hello this is chef john from food wishes comm with creamy chicken toast that's
right there's an old saying that says great cooks do not need recipes all they
need is reminders well here hopefully you're gonna get both a great comforting
chicken recipe and a reminder of just how easy it is to make a great cream
sauce by simply reducing cream and yes based on this ensure I'm assuming you're
all great cooks or at least you will be soon but even if you're not this is
still gonna work out wonderfully and to get started the first thing we're going
to do is cut up a chicken breast and as first portion goes I'll usually go with
one chicken breast per person but this time I had a freakishly large chicken
breast which is going to be plenty for two portions and what we'll do after
removing the tenderloin is go ahead and cut this into semi equal slices because
eventually we're gonna cube this chicken up and there are two different
approaches for that we could cube it all up now while it's raw and then add that
to the sauce or we can partially cook our chicken and then cube it up and add
it to the sauce near the end of the cooking time which I personally think is
the best way to go and for the record the only reason I'm slicing this chicken
breast up is because it was so monstrously huge
I thought by cutting it up things would go a little faster okay if you just have
a couple thin normal-sized chicken breasts you can just cook those as is
but either way we'll go ahead and season both sides with salt before heading over
to the stove where we're gonna place this in a lightly buttered skillet set
over medium-high heat and all we're gonna need to do here is cook this for a
couple minutes on each side until these pieces sort of firm up but the inside
sort of stays medium-rare which I know is a semi disturbing instruction but
don't worry it's gonna be perfectly safe because like I said we're gonna finish
cooking this in the sauce and to take the edge off keep this in
mind even if you undercook this or it cooks all the way the recipe will still
work that's just gonna affect when exactly we put the chicken in the cream
sauce so please try to relax and like I said we'll just give that a couple
minutes on each side until it kind of firms up and possibly takes out a little
bit of color and we will simply let that sit until it's cool enough to cut up and
then what we'll do while our chicken is chillaxing his head back to the stove
and reduce our heat to medium and we'll use that same pan to cook our veg
which in my case are some green onions as well as some diced red bell pepper
and for a little bit of kick some jalapeno and we will also toss in
nutritional giant pinch of salt and what we'll do is cook these veggie stirring
on medium heat for a couple minutes until they just start to soften up or at
least that's what I'm doing you go ahead and cook them as long as you want and I
should mention the amounts of these veggies really don't matter in fact I
don't even think I'm gonna give amounts in the blog post I mean why do I have to
decide everything you put in how much you want
but anyway cook those veggies for a couple minutes at which point they look
like this and we'll go ahead and raise our heat to medium-high
at which point we're gonna deglaze with a splash of chicken broth or water or
wine or nothing or if you wanted you could just go straight to the cream but
I think by adding in two glazing with a little bit of broth we're gonna
introduce a little more chicken flavor which for a chicken recipe is usually a
pretty good idea and since we're just using a splash this is only gonna take a
minute or two and then what happens next when our liquid is almost but not quite
evaporated as we can pour in the co-star of the show our heavy cream which I
think it's somewhere around 32 to 35 percent butterfat but don't quote me on
it and I think it depends on where you live but regardless we will stir that in
and then to finish this sauce all we have to do is continue cooking until
this reduces down to our desired thickness as determined by the boss of
the sauce which of course is you and this is where we need to have a little
chat about risk vs. reward because the higher you crank your heat the faster
the sauce reduces but if you crank it too high like I'm sort of doing here it
will boil over and completely mess up your burner and guess who gets blamed
that's right me so the point is you want to go with this high heat as you can
without it boiling over and right here I'm actually going to back mine down a
little bit so we do not experience the aforementioned tragedy and what we can
do while we're waiting for our cream to reach the perfect thickness let's go
ahead and cube up our cooled chicken and I'm showing you what size I like to cut
mine which may or may not be the size you want to cut yours and the precise
measurement really doesn't matter as long as they're all fairly consistent so
they finish at the same time speaking of which depending on what we
see when we cut into this that's going to determine
when exactly we add this back to the pan or if you're cubing this up and you
notice it's cooked all the way through we'll just add it at the end and just
warm it up but if it is medium-rare like mine is here then we actually get to
cook it for a few minutes in the sauce which I think might add a little more
flavor and possibly a better texture but either way we're gonna cut up our
chicken and transfer it back onto the plates along with any and all
accumulated juices and then the other thing we could prep while our sauce is
reducing would be some fresh tarragon which i think is one of the keys to this
dish and if you're not familiar with it it looks like this and why I love it so
much with chicken is it has a beautiful sweet flavor okay sort of similar to the
sweetness of basil but with a little bit of a licorice finish and if you're using
it do not pick the leaves off one at a time just strip that stem through your
fingers against the grain and all those leaves will come off easily
at which point we'll chop that up and reserve it till needed and then
theoretically by this time our cream is reduced and it started to thicken up so
we'll go ahead and get in there with a spoon to see where we're at and it's
almost there but I decided I wanted a little thicker so I gave it a couple
more minutes and as usual you're gonna have to make that call so I let mine go
a little longer until it was exactly where I wanted and then once our sauce
does reach our desired thickness we can go ahead and finish this up with a spoon
of creme fraiche which is optional but as you know I have a creme fraiche
fetish and I think it adds a little extra something and we will also add our
chicken and accumulated juices back in and we'll give that a stir and basically
this dish is done when your chicken is heated all the way through and or cooked
all the way through depending on how much you cook it the first time okay
since mine was a little bit medium-rare I'm gonna have to give this a couple
minutes and as usual near the end here we're gonna have to give it a taste and
add some seasoning if we want which I did I went ahead and tossed in some
kosher salt and some freshly ground black pepper as well as a little shake
of cayenne and basically that's it right the only thing we have left to do is
stir in our fresh tarragon which I do not want to do until the last second so
at this point we'll go ahead and turn off the heat and we'll go ahead and
toast or Grill up a nice thick bread and place that in a warm bowl and
once we have that set then we can go back and add our fresh herb to our pan
and by the way if you're wondering why our sauce went from white to yellow
that's what happens to a cream sauce if you let it sit for a couple minutes
nothing to worry about as soon as you stir it it's gonna be fine
and that's it as soon as that's mixed in we're ready to serve up and I should
mention I'd love this over bread but if you don't use some other starchy base I
mean you are after all hosting this creamy chicken toasting but if you
wanted to be the nick price of your rice that would also be beautiful or pasta or
potato all right you get the idea but anyway we'll go ahead and serve that up
with of course plenty of that super simple but devastatingly delicious cream
sauce and for one final last touch I sprinkled over a little sliced green
onion and that's it what I'm calling creamy chicken toast is done and ready
to comfort what ails you so let me grab a fork and knife and dig in and because
we only partially cooked that chicken the first time and just finished it for
a minute or two at the end it is stayed beautifully moist and tender and has
also added a little bit of extra chicken enos chicken enos is that a word
definitely not so instead let's say it added some extra chicken flavor to the
sauce you're welcome English teachers and I'm not sure exactly what it is but
there's something about that bittersweet flavor of peppers that just pair so
beautifully with a cream sauce so long story short I love everything about this
the taste the texture and how it makes me feel better and I was feeling pretty
good before I even started eating but anyway that's it creamy chicken toast
it's a recipe and a reminder which reminds me I went very simple here with
green onions and peppers but addition like this is a perfect catch all for all
your seasonal produce so just a little something to keep in mind but no matter
what you end up adding I really do hope you give this a try soon so head over to
food wishes comm for all the ingredient amounts of more info as usual and as
always enjoy
you