Vol-au-Vent — Print Recipe — The Culinary Codex

A crisp, towering puff pastry case filled with tender chicken, mushrooms, and veal meatballs in a velvety cream sauce — a beloved Belgian Sunday lunch classic.

Ingredients

4 large puff pastry vol-au-vent cases
500g chicken breast, poached and cubed
200g button mushrooms, quartered
200g veal meatballs
60g unsalted butter
40g all-purpose flour
500ml chicken stock
200ml heavy cream
2 egg yolks
Juice of half a lemon
1 tbsp fresh tarragon, chopped
Salt and white pepper
Pinch of nutmeg

Instructions

1 Bake vol-au-vent pastry cases according to package directions until golden and puffed. Keep warm.
2 Poach chicken breasts in stock for 20 min. Remove, cube, and reserve the stock.
3 Pan-fry veal meatballs in butter until browned. Add mushrooms and cook 5 min. Remove and set aside.
4 Make a velouté: melt butter, stir in flour, cook 2 min. Gradually whisk in reserved stock. Simmer 10 min until smooth.
5 Whisk egg yolks with cream and lemon juice. Temper with hot sauce, then stir back into the pot. Do not boil.
6 Fold in chicken, meatballs, mushrooms, and tarragon. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
7 Spoon the filling into warm pastry cases. Replace the pastry lids and serve immediately with frites.

Did You Know?

In Belgium, vol-au-vent is so beloved that it appears on the menu of nearly every traditional brasserie, and heated debates rage over whether it should contain sweetbreads.