry for 6 tartlets (Used large muffin tin)
• parsley, chopped for garnish

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350-degrees
2. Boil the water and add the chicken bone stock.
3. Add the chicken meat and cook for 20-minutes.
4. Take out the chicken and cut into smaller pieces, preferably in small squares.
5. Save the water from the cooked chicken.
6. If using fresh asparagus, cook it until tender and cut into smaller pieces.
7. Grab a saucepan and add butter and flour stirring until the butter has melted.
8. Add milk and some water from the cooked chicken into the sauce to thin sauce slightly.
9. Add salt, black pepper, peri peri and white pepper to the sauce and let simmer for a few minutes.
10. Add the asparagus and chicken to the sauce and make sure everything is heated through.
11. Fill 6 muffin tins with puff pastry and bake for 10-minutes to pre-bake crusts for crispness.
12. Now it’s time to fill the tartlets.
13. Bake tartlets for 40-minutes or until the shell was crisp and golden brown.
14. When finished, chop some fresh parsley and garnish on top of the tartlets.

Agurkesalat (Danish Cucumber Salad)

• Prep Time: 1-hour 25-minutes
• Serves: 6

Ingredients:

• 1 English cucumber
• salt, to taste
• 1 c. water
• 1 c. white vinegar
• 4 T. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper
• sweet onion; thinly sliced

Directions:

• Wash and peel cucumber. Cut cucumber into very thin slices and place in medium bowl, salt lightly, and let stand for 15 minutes.
• Pour off all liquid from cucumber. In a small bowl mix together the water, vinegar, sugar and pepper. Thinly sliced sweet onions can be placed in the salad also according to taste and this is optional. Pour mixture over the cucumbers and place in the refrigerator for one hour or until chilled. Drain off liquid again or serve with a slotted spoon.