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Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Ask and ye shall receive a recipe!

This recipe has been adapted from "The Cuisine of California" by D. Worthington. Just so you know.

I'm going to give you the recipe as I've modified it because frankly there is not enough sauce otherwise. I mix things up by using both metric and American measurements because I can. Or "have to" is probably more accurate.

Chicken with Mustard-Tarragon Sauce
Serves 4-6 (is SAYS, but in this house it serves only 2)
Serve with steamed rice and some sautéed veggies. Oh, and a white wine.
Time to make, including prep: aprox. 1.5 hrs. (That's me including the time it takes me to get the ingredients out of their cupboards before I even start thinking about cutting stuff up.) Cooking time: 30 - 40 minutes.

Ingredients:
3 tbsp butter (divided: 2 tbsp, 1 tbsp)
2 tbsp oil (divided: 1 tbsp, 1 tbsp)
500-750 g chicken breast fillets, boneless and skinless (you can do this recipe with the breasts whole or chopped, I go with cubed because I usually pour the whole thing over rice and I hate to use cutlery while eating) (As I think about it, I have no idea how much chicken I normally use because I buy one package and chop it up. The original recipe calls for 3 whole breasts, halved... but I'm not really sure what they mean by "whole breasts".)
2 shallots, finely chopped
1/2 cup of white wine (a little more will probably not kill you)
1 cup chicken stock (I use one cup of water and half a bullion cube, because that's how I roll)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup whipping cream (or all 250 ml of your carton)
3 tablespoons of mustard (dijon, whole grain, the meatier the mustard the better)
1 tbsp fresh tarragon OR 1 tsp dried tarragon
1 tsp finely chopped fresh thyme OR 1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp salt
pepper to taste

Now what?
1) You need a large skillet. (I have also used a pot because my skillet is a bit small and tonight I'm going to use my dutch oven because I'm doubling the recipe.) Heat 2 tbsp of butter and 1 tbsp of oil in the skillet and saute your chicken over medium heat until golden brown. Remove the cooked chicken to a separate plate and cover to keep warm.
2) Add the rest of the butter and oil and when hot, add the shallots until softened. Add wine, stock and garlic and bring to a boil. Reduce. (If you want to make a mustard-tarragon glaze, you'll need to reduce until there is only 1/2 a cup of liquid and then you should only use 3/4 cup of whipping cream, but to make a sauce I usually don't reduce all that much. Or at all, come to think of it.)
3) Whisk in the cream and mustard and bring to a boil. When it's slightly thickened toss in the tarragon, thyme, salt and pepper and whisk well. Taste and adjust the amounts as needed. (I usually throw in more mustard. I REALLY LIKE mustard. And sometimes I'll add another dash of wine.)
4) Pop the chicken back in the pan and go on and pour all the chicken juices that have collected on that plate back in too. Cook for about 5 more minutes if you've cubed your chicken (because it should have cooked completely during the sautéing process and now all you need to do is warm it up) and possibly longer if you have not. No uncooked chicken here please! (If you are sautéing veg, now is the time to throw them in the hot butter or oil.)

4 comments:

  1. Ooh, that sounds really good. Im going to try it tonight. Thanks for the recipe!!

    My simple but oh so divine chicken recipe in a nutshell:

    1.Heat oil and fry 1 clove chopped garlic and 1 thumbsized piece of ginger sliced finely.
    2. Add 1 cup of water and simmer. Add cubed chicken.
    3. Add 2.5 tbs dark soya sauce, salt and dash of white pepper.
    4. Thicken with a little bit of cornflour mixed with water.

    Trust me, you are gonna lap this dish up.

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  2. Okay so.. I'm making this tonight. The wine for the recipe - red or white?

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  3. White wine! Why did I not put that in the text?? Toss white wine in the sauce and drink the rest with dinner. :-)

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  4. Tak - will let you know how it goes!

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