Chicken & Mushroom Fricassee

So no, I don’t know what that last word ‘Fricassee’ means… but Google is about to tell me:

It’s based on the method of cooking the meat. It is first sautéed, removed from heat, and finishes cooking in the sauce. It really says the meat is supposed to be cut up (which maybe I should try next time… yumm!)

Anyway, this recipe was from Food & Wine’s website (contributed by Joy Manning). It’s a pretty healthy dish, considering only 1.5 Tbsp. of heavy cream is added at the end, and everything else is pretty light. I used less mushrooms, because I didn’t buy enough. Oops! But it was still excellent, and I don’t know if two pounds of mushrooms are really necessary.

This whole dish is made using just one large pan, so that makes the clean up easy. Next time, I will try to remember to butterfly the chicken instead of pounding it out.

The tarragon is added at the end for a fresh taste, while the splash of heavy cream adds a richness to the sauce.

Here’s what you need:

What you need: grapeseed oil, chicken broth, heavy cream, flour, mushrooms, tarragon, chicken breasts, white wine, salt & pepper.

Heat your grapeseed oil on medium-high heat until shimmering.  Salt & pepper the chicken breasts on both sides and add your chicken breasts to hot pan. Cook about 3 minutes on each side until they get a bit crisp and start to brown.

Remove from heat, and add your mushrooms, shallots, salt, and butter to pan, lower heat to medium, and cook mushrooms for about 12 minutes until they start to brown.

The mushrooms are sauteed with shallots, butter, and salt.

Add the flour and cook for a minute more.

Add the broth, wine, and chicken and raise heat to bring to a simmer.

Add broth, wine, and chicken to mushroom mixture.

Lower heat to medium and cover and cook until chicken is cooked through (about 5 minutes). Plate chicken on serving dish(es).

Increase heat and bring sauce to a simmer and cook, uncovered, for about 5 more minutes until slightly reduced. Remove from heat and add heavy cream and tarragon. Spoon this sauce over the chicken. Tada!