Another Lesson Learned

I have learned a lot about cooking over the past couple years and lots of what I have learned has been through my own mistakes. Some as simple as that microwave popcorn does not need very long to pop and our microwave has a popcorn button that pops it perfectly… I ended up with black popcorn that sent smoke all over the house and forever stained the inside of our microwave yellow. I learned that fish marinated in alcohol needs to be a good distance from the broiler while cooking… or it will catch on fire. There are many more and tonight I learned yet another lesson the hard way.

Our “Bachelor” group came over for dinner tonight which meant Russ and I were in charge of the entrée. On Sunday I was trying to figure out not only what to do for our “Bachelor” dinner, but also for the rest of the nights of the week. I couldn’t come up with anything for any night. You would think if you receive three cooking magazines on a regular basis and own a lot of cookbooks that you would be able to come up with a million ideas of what to make for dinner, but for some reason nothing was catching my eye. It was either too wintery or too summery or too boring or too similar to what we just had last week… So, I finally just chose a few recipes including a recipe in my new Cooks’ Illustrated for Stuffed Chicken Breasts. The problem is that I didn’t actually read the article or the recipe… I just saw the name, scanned the list of ingredients and thought this is perfect for tomorrow night…. It ended up being okay, but it was a lot more work than I had thought and you didn’t finish it by baking it in the oven as I had assumed and it had a sauce that I didn’t know it had and I didn’t know it involved using the food processor twice and… well you get the picture.

To make the Stuffed Chicken Breasts first read the recipe in its entirety (lesson learned). Then take the chicken breasts and butterfly them, pound them, trim them to form an 8 by 5 inch rectangle and set them aside. This is a lot of work by the way when you are doing multiple chicken breasts. Thankfully Russ did all of this while I made the stuffing. To make the stuffing you clean, trim and slice the mushrooms. Add some oil to a skillet and then add the mushrooms cooking until all the moisture has evaporated and they are brown. While they are cooking wash and chop the leek, mince the garlic and chop the thyme leaves. Once the mushrooms are cooked add a little more oil and the leeks and continue to cook until the leeks are soft. Then add the garlic and thyme and cook for just under a minute. Than add the lemon juice and cook until the moisture has evaporated. Move the mushroom mixture to the bowl of the food processor and pulse until it is roughly chopped. Then move the mushroom mixture to a separate bowl. In the pan that you cooked the mushrooms in return it to the stove and add the wine and scrape up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan. (I was slightly exasperated with this recipe since it was turning out like I thought it was based on the name and list of ingredients… so I opted to skip the step of heating the wine and getting the brown bits up. Russ convinced me that we should not skip it and it did turn out to get lots of goodness up from the bottom of the pan. This meal was definitely a team effort and the team gets a little bigger in just a minute.) Set the wine with browned bits aside in another bowl. Then take the chicken trimmings and add them to the food processor until they are pureed. Then add the chicken puree, parsley, salt, and pepper to the mushroom mixture and combine. Then grab the butterflied, pounded, trimmed chicken breasts and lay one out flat and spread the stuffing evenly over it and roll it up and place it seam side down. Then use three pieces of kitchen twine and tie it up. Then season the chicken with salt and pepper and heat the oil in a skillet. Once it is hot add the chicken bundles and brown them on all four sides for about two minutes on each. Then add the broth (low sodium… only I managed to skip that on the ingredient list when making my grocery list and used bouillon cubes to make the chicken broth which is anything but low in sodium…) and wine to the pan and bring it to a boil. Elizabeth arrived just in time to help with browning the bundle (see what a mean… it took three of us). Then put the lid on and reduce the heat to a simmer and let it simmer until the chicken breasts are done. Once the chicken bundles are done then remove them from the pan and make the sauce using the remaining liquid. Whisk the mustard into the broth / wine mixture and scarp the bottom of the pan to get the brown bits up. Finally take it off the heat and whisk in the butter, parsley, lemon juice, and season with salt and pepper (trust me mine did not need any more salt). Spoon the sauce over the chicken and serve.

