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During the week you can find me cooking for the students at North Atlanta International Academy. This month the students are learning all about food and health. What’s good, what’s bad and how to make good choices. I love how excited they are when they ask, “Chef Jad, did you know Fanta has 75g of sugar?” How awesome is that?
One of the classrooms with several French students wrote a persuasive speech on how they wanted me to cook a traditional French dish. To convince me they made crepes with strawberries and stewed chicken with leeks, carrots and mushrooms . Known to the French as Blanquette de Poulet. I have to say it was an amazing surprise and very tasty! So delicious in fact I will be cooking the dish and the crepes for the entire school in early November. I decided I better come home and try to cook it myself and make sure it was up to their standards!
I was very pleased with the results and thought I would share the recipe with my readers. I served the dish over Jasmine rice which is amazing but next time I will probably use brown rice to make it a little healthier.
Ingredients
- 2 large carrots(aprox. 3 cups), peeled, halved and sliced into half moons
- 2 leek whites (aprox. 3 cups) sliced and washed well
- 8 oz sliced mushrooms
- 1 lb chicken breast, butterflied and cut into 1" cubes
- 3 tbs EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 2 tbs white whole wheat flour
- 2 cups low sodium chicken broth
- 2 sprigs thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- Juice from 1 lemon (Do not use the fake stuff!)
- 2 egg yolks
- 3/4 cup heavy cream or whole milk
- 2-3 tsp sea salt
Instructions
- Sauté the leeks and carrots in half of the EVOO on medium until tender. Aprox 5 minutes.
- Add the mushrooms to the pan and sauté another 4-5 minutes. Remove vegetable mixture to bowl.
- In the same pan add the remaining EVOO and sauté the chicken on medium until lightly browned on all sides.
- Add the flour and cook for 2-3 minutes while stirring to coat the chicken well and slightly cook the flour.
- Add the white wine and allow to reduce to 1/4 cup. Should take 3-4 minutes. Make sure to stir the bottom of the pan to loosen up the bits of chicken.
- Add chicken broth and vegetables to pan with chicken and reduce heat till you have a low simmer.
- Add 2 sprigs of Thyme and 2 bay leaves
- Cover and simmer for 45min-1hr. You want a gentle simmer not a rolling boil.
- While the chicken is simmering separate 2 eggs yolks from the whites and set aside. Reserve whites for other recipes or for breakfast!
- Add the eggs with the milk or cream. Mix well and set aside.
- Make sure your lemon juice is squeezed and set aside as well.
- After 45min-1hr the chicken should be tender. Remove the Thyme and bay leaves and throw away.
- Add the lemon juice, stir and then add the egg/milk mixture.
- Bring to a simmer and remove from heat.
- Serve over Jasmine or Brown rice and garnish with chopped parsley or Thyme sprigs
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We just blogged about this recipe at wwww.ibeafoodie.wordpress
Thanks for the recipe…we loved it!
Great looking recipe. Does the lemon make the egg/ milk curdle?
Great question. Not at all. Be careful not to over heat the sauce after adding the egg/milk. If you allow it to come to a boil the heat could cause it to curdle. You just need to bring it to a very low summer and remove from heat.
Never tried Seitan before. How is the flavor?
Oops, sorry, I totally filled out your feedback form instead of leaving a comment. Anyway! I love this recipe–leeks and mushrooms are such a good combination. I’m going to have to give this a try with seitan in place of chicken!