[hosers-talk] chicken au poivre

["Jon Stewart" <stew1@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

This was very good, and easy to make. Nothing too exotic. The original 
recipe is as follows. We cut it down for two chicken breasts, which worked 
fine. Organic/free range chicken breasts are almost always better than 
what Tyson and its ilk have to offer, but leaving the skin on should 
mitigate the dryness of cheap supermarket chicken.

Serves 6

6 large boneless chicken breast halves, with skin
2 chicken legs (thigh and drumstick)
Extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup white wine (for cooking, wine in a box works quite well; it's 
	cheap, flavorful (for cooking), and has a convenient stopper)
2 quarts chicken stock
2 sprigs parsley
2 thyme branches
2 garlic cloves
3 tablespoons peppercorns (black)
Salt

For sauce (can be made up to a day ahead of time): 

Remove fillets from chicken breasts. Chop legs into 4 pieces. In a large
saucepan, brown leg pieces and fillets in a little olive oil. When
well-browned, deglaze with white wine (deglaze means to pour in slowly and
scrape the bottom of the pan so as to dissolve the brown meat gunk into
the wine) and then cover with chicken stock. Bring to a boil, reduce heat
to simmer, add parsley, thyme, garlic, and 1 teaspoon of the peppercorns.  
Simmer 1 hour, then strain fat (gravy strainer works well), reserving meat
for other purpose (i.e., soup for next day). Reduce broth until rich and 
slightly thickened; only about 1.5 cups should remain. (You may want to 
transfer the sauce to a smaller saucepan after straining, in order to heat 
evenly.)

Pound chicken breasts gently, to flatten. Crack remaining peppercorns (a
pepper grinder works well enough). Coat breasts with olive oil and season
with cracked pepper and salt. Grill breasts skin-side down until 2/3 done,
then turn to finish. I like to throw a sprig of rosemary on the coals for
smoke. Let stand while warming/reheating sauce, then spoon onto breasts
(or pour :-) and serve.

I bet this would be great with a French provencal rose ($10-$15; try to
find a cab & merlot blend); we had it with an unassuming Chilean cabernet
sauvignon and it went well enough, thanks to the peppercorn sauce.



Jon
-- 
Jon Stewart                                 Advanced Los Angeles C++
stew1@xxxxxxxxxxx                           http://www.alacpp.org
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