It's been so awfully hot here lately that all we do is stay inside. This means I can clean up a bit more (HA!) and go through some cookbooks which have been languishing on the shelf.
The Essential Pepin is a wonderful cookbook covering everything from starters, salads, entrees, desserts and dressing. It came with a CD as well but I've yet to watch a cooking show on it.
The dinner selection this time is Normandy Chicken Fricassee. It looked challenging enough but not too work intensive. Getting everything in place before I started dinner helped. And yes, that is a bottle of cheap brandy there.
We had all the chopping done, herbs sorted and ready to start cooking once we returned home from Loki's walk. Oh my, with a 106 F heat index that was a short walk in the back of the park in the only shaded area available. It's all stovetop cooking so we didn;t heat the house up too much.
Behold the final product. It was delicous and creamy. Served with short grain rice and homemade baguette.
Definitely will make this again.
Normandy Chicken Fricassee
1 chicken cut into eight pieces
1/2 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp of freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup diced carrots
2 medium onions cut in 1 inch dice
1/2 cup diced celery
2 garlic cloves, coursely chopped
2 TB fresh parsley, chopped
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1 bay leaf
1 cup dry white wine, such as Chardonnay
1/2 cup water
1 TB all-purpose flour
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup frozen baby peas
2 TB Calvados or applejack
Heat 2 TB butter in heavy skillet. Once the pan is hot add the chicken pieces and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook for 5 minutes on medium heat, turning chicken once or twice.
Add carrots, onions, celery, garlic, parsley, thyme and bay leaf. Cover and cook for 5 minutes.
Add wine and water, bring to simmer and cover. Cook for 20 minutes or until chicken is tender when pierced with a fork. Afterwards lift chicken out of the pan and set aside.
Sprinkle 1 TB flour over the remaining mixture and add the remaining TB of butter. Whisk this together and simmer for a few minutes.
Take off the heat and add Calvados.
NOTE: the recipe calls for the sauce to be poured over the chicken but I thought this would be a messy disaster. Instead we spooned sauce from the pan over the chicken and rice. I also did other edits such as doubling the garlic and adding way more than a half cup of peas.
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