Sauteed Chicken with Mushrooms and Cream

The first step to preparing any good meal is to get some good help!

Chicken and mushrooms must be made for one another, and this dish is proof.

Ingredients:

• For Sauteed Chicken
• 2 lb frying chicken parts, skin on (breasts, thighs, drums, wings)
• 2 Tbs butter and 1Tbs oil for frying
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• A pinch of thyme
• For Deglazing Sauce
• 1 Tbs minced shallots or scallions
• 1/2  c chicken stock
• 1/2 c dry white wine
• 1 Tbs butter for final sauce
• 2 Tbs minced fresh parsley
• 2 c mushrooms (I used half baby bellas and half miatake
• 1 1/2 c heavy cream

Directions:
1. Brown the chicken- rinse and dry chicken. In a large cast-iron skillet, melt butter and oil over high heat. When oil is hot but not smoking, add chicken (skin down), and turn once a minute for 10 minutes. Chicken will brown to a nice "walnut" color. Add salt, pepper and thyme.

2. Finishing the cooking- reduce heat to low/medium, cover the chicken and let simmer 6 minutes. Turn and simmer another 6 minutes. Turn once more and simmer another 6 minutes. Set chicken aside.


3. Sautee mushrooms in a separate pan in oil for 8-10 minutes.

4. Deglazing and cream sauce- immediately skim off all but 1 Tbs of the chicken grease. Add shallots/scallions and stir constantly for 2-3 minutes. Add chicken stock and wine, boil down and continue stirring for 2 minutes. Stir in the mushrooms and cream, boil down on medium-high heat for 2-3 minutes, add butter for flavor if desired. Salt and pepper to taste.

L: Deglazing; C: W/ Cream; R: Boiled down

5. Reduce heat to medium and add chicken to heat throughout, another 2-3 minutes.

6. Serve with rice or risotto.

Western Scramble & Potato Pancakes

My dad and grandpa harvested a "Sheepshead" or maitake mushroom recently. Dad cleans and processes them and sends some my way chopped and frozen. Perfect! Here's some more info on sheepshead mushrooms for anyone who is interested. (Sheepshead/Maitake mushroom) They're really quite interesting to read about, because they can grow to be 50+ pounds. It's important to note that mushroom hunting (mycogphagy) can be very dangerous and it's of dire-import to do your homework prior to picking and eating wild mushrooms.

I used some of these mushrooms in scrambled eggs this morning and it was SO tasty!

Ingredients:

• 1 c mushroom
• 4 slices cooked bacon, chopped
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 bell pepper, chopped
• 1/4 of a large white onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• salt and pepper to taste

 Directions:
1. Saute the mushrooms in dab of butter until most of the water has cooked out of them. These mushrooms have a large water content, so 2 c of frozen will cook down to about 1/2 c cooked. You'll notice them start to brown when most of the water is gone.






2. When the start to brown, add the onion, garlic and green pepper. Saute together 5 minutes over medium heat. Throw the chopped cooked bacon in and toss for another minute until bacon is heated.






3. Reduce heat to low, add scrambled egg and fold together for 5 minutes until the egg is cooked through.

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Potato Pancakes are a great way to use up leftover mashed potatoes and they're great with breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Ingredients:

• 2 c mashed potatoes
• 1/4 of a large white onion, finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• 1/2 c flour
• 1/2 c bread crumbs
•  salt and pepper to taste
• 2 glugs of vegetable or canola oil.

Directions:
1. Saute the onion and garlic over low heat with a tiny bit of oil for 5 minutes, until they're soft. Then add them to the COLD mashed potatoes along with salt, pepper, 1/4 c of flour and 1/4 c of bread crumbs. Mix together with your hands or a fork.


2. Combine the rest of the flour and bread crumbs in a shallow dish. Quickly form the mashed potatoes into patties (about a 1/2 c of potatoes each) and dredge them in the breadcrumb/flour mixture.


3. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the mashed potato patties and let cook 4-5 minutes before turning carefully. Don't stop and check them because lifting up the edges will cause them to break. Just have a little faith... lol

4. Cook 3-4 minutes on the other side and serve warm :) These come out crispy on the outside, soft on the inside and totally satisfying!

