Yum Peaceful Cooking: Poulet Saute aux Herbes de Provence

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Poulet Saute aux Herbes de Provence



I'm so excited! I won a book from BakeSpace, but for some odd reason, I wasn't informed "what" book I had won.

hmmmm

Well, Saturday I found out......the ever coveted (on my part)

Mastering The Art of French Cooking

Ooooooh my Gaaaaaaaaaaawd!!!

Yes, I've been wanting this book for ages but couldn't really spend the money. I hunted through 2nd hand stores but of course there wasn't a single copy in any of them (and trust me, Burbank has it's fair share of 2nd hand stores). So you can imagine how thrilled I was when I received my prize!

Woooo Hoooo....dancin' for joy and singin' "I'm walking on sunshine....oooh oh"Photobucket

Do you know...this really is a cookbook that you can read! I've heard of people reading cookbooks. As much as I like to cook, a cookbook just is not my choice of reading material. Give me a trashy historical romance novel any day.

But honestly...this is a wonderful book. Not only is it full of incredible recipes, but the information! The explanation of techniques and food and equipment....it's amazing.

Babette.....Thank you so very much for the most wonderful cookbook I could ever hope to own!

Of course I had to make something from it, right? I mean I can't just sit here and read it. And of course the first recipe I used from it has to do with chicken. Cuz I'm that kind of gal and am known in some circles as the Chicken Queen.

Niiiice....my daughter is the Homecoming Queen



and I'm the Chicken Queen Photobucket

hmmm....lets move on. So, I made this fancy schmancy Poulet Saute aux Herbes de Provence, a.k.a. Chicken Sauteed with Herbs and Garlic, Egg Yolk and Butter Sauce.

Why? Because I had all of the ingredients. duh


What you'll need:

Chicken
1/4 lb butter
2 1/2 - 3 lbs chicken, cut up
1 tsp thyme or savory (I used savory)
1 tsp basil
1/4 tsp ground fennel
Salt and Pepper
3 cloves unpeeled garlic
2/3 cup dry white wine

Sauce
2 egg yolks
1 Tb lemon juice
1 TB dry white wine
2 - 3 TB softened butter

We're going to work on the chicken first....heat the butter in a 10" skillet until the butter foams, then add the chicken (you'll probably have to do this in batches. I used less chicken so I didn't have to worry about it). Cook the chicken for about 7 - 8 minutes, turning frequently and not letting them brown. You only want them to be a deep yellow color.




Do you know how hard that was for me to do? I mean, I'm all about the deep dark color....ya, lets brown that baby!! But nooooOOOOoooooo...Miss Julia wouldn't let me. Talk about chomping at the bit here.

If you are using a combo of white and dark meat, you will need to remove the white meat from your pan and season the dark meat with the herbs, salt and pepper (dont use all of the herbs cuz you want some for the white meat too), and add the garlic cloves with the skins to the pan.


Cover and cook over low heat for about 8 - 9 minutes. Then season your white meat and add them to the pan. Baste the chicken with the butter and cook for about 15 minutes, turning occasionally, and basting along the way until the chicken is tender and the juices run clear. Actually, this will probably take longer than 15 minutes...I think chicken parts are bigger these days than they were back then. (blame it on what ever you want...but you all know what I'm talking about).

Once your parts are cooked, remove to a platter and keep warm....

 ya like my snazzy warming platter?

Ok...now....you see these little guys?


Smash 'em with the back of your spoon and watch that garlicky yumminess come slidin' right out. Mmmm.....now scoop out the skins....easy peasy.




Mash the garlic up....add your 2/3 cup of white wine and bring to a boil. De-glaze your pan and reduce the liquid by 1/2.

Now we're ready for the sauce. Let me preface this by stating that I was really scared of using the fennel. It has such a strong licorice aroma. But I was hoping that since the amount that was called for in the recipe was so small....that it wouldn't be an issue....cuz to be honest with you...I don't like licorice. At all.

