This was one of those meals that I just threw together from what was on hand in the pantry and fridge and also decided to use up some other ingredients before making the grocery trip for the week. I had some button and portobello mushrooms that were prime candidates, and some green onions too. We also had some tomatoes that needed using up and added them to the menu as well. Along with some boneless skinless chicken breasts I decided to come up with sautéed chicken breast with a brandy mushroom sauce served with rice pilaf and baked tomatoes.

First I started with cutting the chicken breasts in half since they were thick and this would allow them to cook quicker and also double my portions. I then decided to marinate the chicken in beer, taking an idea from the ole “6-pack chicken” recipe that I’ve done many times and which Emeril made famous some years ago. Once the chicken breasts were cut I covered them with the contents of a 12-ounce bottle of beer and then added about 1 Tbsp of sea salt, 1 Tbsp of my Cajun Spice Blend, 1 Tbsp of Italian seasoning and mixed the spices well with the semi-brine. While this is not as much a brine as the original recipe, it is a variation that I think adds a good background flavor to the chicken. The chicken can be marinated for a few days if you wish before service time, I have the complete recipe listed below for ease of reference.

While the chicken was taking a nice cool beer bath, I started prep on the rice pilaf. I took an onion and medium diced about 1 cup and sweat-ed them down in a little olive oil. Then I added the sliced button mushrooms (1 cup) and some chopped green onions (1/2 cup) and allowed them to sweat down before I added the chicken stock. Then I brought this to a boil and added 1 cup of converted rice then brought it to a simmer then covered for 15 minutes. I removed the lid to stir the rice on occasion to prevent any sticking, I also seasoned the rice with a pinch of sea salt, a little Italian seasoning and 1 tsp of Cajun Spice Blend. I allowed the rice pilaf to simmer about 5 more minutes and then turned off the heat but let the pot sit on the stove top allowing the rice to continue to absorb the now just slightly steaming stock.
As the rice was simmering I started with flouring the marinated chicken breasts and began the sauté process. I took a couple cups of flour and mixed in some dry thyme leaves, salt and white pepper. Then individually I took each chicken breast from the marinade and allowed any excess liquid to drip off before dredging them through the seasoned flour. Meanwhile the sauté pan was getting very hot then I added some olive oil to pan and allowed it to get hot too before adding three pieces of the lightly floured chicken to the pan. I allowed each piece of the tender chicken to sauté on the first side until golden brown, then I flipped them over to finish the other side. Once browned on all sides I transferred the sautéed morsels to a sheet pan the oven to finish cooking them through.

Once all the chicken was done with the sauté I started the brandy mushroom sauce which utilized the portobello mushrooms and the remaining onions. In the same sauté pan that I just used for the chicken I sweat down the julienne onions in a touch of olive oil and then added some of the beer marinade to deglaze the pan and allowed the liquid to reduce to the au sec stage, or also known as almost dry. Then I added the portobello mushroom slices to sauté and once soft I flamed in about a half-cup of brandy, then I stirred in some beef stock and allowed this to reduce a bit. I then thickened this with about a quarter-cup of a dark roux that I had left over from a jambalaya I had made last week. I allowed this to thicken up and held on low heat until ready for service.
I also made a small batch of Baked Tomatoes and had these in the oven before the rice was started. Like clockwork and a well orchestrated symphony I pulled everything together in about an hour and we were sitting at the dinner table with light conversation and a fine meal shared with family.

The recipes included in this post are separated into the three listed below, 1. Chicken marinade and sauté, 2. Rice pilaf, and 3. Brandy mushroom sauce. The baked tomato and roux recipes are linked to previous posts in this blog.

Culinarily yours, CCR =:~)

Sautéed Chicken Breast