French Chicken in White Sauce
Looking to make that next level dish for a special occasion? If you're like me you probably want that next level taste without having to learn next level difficult techniques. I found that to produce such a dish you simply need to cook certain foods together and they'll do all the work for you.
I was looking to make a special dish for my wonderful girlfriend just as a way to say "Hey, we cook together all the time, but tonight I'm going to cook a little something special for you." After searching the interweb I found a recipe I'd like to share with all of you. What I liked most about this dish is that it once you make it you'll never forget how to make it. I say this because when reading the directions it seemed more complicated than it actually was. I'm not a fan of complicated.
Whether you are a big fan of rice or pasta, this dish is very adaptable in that you can surely add or substitute your favorite veggies or grains for anything in the ingredient list. I think that risotto might go very well with this dish, but Kiley and I were both a fan of serving the chicken with pasta (I chose farfelle because I like the way it looks!). So, try being inspired by the French tonight and bon appetit!
French Chicken in White Sauce
Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter
4-lb. chicken, cut into 6 pieces (or 3-1/2 to 4 lb. chicken pieces)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 medium carrot, finely chopped
1/2 rib celery, finely chopped
2 oz. prosciutto or country ham, finely chopped
3/4 cup dry white wine
3/4 cup homemade or low-salt canned chicken stock
3 Tbs. heavy cream (at room temperature)
Chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
Directions
1. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook the chicken until it is mostly cooked with only a hint of pink in the middle. Remove the chicken and place on a plate.
2. Add the onion, carrot, celery, and prosciutto or ham and sauté until the onion is browned and the vegetables are softened, 8 to 10 minutes. Add the wine and chicken stock to the pan and stir to combine with vegetables.
3. Put the chicken back into the pan. Bring the liquid to a boil, reduce to a simmer, cover the skillet with a lid, and simmer the chicken in the sauce until cooked through, 20 to 25 minutes.
4. Remove the chicken from the pan, turn the heat to high and bring the liquid to a boil. Reduce the volume of liquid by half and continue boiling, until desired consistancy. Add the cream, stir to combine, and remove the pan from the heat.
5. Transfer the chicken to wide soup plates; taste and season the sauce with salt and pepper if necessary and spoon it over the chicken. Sprinkle with the chopped parsley.
Personal Notes
-In the pictures I used ham and I also reduced the amount of chicken I used (I used enough chicken for two people, also my chicken was skinless)
-This seemed like more of a "served over pasta dish" to us, but feel free to serve over rice, or just with other vegetables
-Cutting the carrots and celery took the majority of the time, so budget time for chopping up the vegetables
-I added chopped mushrooms after removing the chicken in step 4
Adapted from: Fine Cooking
Posted by Efrain on: 4/13/14