Triple-reduced mushroom sauce
This is one of my signature dishes—it's delicious, rich and hearty, and goes well with any kind of base: pasta, potatoes, and rice just taste superb together. My secret to the intensive, flavorful sauce is the triple reduction of the ingredients' fluids, due to cooking in batches and mixing in specific order. It takes some time, but the result is so much worth it! :-)
Ingredients for 4 portions
- Champignons: 500g
- Crème Fraîche: 400g
- Chicken breast: 600g
- 2x Shallot (80g)
- Herbs: 2 spoons (30g)
- Grana Padano: 2 spoons (30g)
- Rapeseed oil: 1 spoon (15g)
- Salt: 1 teaspoon (5g)
- Black pepper: ½ teaspoons (3g)
- Garlic powder: 1 teaspoon (5g)
Step #1: Prepare ingredients (10 minutes)
Prepare your ingredients before cooking:
- Clean, dry and slice mushrooms into 5mm-thick slices,
- Ditch the chicken breast into 2-3cm-wide cubes,
- Finely chop shallots into fine pieces.
Make sure that the cream is out of the fridge, best at the room temperature.
It's extremely important to cook dry mushrooms, otherwise they will make a soup on the pan, becoming soggy, and disgusting.
Step #2: Fry the chicken (5 minutes)
Set heavy-bottomed pan on a high heat and warm up a spoon of rapeseed oil. Season chicken breast cubes with half-a-teaspoon of salt, and a pinch of pepper.
Fry until golden-brown on both sides without disturbing the pan, but don't worry about them being cooked-through. At this stage we need the colors and juices.
Piece by piece, move chicken into a separate bowl while you cook other ingredients (cover the bowl!)
Don't worry about cooking the meat entirely, it will happen later in the sauce.
Cover the bowl to keep the moisture and juices in the bowl!
Step #3: Fry the mushrooms (8 minutes)
Toss one third to half of the mushrooms onto the pan and fry on a high heat in the leftover oil and chicken juices. After 2 minutes add the second batch, stir, and keep frying. After another 2 minutes add rest of the mushrooms and sprinkle with a pinch or two of salt (or just the rest of your salt).
Keep frying and stirring occasionally until most of the moisture is gone (first reduction). Mushrooms will go from pale to brown-ish, to brown, but won't get overly soggy or watery. Make sure that almost all of the moisture is gone before going further, stirring often at this point.
Don't overcrowd the mushrooms on the pan—it's better to do it in 3, or even 4 batches, instead of ending up with a bunch of sad, wilted, soggy mushrooms.
Step #4: Add shallots, and chicken (1 minute)
Add shallots and stir them into the mushrooms. After about a minute they should be softened, and at this moment simply add chicken cubes and all of the juices that were in the bowl.
Reduce the moisture again (second time) before proceeding.
Step #5: Add cream and wrap-up (10 minutes)
Add crème fraîche and stir it into the sauce ingredients. Reduce on a high heat until it reaches the creamy and thick consistency, then kill the heat and let it cool a bit.
Season with herbs, dried garlic powder, and the rest of salt and black pepper.
Lay the sauce on some rice, pasta, or potatoes, and sprinkle generously with grated Grana Padano and decorate with some fresh or dried herbs.
Nutritional value of 1 portion (417g of 1668g total)
|
651.12
Calories (kcal)
156.19 in 100g
28% GDA
|
56.13
Protein (g)
13.46 in 100g
112% GDA
|
11.84
Carbohydrates (g)
2.84 in 100g
4% GDA
|
5.8
Sugar (g)
1.39 in 100g
5% GDA
|
41.73
Fat (g)
10.01 in 100g
50% GDA
|
23.95
Saturated fat (g)
5.74 in 100g
95% GDA
|
800.0
Sodium (mg)
0.19 in 100g
13% GDA
|
The nutritional information on this site is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding proper nutrition.