As I mentioned previously, I’m translating my grandmother’s recipes, the ones she hand wrote one summer when she was visiting us from Haiti. I wanted to start off easy so I chose Poulet à la Crème, or chicken in a cream sauce. The recipe calls for cooking the chicken (or duck) in its own juices until tender and has a good yellow color. Put the chicken, piece by piece, in a buttered oven dish. Add a can of evaporated milk and a can of cream of mushroom soup. Mix them well and cover the chicken. Add grated cheese to lightly cover the chicken and then bake until the chicken is fully done.

Since my grandmother’s notes were a little vague, here’s a more detailed description of how I cooked it:

• Cleaned pieces of chicken thigh and leg with vinegar
• Sauteed a chopped (not too finely chopped) yellow onion in a lot of vegetable oil over medium heat
• Added the chicken, seasoned it with a lot of salt and pepper, let it cook covered for about 20 minutes
• Once the chicken browned a bit, removed it from the stove
• Buttered a baking dish and placed the chicken in the dish
• Spooned the onion mixture over the chicken
• Whisked together in a separate bowl a can of evaporated milk and a can of cream of celery (Daniel doesn’t like mushrooms so I swapped it out for celery instead) and then poured that mixture over the chicken
• Sprinkled grated Romano cheese over the chicken (I suppose you could choose any cheese that you like)
• Placed it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes until the chicken was fully cooked
• Served it with a side of white rice

Chicken cooking, seasoned with salt and pepper.

Preparing the chicken to bake, lightly covered in grated Romano cheese.

Whisking evaporated milk and a can of cream of celery soup.

Et voila!