Chicken with shallots and Mushrooms

Today is Monday.

Today's recipe I used more as a suggestion rather than a guide. I took out some chicken this morning because that sounded healthier than anything I had eaten in the prior 72 hours, and then proceeded to laze about the house. At one point I zoned out at Jewel and walked around buying things that seemed necessary, mostly in a bored trance. I then spent the afternoon hours ramped up on coffee, finally remembering I have a house and several children over here that needed attention. I organized our new mudroom cabinets, helped my kids write their names in the "to" section of their Valentines (we have to mess up something), there was tidying, dust-busting - it was a whole thing today.  So anyways, back to 4:52 p.m. without a plan in my head. I used what turned out to be boneless, skinless chicken thighs and the last of the vegetables I bought last week and hadn't used yet to make a super homey, creamy, mushroomy chicken in a saucy-thing. I think it was French. It was so good it doesn't matter. I used thyme. 

This one comes from Bon Appetit, 2010.

OK yes, no sprigs of parsley could pretty this gal up, but at least she tried.

Chicken with Shallots and Morels But Not Really

Serves 4

Ingredients

3 T. rendered chicken fat, duck fat, or vegetable oil, divided I giggled at this. Who has duck fat on hand? Do you have duck fat? But then I remembered I actually had bacon fat on hand. If I didn't I would have used olive oil.

1 4 lb. free-range organic chicken, backbone removed, cut into eight pieces I am sure any amount of ranging, and any level of chemically-stuffed chicken would be indiscernible to your palette. I used 3 1/2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken thighs. Way off!

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper check!

1/2 cup minced shallots I diced up two shallots and I think it was probably more than 1/2 a cup in the end. Hey, if it makes it into the title of the dish, I say go big.

Thyme. This dish needed thyme if you ask me. 

Zucchini. I tossed in a zucchini because why not. Greige food is not cute.

 1 lb. fresh morel mushrooms Again I laughed. Aren't morels the mushrooms you can only find once a year, in some regions, where it has recently rained, in the shade, on a Thursday between 9 and 11 am? I used baby bellas and I only had 8 oz. of them. The little intro paragraph says you can "even use cremini (baby bella) mushrooms" but that your dish will basically taste like a sidewalk if you do. It suggests using more expensive wine to make up for this travesty. I think maybe a princess wrote this recipe.

1 cup dry white wine I used Winking Owl white wine from Aldi.

1 cup low-salt chicken stock I had this! Yay!

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream My next door neighbor is a REAL chef from culinary school and everything and she says I can sub half whole milk and half 1/2 'n' 1/2 for whipping cream when I need to. So that is what I did.

Instructions 

1)  Generously salt and pepper your chicken parts. Melt 2 T. of your fat or oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken pieces to the skillet and cook about 6 minutes per side. Since my meat was boneless, I browned for half the time - just 3 minutes per side.

So, I always have cleaned up after bacon by letting the fat harden and then throwing it away, since I know it's bad for the garbage disposal. One day recently I thought to myself, "Wait a minute, can I save this?" The chef next door said "Yes ma'am," so here we are, one level below keeping duck fat on hand.

 

  

2) Remove chicken to a plate. Add the other 1 T. of fat or oil and add shallots to the pan. Let shallots cook for 2 minutes, stirring and scraping. Add the mushrooms to the pan and cook for about 1 minute. I added the zucchini and thyme in here.

3) Using a slotted spoon, spoon mushrooms to a separate plate. Add wine and boil about 2 minutes, or until reduced by half. Add stock and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add chicken back to skillet and insert your meat thermometer to a thick part of the meat. Cover pan with the lid slightly ajar and simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 20 minutes. I had to use my meat thermometer here since the recipe is written for bone-in chicken. My meat cooked in less than half the time.

4) Once meat is cooked, remove it to your serving platter. Add vegetables back to pan along with whipping cream and simmer until sauce thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 5 minutes. I had to add 2 T. flour here to thicken the sauce and then cook it double the time the directions said before it thickened enough. PERHAPS because I didn't have whipping cream. Still tasted French and delicious to us. We aren't princesses.

5) Pour sauce over chicken and serve. When my sauce wasn't thickening I thought I had so much sauce that I panicked and made half a pound of pasta! It turned out I didn't need it at all and my lucky kids got carbs on a Monday of all days!