Fear not...it was just fine! It was more than fine. It was awesome!!!

Beat your egg yolks in a small saucepan until they are thick and sticky. Hmmm....they kinda come out of the shell that way, don't they? Well...I beat them for a minute or so...and nothing changed and it was late so I went on to the next step...and that was to beat in the lemon juice and wine (1 Tb each). BTW...I really am embarrassed that I used bottled lemon juice but I didn't have any fresh lemons. If you can...please use the fresh stuff. It's much better. Really it is.

Now...take the liquid from the chicken...you know the one with the smashed garlic and reduced wine? And slooooooowly incorporate it into the egg yolk.....1/2 teaspoon at a time, beating as you go.




Yes...you heard me right....

1/2 teaspoon

at

a

time

You want your sauce to be thick and creamy. Think "hollandaise"

Then Miss Julia goes on to say that the sauce needs to be beaten over a very low heat for 4 - 5 seconds, to warm and thicken it. Remove from heat and add the 2 - 3 tablespoons of butter, 1 tablespoon at a time...beating as you go. If you'd like, add some minced fresh basil and or fresh fennel tops, or parsley. I didn't do it. The sauce had such an incredible flavor as it was, I didn't think it needed it. Well, in reality, I didn't have any of it. Which was fine cuz it didn't need it. honestly.

And now your sauce is ready to be spooned over your chicken and served.

Hmmm....I didn't think my sauce was thick enough


So I continued to heat and beat. and beat and heat. I stepped away for a few seconds, and....

HOLY CRAP!!!


I BROKE MY SAUCE!!! Photobucket

You can tell by my "caption" picture at the top....that it still tasted good and I did pour it over my chicken and served it.

But why did this happen? Thats what I wanted to know. I needed to find out so I could prevent this from happening again. (you see, I had it happen not that long ago when I was making a curry sauce.). I headed straight for my computer and looked it up (hmmm....there might be an explanation in my brand spankin new cookbook, but I didn't think of that until just now). I did a search for "Broken Sauce" and what I ended up finding was....

How to RESCUE IT!!! YEAH!!! Photobucket

Apparently this is something that can happen with egg based and mayonnaise based sauces (mayo is made with eggs, so there's that connection).

What I had to do was get another egg yolk and beat it with 1 TB of cold water then take that broken sauce, while it's still warm and slowly drizzle it into the new egg yolk, while beating the whole time. Heat the sauce over a double boiler until it thickens to your desired consistency.


Check that baby out!!!

And look how much better it is on my chicken...



All is safe and happy in my kitchen once again.

Whew

22 comments:

  1. You have such a beautiful daughter! I love Julia Child's book, it's so informative and detailed! Congratulations!

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  2. That looks amazing! Your pictures are great...I'm having problems with those "in process" pics because of the lighting. I'm reading DD's tips, but it's hard to drag stuff from the stove over to where I have light. At any rate--now I have to get me a copy of that book. Great job!

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  3. WOW...I had no idea you could fix a sauce like that! Oddly enough I just made a sauce for chicken 2 days ago that separated. The sauce was delicious so I served it any way but now I'm wondering why?

    Thanks so much for the Broken Sauce link so appreciate it.

    Gorgeous sauce and it sound delicious!

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  4. Oops...forgot to mention what a gorgeous daughter you have. Please give her my congratulations on the title of Homecoming Queen!

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  5. Lucky you!! Congrats on your win. GREAT dish!! Historical trashy novels , huh.. Im with you.

    Your daughter is a beauty.

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  6. Danielle: I have so many comments to make about this post!
    1. Lucky you to get that cookbook!
    2. You have a gorgeous daughter!
    3. And she is homecoming queen!
    4. Love the chicken dish!
    5. Great you learned how to fix a broken sauce.
    6: I like trashy historicals too- PLUS some of those off the wall paranormal books.
    And last: you have a fun blog!

