Chicken with Mushroom Cream Sauce

Based heavily off:

https://www.spendwithpennies.com/creamy-mushroom-sauce/

and

https://www.onceuponachef.com/recipes/chicken-marsala.html

Pretty much chicken marsalla with sauvignon blanc instead of marsalla in the sauce

Ingredients 

2 Chicken breasts, boneless skinless, sliced to half thickness and pounded out to 1/4" thickness
3 T Flour
3/4 t salt
1/4 t pepper
2 T Butter
1 T olive oil

2 small/med shallots
1 T butter
12 oz mushrooms, any kind, sliced
salt and pepper to taste
3 sprigs fresh thyme
1/2 C white wine
1/2 C chicken broth
2/3 C Heavy Cream

1 T cornstarch + 2 T water or broth
3 T fresh parsley

Directions:

Place the flour, ¾ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper in a ziplock bag. Add the chicken to the bag; seal bag tightly and shake to coat chicken evenly. Set aside.

Heat the oil and 2 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. (Use a stainless steel pan for the best browning. Nonstick will work too, but you won’t get that nice golden color on the chicken.) Place the flour-dusted chicken in the pan, shaking off any excess first, and cook, turning once, until the chicken is golden and just barely cooked through, about 5 to 6 minutes total. Transfer the chicken to a plate and set aside.

Saute shallot in 1 T butter until softened, about 3-5 minutes.

Add mushrooms, salt, and pepper. Cook until mushrooms have released juices. Add thyme and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.

Add the wine to deglaze and loosen any bits off the pan and simmer a few minutes until the wine has almost evaporated.

Add the chicken broth and cream. Simmer 5 minutes or until reduced by half.

To thicken the sauce further, combine cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of water (or broth) and mix well. Add cornstarch mixture into the broth a little bit at a time to reach desired consistency. You may not need all of the cornstarch mixture.

Let simmer 1 minute.

Season with parsley, salt and pepper to taste.

Notes - used 20 oz mushrooms so upped to 1 C cream + 3/4 c each of wine and broth - could have used more acid - more wine or finish with lemon.

Knife cut on chicken went wild - wound up with several thin slices each breast, no pounding, great result - I will do this on purpose going forward.

Do the mushrooms the correct way - do not add salt and pepper until they release liquid and then don’t add the additional liquids until the pan is near dry.

Use thickener sparingly

Sherry or Marsala would have been better! Lol

Freezing? Some people say this would freeze well, just be sure to stir continuously while reheating. Have not tied it myself, note for posterity in case I decide to.

Reheating - I packaged the leftovers in a Foodsaver bag and was going to toss it in the freezer only to realize I am running short on freezer space ... so I tossed it in the fridge.  It is 9/15/23 and time for leftovers.  I am reheating sous vide - its already in the bag - it is 100% cooked, it is thin chicken breast cuts in cream sauce ... 155*??? Thinking lower than 165* because of the cream sauce.  We'll see - hopefully I will remember to add notes.  Since I am sous vising which is as passive as it gets, may as well make the asparagus I was too lazy to make the other night and some pan friend yukons ... recipe (read: random musings) incoming.

Chawanmushi

(This is still in the "notes that will only makes sense to me" stage - recipe refinement to follow ... maybe)

Notes:

Did you know?! (selfeyeroll) You can eliminate the bubbles that form around the edges of things like this using a kitchen torch! And you SHOULD get rid of the bubbles whether wirth blowtorch or toothpick or leaving it alone for a while until it happens on its own or it will be all pockmark looking.

Egg to Dashi ration should be 1:3 so scale up or down with that ratio in mind

Dashi:

• Use Crystal Geyser water - 1 liter - (metric magic ... that will weight 1000g)
• 10g kombu soaked one hour
• bring to simmer - remove kombu from water at 80*C/180*F (ish - I used all my metric magic above ... this is close enough for hand grenades in terms of temp conversion ... pretty much "bubbles forming but not actually quite a simmer just yet, but almost")

***You can keep used kombu aside, julienne into 3" long pieces and add to leftover katusobushi (also chopped a bit more finely) for making furikake - you also add pretty much teriyaki ingredients to all of that and sautee until pan is nearly dry and shiny shiny shiny and then add toasted sesame seeds - the actual amoutns and ingredients are around here somewhere, hopefully I will kink it at some point ... ***

• bring the pot to a boil - when it reaches a boil, kill the heat and add 20 g Katsuobushi and leave it alone completely for 5 minutes.
  
