| Written By Recipe Coordinator |
Last week France celebrated Bastille Day on July 14th, 2009. The news of that celebration brought to mind a recipe that had caught my eye in the book written by Mireille Guiliano entitled: "French Woman Don’t Get Fat." I always seek recipes that are easy and economical to prepare. In this day and age, we all seem to have less time to cook and less money to spend on ingredients. I had bookmarked that recipe because it seemed so nice and simple. The recipe in her book is called Champagne Au Chicken.
Mireille was President and CEO of the French Champagne company Clicquot, Inc., so I trust that her knowledge of Champagne is substantial. I enjoy a recipe that seems to be much more involved and extravagant than it really is. When you place this chicken dish on the table and say to your family and friends, "Champagne Chicken!", you can just imagine what their thoughts will be. They may think you spent all day in the kitchen and your life savings on the ingredients. On the contrary. Chicken is still relatively inexpensive and if you shop around, you can nab a bottle of decent Champagne for under $10.00. All of the other ingredients you should already have in your pantry.
I tried this recipe over the weekend and it really was easy to prepare. I washed the chicken and added the shallots which certainly added a lovely texture and aroma to the chicken. The champagne kept the chicken moist and juicy inside while making the outer skin of the chicken wonderfully brown and crisp. Be sure to baste the cooking chicken a few times. The juices from the cooking chicken are out of this world. All in all, this is a great tasting recipe that really did impress my family and make me look like a Food TV chef. I sure do love recipes that do that.
Chicken Au Champagne
4 chicken breasts (with skin and bone)
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Chervil, tarragon, or thyme (optional)
1 shallot, quartered
1 cup Champagne (Verve Cliquot Yellow Label Brut recommended)
1. Place the chicken breasts in a roasting pan, and season them. Pour 1/2 cup of the Champagne over breasts. Make a slit in each breast and insert a piece of shallot.
2. Place the pan under broiler, skin-side down, for 3 minutes, until the skin is nicely browned. Turn and broil the other side for 5 minutes.
3. Remove the chicken from the broiler, baste with pan juices, and add the remaining 1/2 cup of Champagne. Adjust the oven temperature to 475*F and bake the chicken for 30 minutes, basting once or twice.
4. Serve over brown rice. Sautéed mushrooms add a special touch and go beautifully with Champagne. (In a warm frying pan with a touch of olive oil, add clean, roughly chopped mushrooms, and cook for a few minutes. Add a few drops of lemon juice, freshly chopped sage, seasoning to taste, and 1 tablespoon of butter.) Pour the cooking juices from the chicken over the meat and rice. Serve the remainder of the bottle of the Champagne (about 6 glasses) with the meal.
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