Chicken with Mushroom Cream Sauce

One of the nice things about chicken is its mild, straight forward flavor that goes along with so many other foods and sauces.  Which is probably why just about every culture on earth has some really great, unique and delicious, chicken recipes, that use the natives ingredients of the region.  In this recipe video, I show you how to make a simple seared chicken breast with a mushroom cream sauce.  I use chanterelle mushrooms, but you can use just about any type that’s available and that you like.  You also can leave out the cream if you’d like.  However, chicken is obviously a pretty lean meat, and the few tablespoons of cream with each chicken breast will provide a bit of fat, to help carry flavors and textures throughout your pallet.  And the calorie/fat cost is not all that significant.  Finally, you can make this dish is about 30 minutes (max) which makes it a great option, just about any day of the week. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Recipe Overview and Keys to Success

• It’s important to sear the chicken right.  Searing will both give great flavor, by caramelizing the outside of the chicken, and help ensure that you don’t over cook the breasts, drying them out.
• Make sure to cook off the mushrooms first, and get them nicely well-done.  They will actually take much longer to cook through (about 15 minutes) and you want to get almost all the water cooked out, so they have nice crispy outsides, and tender centers.  They can also sit around a while waiting for the chicken to cook, without losing their flavor/texture.
• Use the same pan for everything, the mushrooms, the chicken and the sauce.  Each ingredient provides additional flavor to the ultimate sauce, and there’s no reason to dirty another pan
• Finally, it’s easy to thicken or thin out the cream sauce if needed.  To thicken it, just allow it to simmer longer; to make it thinner, you can easily just add some water, stock, or even more cream

RECIPE FOR CHICKEN WITH MUSHROOM CREAM SAUCE

• 3 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1.5 cups of chopped mushrooms
• 1/2 pint of cream
• 2 tablespoons of chopped parsley
• 1 diced shallot
• 1 diced garlic clove

• Chop the mushrooms into 1/2 inch to 1 inch dice
• Saute the mushrooms in olive, until they are fully cooked through, making sure to season them with salt/pepper – they will reduce in volume by at least half
• While the mushrooms cook, allow the chicken to come up to room temperature, and season with salt and pepper
• If the chicken is thicker on one side than the other, give the thick side a couple whacks with your hand, to flatten it out and to make the thickness more uniform
• Once the mushrooms are cooked, add the diced shallot and garlic, and cook for 1 – 2 minutes, until just softened
• Remove the mushrooms to a bowl, and sear the chicken breasts off in the same pan.  Add more olive oil if needed.
• If the chicken is thin enough, it will cook through after searing on both sides for 4 – 5 minutes over high heat.  If needed, you can move the whole pan into a pre-heated 400 degree oven for another 4 – 5 minutes to cook through
• Once cooked, remove the chicken to a plate, and cover with foil
• Add the cream to the pan, along with the mushrooms, and turn the heat to high.  Use a wooden spoon to deglaze, scraping up all the bits off the bottom of the pan
• Bring to a heavy simmer, and reduce the cream sauce for 2 – 3 minutes, until the desired thickness is reached (you can always add some water if you need to thin it out)
• Stir in the chopped parsley

Plate a few spoonfuls of sauce on to your plate, and then lay the cooked chicken breast over the sauce, a bit off center, and you are good to go.  Hope you enjoy it!

Wine Recommendation:  With this chicken and mushroom dish, I’ll generally serve a nice spicy flavored Pinot Noir.  Pinot and mushrooms pair wonderfully together, and the cream in the sauce will provide enough fat to balance out the tannins.