• pour the pot through cheesecloth/papertowel and strainer/funnel into container - wait until completely cool before storing - store up to 4 days

Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1.5 C dashi
• 0.5C egg (2-ish)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• add ins - kamaboko, mushrooms, scallops, edamame, shrimp, chicken, peas, mushrooms, etc.
• mitsuba (no mitsuba? - flat leaf parsley is fine)

Blend eggs with chopsticks ntil uniform, add dashi and salt, mix trying to get as few bubbles as possible.  Strain mixture.  Add in the add ins to lidded cuips, then add in egg mixture, cover with foil or lids.

Prepare pot to steam the cups - make sure the cups do not touch the bottom of cooking pot and that the containers are not floating - water does not need to actually touch the cups, but CAN touch the cups, so long as the water level does not allow for water to seep inside the cups

Bring the water to a boil and drop to low heat so the water is simmering - should take somewhere around 20 min but it all depends on volume, how thick the cup is, how many add ins, etc.

done when 160*f or more 

September 10, 2023

Going for 2  servings of chawanmushi - thinking one egg and whatever 3x that volume in dashi.  Made GORGEOUS dashi according to notes above yesterday so I will be using that  - I have seen people say you can sub in any stock or use instant dashi (so long as you strain it extra well so it doesn't look nasty when finished) but ... don't. This is literally dashi egg and salt and whatever add ins you decide to use - there is nowhere to hide any weird flavors and every opportunity for a really well crafted dashi to shine. It's so painless to make dashi from kombu, katsuobushi and filtered water and its so front and center in something like katsuobushi - it's not worth making chawanmushi unless you are willing to use good ingredients.

sliced shiitake - added to cups raw
lotsa kamaboko
sauteed enoki
mitsuba

Cheddar bay biscuits

307.5g Bisquick

2t baking powder 

1t garlic powder 

-combine in bowl, create well in center, into that add:

8oz shredded cheese

2/3c whole milk

-combine until just mixed and pulling away from sides - do not ovedmix.. drop in spoonfuls on greased or parchment lined sheet - makes 6-8 

Bake at 425* 10-12 min until golden, brush with 2T melted butter

Baked Cod with Ritz Topping

 Enough Cod (or other similar fish) for 4

1 sleeve of Ritz (26+ - 26 is 2xmini packs)

5 Tbsp melted butter

Parsley - enough to make it look nice

Preheat oven to 400*

Butter a glass/ceramic/corningware/whatever baking dish

combine melted butter, crushed ritz and parsley 

pack on top of cod fillets (boneless and skinless you filthy casual ...) 

bake 20 minutes or until brown and delicious 

Cherry pecan baked Brie en croute

 https://www.onceuponachef.com/recipes/baked-brie-en-croute-with-honey-dried-cherries-rosemary-pecans.html

Kinpira Gobo

 250g gobo - washed, peeled, julienned

140g carrot - washed, peeled, julienned

1 T Vinegar (add to bowl of water for the cut gobo)

1 T veg oil

1 t dark brown sugar

1/4 C Sake

1 T Soy sauce

1/4 t salt 

1 T toasted sesame seeds

Prepare gobo and carrot - place cut gobo into the vinegared water - rinse gobo well and dry before using.  Add oil to pan over med heat (if using chili flakes/pepper/whatever, add it now - its traditional but I can't handle heat) then add gobo and carrot, stir fry until vegetable soften.  From here either add sugar, sake, soy sauce and salt ... or ... add the sugar constantly stirring until the pan is mostly dry, then add sake, soy sauce and salt.  When the pan is once again mostly dry and the dish has started to caramelize remove from heat and stir in sesame seeds.

What to do with leftover ingredients

 This goes right to what to do with leftover pumpkin puree, but at the bottom there are entries for everything from egg whites to buttermilk

https://bakingmischief.com/leftover-pumpkin-puree/