Mushroom & Garlic Stuffed Chicken Breast with White Wine Cream Sauce

.

It's funny where we draw our inspiration from...

The other day I was talking to my Mom and she said that she had just recently tried cous cous and liked it, which reminded me that I had some in my cupboard that I should use.

Next, I was talking to my sister about a spinach and mushroom pasta dish that she made and it reminded me that I had mushrooms on my fridge that I really needed to use soon.

Then, I randomly picked up a package of chicken breasts at the store the other day, not knowing exactly what I was going to do with them.

And today, I was doing my taxes this morning and thinking about how I could really use a glass of wine.

(I said I thought about it... No, I did not begin drinking this morning, just to confirm.)

Somehow this all came together into something wonderful, at first in my psyche, and then in my kitchen... Mushroom & Garlic Stuffed Chicken Breast with White Wine Cream Sauce.

If my grandmother were still alive and tasted this, she would say, "Uffda." That's Norwegian for, "My, this is amazingly delicious," or, "This is so good that there are no other words to describe it," or, "Giving birth to this baby right here on my kitchen table sure was a lot of work and I'm glad it's over."

As you can see, 'Uffda' can be used with many different connotations. It's sort of like wow -- that was really good, or my goodness, or whew -- that was difficult. It's really quite versatile.

Alright, enough with the Norwegian dialect lesson that I am obviously completely inept and unqualified to provide.

Back to cooking... Let's just get started, shall we?

Mushroom & Garlic Stuffed Chicken Breast with White Wine Cream Sauce 4x6 Recipe Card - Coming Soon!

Ingredient List, Stuffed Chicken Breast...

• 5 Chicken Breasts
• 8 Cups Chopped Button Mushrooms
• 4 Tbsp. Butter
• 1 Clove Garlic
• 1/2 tsp. Salt
• 1 Cup Crushed Toll House Butter Crackers
• 4 Tbsp. Butter
• 1 Egg
• Salt & Pepper
• Olive Oil

Ingredient List, White Wine Cream Sauce...

• 4 Tbsp. Butter
• 1/4 Cup Flour
• 1/2 Cup Half & Half
• 1 Cup Chicken Stock
• 1 Cup White Wine (I used Chardonnay)
• 1/2 tsp. Salt
• 1/2 tsp. Dried Thyme
• 1 tsp. Sugar
• 1/2 Cup Reserved Mushroom Mixture

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

The first order of business is to make the mushroom stuffing... I started with about 20 oz. of whole button mushrooms to end up with 8 cups of chopped mushrooms. I know, this seems like a lot, but the mushrooms cook down a lot before being stuffed into the chicken, so it all works out just fine.

Can I tell you a little secret? I'm a mushroom washer. I know, I know... On the Food Network they're always telling us not to wash our mushrooms, just to rub them clean with a towel. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I wash them. I let them soak in water, I clean them off, and then I dry them off with a paper towel. And it works just fine for me. Feel free to go about this in whatever way you choose, but in the interest of full disclosure, I just wanted to tell you that I wash mine. Anything that rests in the dirt and is sniffed out by a pig before being harvested gets washed. That's just how I roll.

Oh wait, that's truffles. Anyhow, they still have dirt on them. I wash 'em.

So, chop them up as shown above. Next, melt 4 tablespoons of butter on medium heat in a skillet until just starting to become bubbly and brown...

Add mushrooms and 1/2 tsp. of salt and stir. Let mushrooms cook down, stirring occasionally, until they are tender and starting to brown, looking like this...

Do you see the golden brown goodness? Do you? Look closer...

Seriously, look closer... 

Now that's good stuff, I don't care who y'are.

Unless you don't like mushrooms... Then I apologize because this recipe really isn't for you.

But if you do like mushrooms, let's continue on...

Once the mushrooms look like the pictures above, add one clove of pressed garlic...

Saute the garlic with the mushrooms, still on medium heat, for just 30 seconds or so, then remove from heat. Do not, I repeat: do not put the garlic in with the mushrooms before this point, or you will end up with burnt garlic, which is bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. You just want to let the garlic cook with the mushrooms for a quick half a minute.

At this point, scoop out a 1/2 cup of the mushroom garlic mixture and reserve for later use in the sauce.

