Showing posts with label French. Show all posts
Showing posts with label French. Show all posts

Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic


This is a delightful dish.  It's comfort food that sounds fancy & it's also incredibly easy to make.  Especially if you buy the garlic cloves already peeled.  (And no, that's not cheating.)  Don't be alarmed by the amount of garlic either.  It cooks into soft buttery deliciousness & for the most part, the cloves melt into the sauce.  In fact, if it wasn't called Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic you would guess it had that much in it.  I make it with boneless skinless chicken breasts because that's what we like to eat.  But Ina Garten's recipe (which I adapted mine from) uses whole chicken pieces.  So use what ever you'd like- white or dark meat, bone & skin on or not.  It will all be delicious coated with this dreamy sauce!
Ingredients:
4-6 pieces of Chicken
40 Cloves of Garlic (or 3 whole heads)
1 cup of White Wine (you can substitute Chicken Broth)
1- 1 1/2 cups of Chicken Broth
2 tbsp of Flour
1-2 tbsp Heavy Cream
1 tbsp Butter
2 tbsp Olive Oil
fresh Flat Leaf Parsley, chopped
Salt & Pepper

Directions:
In a dutch oven or large chefs pan, add the butter & olive oil.  Heat to medium high heat.  Season the chicken with salt & pepper.
 Add the chicken to the hot butter/ olive oil & cook until browned, about 3-5 minutes per side.
 If you are starting with whole garlic cloves, remove the peels.  To do this easily, you can drop the separated cloves into a pot of boiling water for 60 seconds, drain & then peel.  Or, you can just buy them already done for you in the produce section of most grocery stores.  This is what forty cloves of garlic looks like.  See it's really not that scary now is it?!?
 When the chicken is browned on both sides, remove it from the pot & set it aside. 
 Add the whole garlic cloves to the pot & lover the heat.  Saute for 5-10 minutes, turning frequently until browned.
 Add in the white wine & turn the heat up to boil.  Scrap the bottom of the pan to deglaze, then add in the chicken broth.  If I don't have a bottle of white wine open, then I just use 2 - 2 1/2 cups of chicken broth.  It's good both ways.
 Add the chicken back to the pot along with all of it's juices that accumulated on the plate.  Cover & simmer over medium heat for 30-45 minutes, until the meat is tender.  Mine was almost falling apart it was so tender!
 
Remove the chicken to a plate & cover with aluminum foil to keep warm.
In a small bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid with 2 tablespoons of flour. 
 Whisk the flour mixture back into the pot.  Add in some fresh, chopped flat leaf parsley, the heavy cream, & adjust seasonings if needed. Cook, lightly bubbling, for 3 minutes or until the sauce starts the thicken.  
 Return the chicken to the pot & coat well with sauce.  This easily makes enough sauce for 6 pieces of chicken.  I only cooked 4 pieces since it was just the 3 of us- but trust me, we don't mind having extra sauce!! 
I always make rice, mashed potatoes, egg noodles or something on the side that we can pour more of the delicious sauce over!!
 Yummy!  The chicken is so tender, you won't even need a knife to cut it! 


Vegetable Tian

 This is such a beautiful dish.  Perfect for late summer or fall.  And you won’t believe how deliciously the vegetables roast up together.  I used Russet Potatoes, Tomatoes, & Zucchini but you could also use Red Potatoes, Yellow Squash, Eggplant, what ever you’d like!
This recipe is slightly adapted from Ina Garten's version.
 Ingredients:
2 large Yellow Onions, cut in half and sliced
2-3 Garlic cloves, minced
4-5 medium round Potatoes, unpeeled
2 pound Zucchini
6-7 medium Tomatoes
Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper
1 tablespoon fresh Thyme leaves, plus extra sprig
 ¼ cup Havarti Cheese, grated

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a medium saute pan, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil and cook the onions over medium-low heat for 8 to 10 minutes, until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.
 While the onions are cooking, brush a 9 by 13 by 2-inch baking dish with olive oil.
 Slice all the veggies into 1/4-inch thick slices.
 A mandolin makes this quick & easy to get the uniform slices.  If you don't have one, don't worry a knife works just fine too! 
 
 Place the sauteed onions & garlic evenly in the bottom of the oiled dish.
 Then layer the veggies alternately in the dish on top of the onions, fitting them tightly & making only 1 layer.You can stand them up like I've done here.  Or you could use an oval dish & lay the veggies flat, fanning them around the oval.

 Sprinkle with salt & pepper, thyme & thyme spring.  Drizzle about a tbsp of olive oil on top, then tightly cover with aluminum foil.
Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake for 45 minutes, until the potatoes are tender.  I have found that standing them up like this, I need to cook them longer, an hour or so.  If they are fanned laying flat, 45 minutes will probably be enough.  Just make sure you check the potatoes to make sure they are tender & cooked. 
Uncover the dish, remove the thyme sprigs, sprinkle the cheese on top, and bake for another 30 minutes until browned. Serve warm.
This dish is great for entertaining, you can do all the work ahead of time & it makes a lot.  This will easily feed 8 people, as a side.  Plus it looks so impressive.  You can also scale the recipe down & make it in a smaller casserole dish. 

Sauteed Chicken Breasts with Creamy Dijon Sauce

This is a staple week night meal in our house. The creamy sauce is delicious & would go well with pork or fish too. My husband says that it is so good, he could drink it. So I make sure to serve a side that can be dipped or smothered with the sauce as well. This is my slightly adapted version of a Martha Stewart dish called Sauteed Chicken in Mustard-Cream Sauce. Ingredients:

4 boneless, skinless Chicken Breasts
1/4 cup Chicken Broth, or White Wine
1/2 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
2 tbsp Dijon Mustard (I prefer Gray Poupon)
1 1/2 tbsp Olive Oil
1 tbsp Butter
Salt & Pepper
Chopped fresh Parsley

Directions:Heat Olive Oil & Butter in a large skillet over medium/high heat. Season the chicken breasts with salt & pepper, on both sides. Add to the skillet & cook, searing the outsides. I cook them for about 6-7 minutes on each side.
Cover the pan with a lid, reduce heat to low & continue to cook the chicken until it is fully cooked. Remove the chicken from the pan & cover with tin foil to keep warm. Increase the heat to medium/ high again & add the chicken broth or wine. I prefer the flavor of chicken broth in this particular dish. The dijon mustard has so much flavor, I like to keep it the highlighted flavor. Plus, I'd rather drink the wine anyways! :) Cook the broth on medium/high heat, scraping all the chicken bits from the bottom of the pan, for 2-3 minutes or until the sauce reduces to about half. Then add the dijon mustard, stir to incorporate. Add the cream & reduce the heat. You don't want it to boil. Cook for a couple of minutes, letting the flavors marry & the sauce thicken. (This is when I plate the rest of the meal.)
Plate chicken & pour sauce over top. I sprinkle fresh parsley over the top to serve. Traditionally this would have tarragon in it, but my husband & I aren't huge fans. If you like tarragon, definitely add it!