Bacon-wrapped Stuffed Chicken over Mushroom Risotto

These two dishes were a good combo because once the chicken was in the oven, I could focus on the risotto, which is kind of a time-intensive dish to make. 

Chicken Ingredients:

• 4 chicken breasts
• 1/2 c ricotta cheese
• 1 package frozen spinach, thawed
• 4 strips thick cut bacon
• 4 toothpicks or 2 wooden skewers cut in half

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Place the spinach into a cloth, squeeze it until there's no liquid left in it. Butterfly cut the chicken breasts and lay them out opened on a cutting board. (To butterfly cut, stand the chicken breast up on its side and slice it almost all the way through. It will look like a heart-shape when you're done.)
3. Combine ricotta, spinach, salt, pepper and garlic powder. Add a heaping spoonful of the mixture to each chicken breast.
4. Fold the chicken breast around the stuffing and wrap it in bacon. Tuck in any loose ends and skewer it all together, then place on a baking tray.
5. Once you've wrapped up all of your chicken breasts, pop them in the oven for half an hour and get started on the risotto.

Risotto Ingredients:

• 1 c Arborio Rice
• 4 c chicken stock
• 1/2 c finely chopped onion
• 1 c chopped mushrooms
• 3 cloves garlic
• 3 T olive oil
• 3 T freshly ground parmesan cheese

Directions:

Browning the risotto

1. Add 1 T olive oil to a pan on medium heat. Saute mushrooms for 3-5 minutes, and set aside. 
2. Saute onion and garlic in the remaining oil for 3-5 minutes, then add the dry risotto to the pan and brown for 2-3 minutes. 
3. Add 1 c of chicken stock and stir constantly until the broth is absorbed. Then add 1/2 to 1 cup of broth at a time and stir constantly until the broth is again used up. This will take about 20 minutes. It's important to keep stirring and not just let it boil to allow the starch in the rice to break down and spread out.
4. Once all broth is absorbed, add the mushrooms and parmesan cheese.
5.  Layer the chicken over the risotto and enjoy!

 

Now this kind of math, I like!

I stopped at the grocery store on my way home from work- so I didn't have a chance to check Casey's recipe for Giada's Dirty Risotto before shopping. Relying on my memory (risky), I ended up buying the ingredients for TWO of Casey's delicious risotto dishes (dirty risotto & shrimp, mushroom, and spinach risotto). I was too torn about which to make, so I combined both recipes.

Dirty Risotto + Garlic Lovers Shrimp, Mushroom, and Spinach Risotto = yowza!

 

 

I tip my hat to you twice, Case!

Wild Mushroom and Venison Stroganoff

Travis is an avid hunter and we always have plenty of venison in our freezer. I am always looking for new ways to incorporate it into our meals and this is by far one of my favorite recipes. If you don't want to use venison you can use cubed beef instead. I served this dish over brown rice.

Ingredients

Serves 2 to 3

Extra-virgin olive oil

1 medium red onion, peeled and finely chopped

1 clove garlic, peeled and finely sliced

11 ounces venison loin, fat and sinews removed, trimmed and sliced into finger-sized pieces

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon paprika

9 ounces mixed exciting, robust mushrooms, wiped clean, torn into bite-sized pieces

Small bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked and roughly chopped, stalks finely chopped

Knob of butter

Good splash red wine

1 lemon, zested

2/3 cup sour cream

Directions

Heat a large frying pan on a medium heat and pour in a glug of extra-virgin olive oil. Add the onions and garlic and cook for about 10 minutes until softened and golden.

Season the meat well with salt, pepper and the paprika. Rub and massage these flavorings into the meat. Place the frying pan back on a high heat and pour in some more olive oil. Add the mushrooms and fry for a few minutes until they start to brown. Then add the meat and fry for a minute or 2 before adding the parsley stalks (you can do this in 2 pans or in batches if your pan is not big enough) and the cooked onion and garlic. Toss and add the butter and red wine.

After a couple of minutes of simmering, stir in the lemon zest and all but 1 tablespoon of the sour cream and season, to taste. Continue simmering for a few minutes. Any longer than this and the meat will toughen up.

Serve over rice and top with sour cream.

