Chicken Breast with a Pan Sauce and Root Vegetables
Okay, its time for a little more in depth recipe. Its just chicken I realize. . but this is an absolutely wonderful recipe that, given the time and attention it needs, could be the best chicken you have ever eaten. Its definitely at the top of my list for best ever. My grandmother made some pretty amazing fried chicken and I would never, ever, claim to think chicken that I made will ever be as good as hers. That woman was a master of fried chicken, but I am sure she would have liked this one too.
The recipe that I followed is a bit less structured than what you are probably used to so I will do my best to provide my list of ingredients and technique so that the provided link below is only there to help support the post rather than overshadow it. Their page has some really great technical content too, I would recommend further reading if you find the time.
Ingredients that I used
- Boneless Chicken Breast with skin on.
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- I chose to break down a whole chicken. I was serving 3 people and a few of us preferred thigh and leg meat. you can use whatever you like, just make sure you leave the skin on.
- Chicken Stock (Unsalted)
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- I did some homemade stock after I broke down the chicken. This isn’t necessary but and I’ll explain how to create a delicious sauce even with the store bought stuff.
- Shallots
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- Cut into 1/8 rings
- Heirloom Carrots
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- Peeled and cut on the bias
- Rutabaga
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- Peeled and cut on the bias
- Parsnips
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- Peeled and cut on the bias
- White Wine (Dry)
- Frozen Peas
- Baby Spinach
- Salt
- Water
- Pepper
- Smoked Paprika
- Unsalted Butter
- Rice Flour
- Carrots (for stock)
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- Rough Chopped
- Celery
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- Rough Chopped
- Yellow Onion
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- Rough Chopped
- Fresh Thyme
- Fresh Parsley
- Bay Leaf
- Black Peppercorns
The Chicken
- For full flavor on this recipe I would recommend that you start this one a day or more in advance. The brining process is very important. I let mine sit in brine for about 18 hours. I woke up the next morning, pulled chicken from brine, rinsed it off with cold water and placed it on a drying rack on a sheet pan back in the refrigerator for about 8 more hours. I used a 5% brine which consisted of water and salt. Here is a link to a brine calculator to assist in your mixture. Click Here for Brine Calculator. I actually brined two whole chickens and froze in vacuum packs what we were not going to eat for dinner. This is great for pulling out later rather than starting a new brine.
I used a Joule brand Sous Vide. Its one of the best gifts that I have received in a long while. I love the thing, it makes cooking proteins almost foolproof. I would recommend the investment if you don’t have one yet. I can actually control the thing from my phone too. I cooked my chicken in the water bath for about 4 hours at 150 degrees. This was perfect in my opinion. Once I crisped up the skin, its hard to believe that I ever tried to cook chicken any other way. The George Forman looks pretty silly now.
Take note, that the chicken will not receive any more salt during the entire preparation process. The brine is the sole source of any salt needed for the main protein. By brining the chicken it becomes perfectly salted and retains moisture because of this.
The Veg
I mixed up the recipe a bit to my own liking with the root vegetables. I didn’t want to go solely carrots as sometimes they are too sweet for my taste. I also omitted the mushrooms as my local store didn’t have much in the way for selection at the time so I added some other bitter sources of veg to help combat the sweetness. This recipe relies a lot on technique. Take your time with it and follow the video as best you can. I bet I watched it a dozen times before attempting any cooking with this one. There is a lot of information contained in the video in a really short time frame.
The Pan Sauce
This recipe wouldn’t be the same without this finishing sauce. This same site has some really great material on pan sauces. I’ll provide a link here below on the one I followed. The difference being, is that I used chicken stock and white wine instead of the veal and red wine. Reduce your chicken stock and reinforce it with the carrots, celery, onion, parsley, bay leaf, thyme, and peppercorns, just like you were making new stock from scratch. Reduce, reduce, reduce to help concentrate the chicken flavors. While its not necessary to do do this step it absolutely adds to this plate of food.
Conclusion
This completed dish, while involved and technically challenging, is so satisfying in the flavor department. I don’t typically go for chicken when I think indulgent meal but this one will now be on my go to list for entertaining family and friends. This was a Sunday night family dinner in our house. I know many of the other recipes I have tried and tested are typically low carb and healthier in nature but I try and do something a bit more special on the weekends. Its not like this one is high carb but it has a good amount of butter in it. The chicken was wonderfully juicy with that great crispy skin for texture. The pan sauce added a great seasoning flavor to the chicken and the vegetable medley that I’ll certainly try and reproduce in other dishes I make.