ISO: ISO EASY chicken and mushroom dish. I promised my niece a private cooking class for HS Graduation.

In Search Of:
Curious, this got great reviews on FN site, but the recipe has been taken down. Are they skinless

boneless breast halves?

 
Thank yo SO MUCH everyone. I'm saving all of these for future cooking classes. For tonight

I think I've decided to take Pat's "teach her to fish" approach, print out Rick's article with the 13 variations, and do the mustard cream one. (I'd forgotten all about that post until now)

I'll show her how to make plain boiled rice and then we'll saute it with mushrooms and parsley a la Julia.

I've been in a chicken rut. My favorite recipes are long and complicated, so for weeknights I just do the same old same old--baked with garlic. This gives me many other quick ideas.

 
Joe, here's a you tube video with a quick mushroom sauce. It's a

good place to start and you can decide if you want to go the wine route with her right now. Some things I would say about this particular you tube treatment....

- I do like the method of popping the chicken breast into the oven after the initial pan-searing, though it doesn't have to be done that way...you can actually continue cooking it stove-top til almost done, remove the chicken from the skillet, then return the chicken to the finished pan sauce to heat the chicken back up at the end and finish its cooking.

- Rather than saute the onions in the 'dry fond' what I usually do is remove the chicken breast from the skillet and add a touch of olive oil or butter, then proceed with adding onions or shallots and a little garlic...sauteeing them slightly before adding the sliced mushrooms and proceeding from there.

- Once the mushrooms are ready for some liquid you can add a little lemon juice instead of wine, and then some chicken stock, and begin scraping the fond from the bottom of the skillet and incorporate all of the fond's-goodness into the pan sauce, then reduce that down and either finish with some chopped parsley and/or other herbs, and salt and pepper OR proceed with adding a little cream or half and half, reducing it down a little before adding a chopped parsley finish. Don't forget to taste for seasoning at the end. That's an important thing to teach her, to taste for seasoning. It can make or break a finished dish when all it may need is a touch more salt and freshly ground pepper to bring up the flavor. A shallow glass filled with some clean tasting spoons are nice to have near the cooking station so your student and you, can taste occasionally for seasoning, checking to see where the dish is going so you can decide if it might need more seasoning or an additional ingredient addition, say vinegar, or mustard, or smidge of tomato paste, or herbs, spices, etc.


Good luck Joe, have fun today with your niece's cooking instruction. What a great gift.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7oL93wp2Ws

 
What a lovely graduation present! Congrats to the grad! Have fun! I am sure it will be a

memorable occasion for all. Very nice present!

 
OK, now I'm reconsidering, lol. This is so nice and simple. I would skip the oven step too--

Restuarant recipes often finish things in the oven because it's already hot and ready. Here they seem to be showing how versatile the pan is smileys/wink.gif

Thanks!

 
Indeed...simple, flexible, adaptable to ingredients at hand, and no specific quantities needed. For

the record, I'm not affiliated with the product being addressed, lol, just wanted to show you a quick technique for an easy-peasy chicken mushroom dish.

 
From the cooking time, I figure it would have to be boneless. I wonder if leaving on the skin might

be nice.

 
I had no suspicions! Actually, that's an important feature of SS pans--they're ovenproof.

 
Your gift to her will last a lifetime...much longer than the life of a car. ;o) Be sure to take

some photos of your niece cooking. :eek:)

 
Also, a pan with some weight on the bottom i.e., good heat distribution, vs

a wimpy skillet than can easily burn your ingredients before the dish is properly finished.

(edited to add): good heat distribution = even cooking

 
I could halve or quarter the mushrooms too, lol. I think her older brothers are home so in fact

we may have to double whatever we come up with.

 
You could totally use breast with skin on. The end result will likely have more color and generally

be a little bit moister as the skin tends to trap that moisture in while adding a smidge more flavor. Though of course it's not really necessary to use breast with skin, it will still be a lovely and delicious dish either way.

The only down side is for those who don't eat the skin and end up putting it aside on their plate...they lose all the delicious goodness from the seasoned/cooked/browned topping/skin. ;o)

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top