Next, crush enough crackers in your food processor (I happened to need 34 crackers, to be exact) to give you 1 cup, and melt 4 tablespoons of butter. Add both to the mushroom mixture and stir. Add in one beaten egg and stir again to combine.

I think it's best to add in the egg only after you have stirred together the mushrooms with the crackers and butter, because it gives the mushrooms a chance to cool a bit, thus not cooking the egg when you pour it in.

At this juncture in the whole process, I forgot to take a picture of what it looks like all mixed up, and I apologize for that. Luckily, you'll see what it looks like in just a few seconds once we get down to stuffing the chicken, but we're not quite there yet.

Gather your chicken breasts onto a cutting board, and cut them in half and fold open, like this...

Yum.

Just kidding.

Have I ever told you how much I hate raw meat? It's that darned microbiology degree... All it left me with was a healthy fear of germs. I hate it so much that I almost want to become a vegetarian. But then I smell bacon and come back to my senses.

Now it's time to stuff the chicken. Scoop out 1/3 cup of the mushroom/garlic/cracker crumb mixture and place inside the chicken breast, then fold the breast back over, like this...

See? That's what the stuffing looks like. Next, season both sides of the chicken breast with salt and pepper to taste...

Next, drizzle about 2 tablepoons of olive oil into a skillet over medium heat. Allow the skillet to get hot enough that the olive oil just begins to smoke a little bit. Place your chicken breasts in the hot pan and sear the outsides, turning to sear both the top and bottom sides, about two minutes on each side. You do not want to cook the chicken through, just sear the outsides to give you that tasty browned flavor and lock in some of the juices, until they look like this...

This is becoming one of my favorite cooking techniques... Searing the meat, then placing it in the oven to finish cooking. I think that searing it helps lock in the juices and gives you that extra bit of flavor, but finishing it off in the oven keeps it from drying out, like it tends to do when you cook it completely in the frying pan. I do it with chicken, roasts, and I did it with spare ribs the other night and they turned out just yummy.

Once you've seared the breasts, place them into a casserole dish sprayed with cooking spray...

...and place in the oven, uncovered, and bake for approximately 35 minutes, or until your meat thermometer reads 165 degrees. (Be sure to take the temperature with the tip of the thermometer in the meat, not in the stuffing.)

While the chicken is cooking, go ahead and make your sauce. First off, we'll start with sort of a roux. What I have learned about making a roux is this: Have all of your initial ingredients ready to go before you begin, because once you get things going, you don't have a lot of time to run around the kitchen and grab things or your butter and flour may burn, and you'll have to start all over. That said, go ahead and grab 4 tablespoons of butter, 1/4 cup flour, 1/2 cup half & half, 1 cup chicken stock and 1 cup white wine (I used chardonnay) and have them next to your stove and ready for action.

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat until just melted and starting to bubble, then add flour and whisk to combine...

As soon as butter and flour are incorporated and just a bit bubbly, pour in your half & half, chicken stock and white wine, continually whisking to combine. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon thyme, 1 teaspoon sugar and the 1/2 cup sauteed mushroom and garlic mixture reserved from earlier. Continue stirring over medium heat until mixture begins to bubble, then turn heat down to LOW (very, very low) and continue to cook and stir for about ten minutes, allowing sauce to thicken.

If you'd prefer to have a bit less of a white wine flavor, go ahead and use a 1/2 cup instead. Or, if you really don't like white wine flavor at all, or you don't have any on hand, I think that substituting more chicken stock for the white wine would work out just fine.

Since I also had cous cous in mind, I thought it would make a lovely side dish, and it really did. I spooned the sauce over both the chicken and cous cous, and it was de-lic-ious! I just used plain cous cous, which worked out well because the flavor of the sauce and chicken really carried over and the cous cous didn't need anything extra in my opinion.

I know this dish is going to grace my table again and again in the future. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! 

 

Comments

[Teri]

This looks delish! Thank you for sharing. I always have chicken breasts on hand that I bring home from our restaurant. Thank you too, for stopping by my blog and giving me some much needed hints for photo size. Your blog is quite beautiful I must say....
I love the "enjoy in moderation". Thats the part that always trips me up! I also liked your comment about oreo shakes....that is by far our most popular flavor on our shake menu!

Happy Day! Teri from Turtles In The Tub