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  7. congrats on the cookbook! I'm glad you were able to repair your broken sauce! :D

    This recipe looks fabulous!

    Congrats also to your daughter. How fun for her. She is beautiful!

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  8. Beautiful daughter and I'm bookmarking this page so I can look back for instructions next time I break a sauce! Chicken looks fabulous.

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  9. Congrats for winning a book!

    Your chicken sounds delicious. Thanks for sharing :)

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  10. Yay for winning a cookbook! And not just ANY book! Good save on the sauce - it looks rich and so delicious. Congrats to your beautiful daughter!

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  11. you go ... What a great deal, and I love the idea of this classic being available and still wanted so badly (including by me). Great pictures, and wonderful post...

    and BTW, great daughter too

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  12. I just watched Julia Child's biography on DVD, what a great woman she was. Most importantly she started a small cooking revolution in the US against the "busy woman can't cook" mentality started in the 50's by the food industry.

    I see that you have some ads on your site; my company imports and sells high quality clay bakeware from France and we are looking for food bloggers to advertise our products. We have an affiliate program, please visit our website at www.claybourg.com, the affiliate info is on the right side. We also have a showroom website at www.clay-cookware.net.

    Thank you for considering.

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  13. FLB - thank you :)...and yes this book is absolutely amazing!!

    Cathy - I know....lighting can be such a pita!! DD's tips are totally helping though which will hopefully be proven in my future posts. And YES...get the book!!

    Michelle - Pretty cool right? Now that I know how to fix a sauce (and I too have served it broken a few times LOL)...I won't worry so much while making it. I'll pass your congrats on to my daughter :) thank you

    Donna - gotta love the trashy novels LOL. and Thank you :)

    Barbara - you're makin me blush...(tell me more LMAO!!!) I'm glad you enjoy my blog

    Ungourmet - The sauce was great even broken but it is nice to know it can be fixed. Funny thing about my daughter....she was sooo not into it. I was more excited about it than she was LOL

    Angie - Ya, I'm thinking those broken sauce tips will come in handy many times in the future...at least they will for me. I need to learn to be more patient.

    Karine - thanks....winning the book was probably the highlight on my year :)

    Grill - thank you....hope you get the book soon. I think you'll be amazed with the timeless info in it.

    Guillaume - Thank you for stopping by. I'll look into your website and check out your program.

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  14. Danielle that is awesome!!! I don't own that one. Someday... How cool you won it.

    Of course the chicken queen would naturally have the homecoming queen as her daughter. Someday you'll pass your crown to her.

    Oh and in my very bad French accent, your poulet sate aux herbs de provence looks mouth watering. Beautiful!

    Laura

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  15. How cool that you won the cookbook that you wanted to buy for so long.
    All that quantity of butter scares me, though, and my husband hates French cooking (due to his frequent travels to Paris on business).
    The broken sauce cracked me up, at least what's broken can be repaired, what's burnt goes to waste (hmmm, yeah, someone burnt the sauce recently).

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  16. Gotta love teh trashy romance novels! Although this cookbook does sound like a good read. talk about a classic :D

    This chicken looks great and I loved reading your narrative. So funny.

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  17. what a fancy-shmancy chicken dish! poulet sounds so much more sophisticated than chicken, am i right? what a seriously wonderful dish--i'm glad you saved your sauce. :)

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  18. Yum, Danielle, that looks awesome! And I have to echo all the others and say that your daughter is so gorgeous!

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  19. That is a cool tip about fixing the broken sauce. I didn't know that. Was that in the book too or did you already know that?

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  20. chicken queen is not bad at all :) and your daughter is very pretty!

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  21. You won one of my favorite all-time cookbooks. Beautiful book and even more beautiful daughter.

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  22. Looks absolutely Delicious!!! Congratulations to your daughter :)
    Did you find out WHY the sauce broke?

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