Julia Child's Chicken with Mushrooms and Cream

http://sugarandspice-celeste.blogspot.com/2009/08/chicken-breasts-with-mushrooms-cream.html

Last night I tried making Julia Child's Chicken with Mushrooms and Cream. Mostly because we just watched Julie & Julia a couple days ago, and I've been hungry ever since ;)

some other girl's photo from sugar and spice

I've ALWAYS wanted her cookbook, but have never properly prioritized so I can afford the 10 pound bible of a book when I go to the book store. But I found a copy of this recipe online, see link above.

You can find the full recipe straight from her book below, but here's how I did it.

Take 2 pounds of chicken breasts (2 full size breasts) and cut them all up into really flat pieces. I like to do this so they don't take 45 minutes to bake. Sprinkle with lemon juice--I used the bottled kind and just put a little in my hand to sprinkle on each side of the breasts. Seasoned with salt and pepper. Go easy on the salt because the sauce reduces and is SUPER flavorful already.

Melted 5 tablespoons of butter in a large cast-iron frying pan until it was frothy, like Julia says. Use all 5 tablespoons, since this is making the base for your sauce. Just go for it; it'll be delicious. To this I added about half of a white onion chopped fine, and half a carton of white mushrooms sliced, and a bit of seasoning, and let that saute for a couple minutes. Julia says to saute but not brown. Good idea.

Place the chicken breasts in the pan and turn them over a bit so they're all covered in the butter. Then cover with a piece of buttered wax paper and put in your oven at 400 degrees. Julia's recipe says for 6 minutes--she must have had uber thin breasts, or a really hot oven, because my breasts took about 15 minutes even cut thinly. Just bake until your chicken's done. The one thing I think I would prefer to be different about this recipe is that the chicken isn't seared or browned at all. I think I may try it one time where my chicken gets seared in the mushroom butter pan before I bake it all the way. I'm not exactly sure what the wax paper does... but I did it. Maybe if I didn't use it at all and didn't cover the chicken they'd get a little brown in the oven?

While it's baking, you get your other fixin's ready. I had asparagus handy, and a box of stuffing :) Who can ask for a better meal?

When your chicken's done, remove it from the pan and keep it warm. Return your pan to the stove on high, where you add the stock and wine. I used regular old chicken broth (hence, lenient salting) and Pompeien white cooking wine. You let that simmer on high for like 5 minutes while the alcohol cooks out and it reduces . If you're a stickler about even cooking with alcohol, which, sometimes I am, I just replace the wine or whatever with more broth or something else. More broth in this case would probably be fine, or a water broth mixture.

Add your cream, and boil again, reducing and stirring until it's thickened. Add more lemon juice and salt/pepper to your taste, add the chicken back in, top with parsley (I used about a tablespoon of dried), and serve!

Chicken was tender and juicy, sauce was jam packed with flavor, mushrooms were delicious! And it really only took like 30 minutes. Served more like 2-3 since we loved it so much :)

Supremes de Volaille aux Champignons

(Chicken Breasts with Mushroom and Cream)

Source: Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. I by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck (Knopf, 1961)

Ingredients:

4 supremes (boneless, skinless chicken breasts)

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon salt

Big pinch white pepper

5 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon minced shallot or green onion

1/4 pound diced or sliced fresh mushrooms

1/8 teaspoon salt

For the sauce:

1/4 cup white or brown stock or canned beef bouillon

1/4 cup port, Madeira or dry white vermouth

1 cup whipping cream

Salt and pepper

2 tablespoons freshly minced parsley

Directions:Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Rub the chicken breasts with drops of lemon juice and sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. Heat the butter in a heavy, oven-proof casserole, about 10 inches in diameter until it is foaming. Stir in the minced shallots or green onion and saute a moment without browning. Then stir in the mushrooms and saute lightly for a minute or two without browning. Sprinkle with salt.

Quickly roll the chicken in the butter mixture and lay a piece of buttered wax paper over them, cover casserole and place in hot oven. After 6 minutes, press top of chicken with your finger. If still soft, return to oven for a moment or two. When the meat is springy to the touch it is done. (Please Note: Although Julia suggests to check the chicken after only 6 minutes, I (as well as several of my readers!) feel that this amount of time is inadequate to thoroughly cook the chicken. I cooked it for closer to 30-40 minutes. Please use a meat thermometer to ensure the correct temperature before serving!)

Remove the chicken to a warm platter (leave mushrooms in the pot) and cover while making the sauce (2 to 3 minutes).

To make sauce, pour the stock and wine in the casserole with the cooking butter and mushrooms. Boil down quickly over high heat until liquid is syrupy. Stir in the cream and boil down again over high heat until cream has thickened slightly. Off heat, taste for seasoning, and add drops of lemon juice to taste. Pour the sauce over the chicken, sprinkle with parsley and serve immediately.

Serves 4.