This took forever and was a ton of work for what it was. That being said I still should have read the recipe in its entirety to realize this prior to deciding to make it on a night when we were having people over… The mushroom stuffing was very tasty; however, I thought goat cheese would have made an excellent addition to it and made it a little moister. Our chicken bundles ended up a little salty, but I think that was mainly because of not using the reduced sodium chicken broth, as the recipe stated to use, and because we added more to the pan thinking it needed more which only added more salt. Also, I didn’t think to put the meat thermometer in the chicken after we browned it, so I think I let them cook a little too long. I did like the look of the chicken when you cut it and it was all rolled with the mushroom stuffing showing through. Overall this was good, but not worth the time or effort. There are dishes where I think it is worth every minute and every dirty dish even if it takes a long time and uses every clean dish, but this is not one of those. I think that the work involved tainted our view of the dish as it was good. Russ rates it an 8.

Elizabeth brought butter beans and a salad as sides. Emily brought Baked Pimento Cheese Dip for an appetizer and chocolate / peanut butter treats for dessert. We enjoyed being with everyone (only we missed Seth who was working late counting beans) and watching the dogs play together!

Stuffed Chicken Breasts, Cooks’ Illustrated May / June 2008
Serves 4 to 6

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (8 ounces each)
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
10 ounces white mushrooms, trimmed, wiped clean, and sliced thin
1 small leek, white part halved lengthwise, washed, and chopped (about 1 cup)
2 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed through garlic press (about 2 teaspoons)
½ teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
1 tablespoon juice from 1 lemon
½ cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley leaves
Table salt and ground black pepper
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

For the chicken: Use tip of sharp chef’s knife to cut each breast horizontally, starting at the thinnest end and stopping knife tip ½ inch away from edge so that halves remain attached. Open up breasts to create 4 cutlets. Place one cutlet at a time in a heavy-duty zipper lock bag and pound to ¼ inch thickness (cutlet should measure about 8 inches by 6 inches). Trim about ½ inch from long sides of cutlets (about 1 and ½ to 2 ounces of meat per cutlet, or a total of ½ cup from all 4 cutlets) to form rectangles that measure about 8 by 5 inches. Process all trimmings in food processor until smooth, about 20 seconds. Transfer puree to a medium bowl and set aside. (Do not wash the food processor bowl.)

For the Stuffing: Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a 12 inch skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until all moisture has evaporated and mushrooms are golden brown, 8 to 11 minutes. Add 1 tablespoon oil and leek; continue to cook, stirring frequently, until softened, 2 to 4 minutes. Add garlic and thyme, and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add 1 and ½ teaspoons lemon juice and cook until all moisture has evaporated, about 30 seconds. Transfer mixture to bowl of food processor. Return pan to heat; add wine and scrape pan bottom to loosen browned bits. Transfer wine to small bowl and set aside. Rinse and dry skillet.

Pulse mushroom mixture in food processor until roughly chopped, about five 1-second pulses. Transfer mushroom mixture to bowl with pureed chicken. Add 1 and ½ teaspoons parsley, ¾ teaspoon table salt, and ½ teaspoon pepper. Using rubber spatula, fold together stuffing ingredients until well combined (you should have about 1 and ½ cups stuffing).

To Assemble and Cook: With thinnest ends of cutlet pointing away from you, spread one quarter of stuffing evenly over each cutlet with rubber spatula, leaving ¾ inch border along short sides and ¼ inch border along long sides. Roll each breast up as tightly as possible without squeezing out filling and place seam-side down. Evenly space 3 pieces of twine (each about 12 inches long) beneath each breast and tie, trimming any excess.

Season chicken with salt and pepper. Heat remaining tablespoon oil in skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add chicken bundles and brown on 4 sides, about 2 minutes per side. Add broth and reserved wine to pan and bring to boil. Reduce heat to low, cover pan, and cook until instant read thermometer registers 160 degrees when inserted into thickest part of chicken, 12 to 18 minutes. Transfer chicken to cutting board and loosely tent with foil.

To Make Sauce and Serve: While chicken rests, whisk mustard into cooking liquid. Increase heat to high and simmer, scraping pan bottom to loosen browned bits, until dark brown and reduced to ½ cup, 7 to 10 minutes. Off heat, whisk in butter and remaining 1 and ½ teaspoons parsley and 1 and ½ teaspoons lemon juice; season with salt and pepper. Remove twine and cut each chicken bundle on bias into 6 medallions. Spoon sauce over chicken and serve.