Garlic Lovers Shrimp, Spinach, and Mushroom Barley Risotto

This dish is for Garlic Lovers Only. However you can adapt the dish by boiling the shrimp in water instead of sauteing them in butter, garlic, and white wine. But I suggest the alcoholic butter and garlic shrimp bath. The barley in this recipes is cooked like risotto, low and slow, adding chicken broth half cups at a time. Like risotto, if you don't have 20 to 25 minutes to stand in the kitchen stirring this barley then don't make this dish.

Ingredients

1 pound large fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined

2 tsp flour

1 T butter

4 cloves garlic, grated

2T white wine

1 8oz package baby bella mushrooms, quartered

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2t salt, divided

1 cup slow cook pearl barley

1/2 c. white wine

3 cups chicken broth

4 cups fresh baby spinach

1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese

2T fresh lemon juice

1/4t ground black pepper

Directions

Coat shrimp in flour. In a cast iron or saute pan heat the butter until melted over low, add the garlic and stir until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the shrimp and white wine. Saute shrimp on medium-low until pink, about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove and set aside including all pan juices.

In the same pan add mushrooms, onion, garlic and 1/4 tsp salt; cook for 5 minutes or until vegetables are browned and tender. Add a little EVOO if necessary. Remove mushroom mixture from pan; set aside and keep warm. Add barley to pan, and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add wine and remaining 1/4 tsp salt; cook for about 4 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Add broth, 1/2 cup at a time, allowing liquid to be absorbed after each addition, stirring constantly. Stir in shrimp with juices, cheese, lemon juice, and pepper. Serve immediately.

Chicken Marsala

This came out fantastic! I layered Tyler Florence's recipe for chicken marsala over creamy mushroom risotto and the result was perfect (to pat my on self on the back).

Chicken Marsala Ingredients:

• 6 skinless boneless chicken breasts
• all-pupose flour, for dredging
• salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1/4 c extra virgin olive oil
• 4 oz prociutto, thinly sliced
• 8 oz porcini or crimini mushrooms (I used baby bellas)
• 1/2 c sweet marsala wine
• 1/2 c chicken stock
• 2 T unsalted butter
• 1/2 c chopped flat-leaf parsley

Directions:

Put the chicken breasts side by side on a cutting board and lay a piece of plastic wrap over them pound whit a flat meat mallet, until they are about 1/4 inch thick. Put some flour in a shallow platter and season with a fair amount of salt and pepper; mix with a fork to distribute evenly.

Heat the oil over medium-high flame in a large skillet. When the oil is nice and hot, dredge both sides of the chicken cutlets in the seasoned flour, shaking off the excess. Slip the cutlets into the pan and fry for 5 minutes on each side until golden, turning once – do this in batches if the pieces don't fit comfortably in the pan. Remove the chicken to a large platter in a single layer to keep warm.

Lower the heat to medium and add the prosciutto to the drippings in the pan, saute for 1 minute to render out some of the fat. Now, add the mushrooms and saute until they are nicely browned and their moisture has evaporated, about 5 minutes; season with salt and pepper. Pour the Marsala in the pan and boil down for a few seconds to cook out the alcohol. Add the chicken stock and simmer for a minute to reduce the sauce slightly. Stir in the butter and return the chicken to the pan; simmer gently for 1 minute to heat the chicken through. Season with salt and pepper and garnish with chopped parsley before serving.

Risotto Ingredients:

• 1 c Arborio Rice
• 4 c chicken stock
• 1/2 c finely chopped onion
• 1/2 c chopped mushrooms
• 3 cloves garlic
• 3 T olive oil
• 3 T freshly ground parmesan cheese

Directions:

Add 1 T olive oil to a pan on medium heat. Saute mushrooms for 3-5 minutes, and set aside. Saute onion and garlic in the remaining oil for 3-5 minutes, then add the dry risotto to the pan and brown for 2-3 minutes. Add 1 c of chicken stock and stir constantly until the broth is absorbed. Then add 1/2 to 1 cup of broth at a time and stir constantly until the broth is again used up. Once all broth is absorbed, add the mushrooms and parmesan cheese.

Layer the chicken and mushrooms over the risotto and enjoy :)