Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Chicken with Mustard Cream Sauce

This is another pre-resolution recipe. Like the pork chops & apple chutney recipe, it's from a very useful little book called called Quick Food: Easy Everyday Ideas for Busy Cooks.

The sauce was always good - plate-licking good, in fact. And now I've actually heard of fond and deglazing, and thus no longer make the mistake of using a non-stick pan, it's even better.

They suggest serving with green beans and baby yellow squash (we normally just do potatoes).

The Recipe: Chicken with Mustard Cream Sauce
From Quick Food: Easy Everyday Ideas for Busy Cooks

4 6oz chicken breasts
2 tbspn vegetable oil
1 clove garlic, crushed [we have to use shallot]
0.25 cup dry white wine
2 tbspn whole-grain mustard
2 tspn chopped fresh thyme [we typically use dry - about half the amount]
1.25 cups whipping cream [we use half & half]

Serves 4

1. Pound each chicken breast between sheets of plastic wrap with a mallet or rolling pin until about 0.5 inch thick [don't really like pounding meat, so we just adjust the cooking time].

2. Heat the oil in a frying pan over high heat. Cook the chicken breasts for 4-5 mins on each side or until done. Remove and cover with aluminum foil.

3. Add the garlic to the frying pan and cook for 1 min over medium heat, then deglaze with the wine, and add mustard and thyme. Increase the heat to medium-high and pour in the cream. Simmer for 5 mins or until the sauce has reduced and thickened slightly, then season to taste.

4. Serve, pouring a little [actually, you'll want a lot!] of the sauce over each chicken breast.

Thoughts/Tips/Mistakes

Have made this a few times now, so generally manage it without messing anything up.

Pix

Sauce thickening:















On the plate:

3 comments:

Bob said...

Looks great, love mustard/cream sauce. Heh, fond is key. It took me years to figure out how to do it properly, but it's so worth it.

Anonymous said...

yuuuum...the perfect set up to a night of cookie eating!

Yesica N. Cook said...

@Bob: thanks! though not sure that I know how to do fond properly, any tips gratefully received.

@"Anon": thanks! you'd know! :)