I have altered the original recipe as I could not taste the sherry at all and have replaced it with a dry Tassenberg red wine (South Africa) which I find compliments the mushroom sauce very well. This is a very lovely recipe! Makes a delish meal served with veggies on the side such as carrots, peas and gems or squash. This goes very well with rice or pasta because there is usually extra sauce in the baking pan and I love to include some of my own homemade chicken stock which you can see in the pictures.
April 12, 2017 by winningrecipesblog.blogspot.com
Servings: 3 – 4
With some bits of homemade chicken stock tossed in.
I love to include a bit of my own homemade chicken stock
Ingredients:
3 chicken breasts – lean without skin and bone, trimmed and halved lengthwise
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
1/3 cup (80 ml) Cake flour or all purpose flour – OR – 20 ml per chicken breast
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 garlic cloves, stamped to a paste – OR – 1 per chicken breast – OR – up to 6 – 12 cloves
125 g mushrooms – OR – 250 g if you wish
30 g butter
2 medium onions, microwave steamed in sealed container until soft, chopped in chunks
425 ml milk
160 g cream
160 g liquid whey (may use water, milk or cream) I used my whey up from making cream cheese
1 teaspoon whole peppercorns, heaped and ground – Use coffee grinder
1/2 (55 – 60 g) packet creamy mushroom soup powder, Royco or any other good brand
15 ml lemon juice, freshly squeezed or to taste
6 slice Muenster cheese (Cheddar or Mozzarella is also lovely but may be omitted)
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Method:
preheat oven to 180 C degrees F (350).
I use my wok with the element head of my FlavourWave oven positioned onto its extender ring to grill the cheese topping directly in my wok – doubling up as oven 😉
Lightly sprinkle both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper.
Spoon flour onto shallow dish or pie plate. Coat both sides of chicken with flour, shake off excess.
In 12-inch skillet, heat oil over medium heat and brown chicken on both sides. – You don’t need to cook the chicken completely because it will finish cooking in the oven.
You may transfer chicken to 13 x 9-inch baking dish.
I just leave mine in my 5 liter wok.
Peel the garlic and stamp it to a paste in micro-safe bowl. (Garlic paste may be added on last minute for extra strength).
Peel onion and chop into micro-safe bowl. Add butter and mushrooms.
Prepare a beurre manie (See recipe below) by kneading as much cake flour into butter. Set aside. (Any excess may be frozen / refrigerated).
Continue to cook sauce ingredients, covered on high or medium heat in micro-safe container until onions are tender and translucent. Add the balance of ingredients following instructions on back of soup package and bring to the boil stirring. Once cooked, stir in large pea sizes of beurre manie to the hot mushroom sauce, vigorously stirring with fork or balloon whisk until thickened. Remove and taste that the flour has cooked. Upon further cooking if it begins to thin out more you may stir in some more beurre mani (kneaded butter flour).
Pour mushroom sauce over chicken. Top each piece of chicken with one slice of cheese. Fold cheese in half if it is too wide for chicken. Cover dish with foil and bake 30 minutes. Remove foil from dish. Turn on grill and grill for 1 to 2 minutes to brown the cheese. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool slightly. Sprinkle with parsley.
Serve & Enjoy!
Beurre mani – French Kneaded Butter – The Sauce Rescuer! Is Magic Stuff!
A MUST HAVE Kitchen Knowledge!
In classical French kitchens this is an instant sauce rescuer. Especially when using cornflour to make your roux and thicken sauces – When cornstarch is reheated or overcooked it begins to break down and thin out. Well, here comes Beurre mani to the rescue! 😉
In fact you don’t even need a recipe for this – I just knead as much cake flour into the butter as I can. I then just stir in balls, the size of marbles into my sauce until thickened to my liking 😉 Make sure that when kneading in the flour that it is very well incorporated into your butter, otherwise it will cause lumps. This will save you from going to the trouble of making another roux all over again.
Beurre manié is a flour butter paste which is also known as French kneaded butter and is a dough consisting of equal parts of soft butter and flour, used as a last minute thickener for sauces. By kneading the flour into the butter, the flour particles are coated in butter. When the beurre mani is whisked into your hot sauce – the butter begins to melt, releasing the flour particles without creating lumps. 😉
Notes:
Use an equal weight in grams or a ratio of 3 parts butter to 4 parts flour – ie; 75 g butter for every 100 g flour – In other words, knead in as much flour as you can into the butter and do it smoothly without any lumps. The butter must be very well kneaded into the flour. As soon as sauce is ready for serving, whisk or stir in pea sized marbles or blobs of beurre manie until sauce reaches desired thickness. As soon as it does. Remove from heat or you will run the risk of it breaking down and thinning out again.
Ingredients (approximately):
3 oz (90 ml) butter
4 oz cake or all purpose flour
- OR -
25 g (1 oz) 2 Tbs Butter
25 g (1 oz) 4 Tbs Flour – Cake or All purpose flour
Method:
Knead the flour and butter together with your fingertips or use a teaspoon so that the flour particles are well coated with the butter.
Break off small pieces and roll them into individual little balls – the size of marbles.
Whilst constantly stirring or using a balloon whisk – gradually drop in the balls one at a time until your sauce reaches its desired thickness.
The balls should be added, a little at a time to your sauce mixture whilst constantly stirring or whisking. You may use a balloon whisk.
As soon as sauce reaches desired thickness it is done. Remove from heat. Don’t let the sauce cook any further or it will begin to thin out once again.
Serve and Enjoy! 🙂