The history of coronation chicken and how to make the original recipe from Queen's crowning (2024)

The KingandQueenhave personally chosen a recipe for “coronationquiche” to mark next month’s crowning, featuring spinach, broad beans and tarragon.

Charles and Camilla shared the recipe, that was designed incelebration of the Big Lunchesthat will be staged to mark theircoronationon6 May, via the Royal Family’s official website and social media accounts.

The recipe comes from royal head chef Mark Flanagan and was chosen by the King and Queen in collaboration with him.

Former Buckingham Palace chef Darren McGrady said the King’s choice came as no surprise because Charles loves anything with eggs and cheese.

For Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953,coronation chicken– cold chicken in a curry cream sauce with a well-seasoned dressed salad of rice, green peas and mixed herbs – was invented to feed the foreign guests who were entertained at Buckingham Palace after the ceremony, and has become something of a staple ever since. Here’s the history of the dish, and the original 1953 recipe.

History of coronation chicken

Coronation chicken’s inception was something of an accident, and came from Buckingham Palace’s failure to anticipate how many people would travel to London for Queen Elizabeth II’s 1953 coronation.

The palace had 350 foreign dignitaries to feed and entertain after the service at Westminster Abbey, but was unable to book London’s typical establishment locations, such as the Dorchester Hotel, as they were already full with guests who had made advance bookings.

This left officials with a significant dilemma – they needed both a venue and a way to feed their guests an impressive meal. They eventually chose the great hall of Westminster School for the venue – but it did not have a kitchen.

In a moment of panic, David Eccles, the minister of works in charge of proceedings, wrote to his good friend Constance Spry – co-founder of London’s L’Ecole du Petit Cordon Bleu cookery school (now Le Cordon Bleu) with Rosemary Hume – explaining that he needed a dish that could be served cold to hundreds of guests, and would suit the austerity era and a relatively tight budget.

“Let me and Rosemary Hume do it,” Spry replied. “Find us a room somewhere near the Abbey, and we’ll do the rest.”

They came up with a menu that included the newly-created coronation chicken, though it appeared under the French name ofPoulet Reine Elizabeth, on the official coronation banquet menu, alongside “potage de tomate de l’estragon, truite de rivière, galettes aux fraises, mousse au citron” and a 1945 Krug champagne.

Spry first shared the original recipe for coronation chicken in her 1956The Constance Spry Cookery Book.

She put it in the section of her book titled “Curries and dishes flavoured with curry”, where she writes: “I doubt whether many of the three hundred odd guests at the coronation luncheon detected this ingredient [the curry powder] in a chicken dish which was distinguished mainly by a delicate and nut-like flavour in the sauce.”

You may notice there are no sultanas in the official recipe below. These were a later addition, though not one supported by its creators. Angela Wood, a Cordon Bleu student who helped to develop the dish,said on This Morning ahead of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee: “Why people put sultanas and things like that in it, I just can’t think.”

Original coronation chicken recipe

Serves eight

See Also

Crispy Chickpeas With Beef Recipe

Ingredients

Chicken

• 2 roasting chickens
• 1 carrot
• 1 bouquet garni
• Water, as needed
• Splash of white wine
• Pinch of salt
• 4 peppercorns

Sauce

• 60g onion, chopped
• 2 tsp curry powder
• 1 tsp tomato purée
• 100ml red wine
• 100ml water
• 1 bay leaf
• Lemon slices and lemon juice
• 3 tbsp apricot purée or apricot jam
• 310g mayonnaise
• 3 tbsp whipped cream, and more if needed
• 1 tbsp oil
• Salt and pepper, as needed
• Sugar

Method

• Fill a large pot with water, then bring the water to a boil. Lower the heat, so there’s barely a simmer present
• Place the chicken and all the other ingredients, taking care that the chickens are entirely submerged. Poach for an hour to an hour and a half, until the meat falls off the bone
• Take off the heat and let the chicken cool completely while in the water. Once cool, debone the chicken and remove the skin. Shred the meat
• Sauté the onion in oil for 3-4 minutes, then add the curry powder and sauté for another minute or two
• Add the tomato purée, the wine, the water, and the bay leaf, and bring to a boil
• Once boiling, add the lemon slices, the lemon juice, the salt, the pepper, and the sugar. Simmer uncovered for 5-10 minutes. Filter and let cool
• Once cooled, add the mayonnaise and the apricot purée in increments. Season with salt and pepper, and add more lemon juice if needed. At the end, stir in the whipped cream
• Coat the chicken in the sauce, stir in a bit of whipped cream, and season some more if needed, making sure to save some sauce for later
• Serve with a salad and some leftover sauce

Why has quiche been chosen for the King’s coronation?

Mr McGrady, who worked for the late Queen for 15 years, said he had made quiche for Charles many times.

“It’s no surprise that the King Charles III has shared coronation quiche to celebrate his coronation,” he tweeted. “His mother, The Queen loved chocolate, but The King loves anything with eggs and cheese.

“Made this for him many times… especially with salmon he’d caught in the River Dee.”

Buckingham Palace said the quiche was chosen because it worked as a sharing dish, can be served hot or cold, suits a wide variety of dietary requirements and can be easily adapted to suit different tastes.

The palace also said it tasted delicious and had the benefit of not being too complicated and not requiring costly or hard-to-source ingredients.

A palace chef, dressed in a white uniform, embroidered with the Queen’s EIIR cypher, and a chef’s hat, was shown making the quiche in a video posted on social media.

The Royal Family’s website described it as “a deep quiche with a crisp, light pastry case and delicate flavours of spinach, broad beans and fresh tarragon”, adding: “Eat hot or cold with a green salad and boiled new potatoes – perfect for a coronation Big Lunch!”

Quiche is known as a classic French dish, but is said have actually originated in Germany in the Middle Ages, with the word quiche coming from the German “Kuchen”, meaning cake.

Coronation quiche recipe

1 x 20cm flan tin | serves six

Ingredients

Pastry

• 125g plain flour
• Pinch of salt
• 25g cold butter, diced
• 25g lard
• 2 tablespoons milk

Or 1 x 250g block of ready-made shortcrust pastry

Filling

• 125ml milk
• 175ml double cream
• 2 medium eggs
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon
• Salt and pepper
• 100g grated cheddar cheese
• 180g cooked spinach, lightly chopped
• 60g cooked broad beans or soya beans

Method

• To make the pastry, sieve the flour and salt into a bowl; add the fats and rub the mixture together using your fingertips until you get a sandy, breadcrumb like texture. Add the milk a little at a time and bring the ingredients together into a dough. Cover and allow to rest in the fridge for 30-45 minutes
• Lightly flour the work surface and roll out the pastry to a circle a little larger than the top of the tin and approximately 5mm thick
• Line the tin with the pastry, taking care not to have any holes or the mixture could leak. Cover and rest for a further 30 minutes in the fridge
• Preheat the oven to 190°C
• Line the pastry case with greaseproof paper, add baking beans and bake blind for 15 minutes, before removing the greaseproof paper and baking beans
• Reduce the oven temperature to 160°C
• Beat together the milk, cream, eggs, herbs and seasoning
• Scatter half of the grated cheese in the blind-baked base, top with the chopped spinach and beans and herbs, then pour over the liquid mixture
• If required gently give the mixture a delicate stir to ensure the filling is evenly dispersed but be careful not to damage the pastry case
• Sprinkle over the remaining cheese. Place into the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until set and lightly golden

You can download the coronation quiche recipe here.