Bad Little Chicky

As the boobs sat thawing in the water bowl, I browsed through my binder of printed-out recipes. One in particular sounded interesting- Country Captain Chicken. Better still, I had all the ingredients necessary. I ran it by DucCat, who also liked the idea. Boom-shi-dogga, baby.

I get home from work later that evening, pull on an apron, and start prep work. I could've sworn that I'd read the recipe a bit more closely earlier, but perhaps not. The ingredients were all listed out of order. The instructions were badly written, and unclear. As I began sauteeing the onion, a listed ingredient, yet one not mentioned anywhere in the instructions, my first nervous knot clenched in my stomach.

45 minutes later, I plated it, and called DucCat over.


It smelled wonderful, and didn't look too shabby, either. Yet as I bit into the chicken, I knew this battle had been lost.

The mushroom sauce was pretty good, and couldn't be faulted. The chicken, however...

Absolutely.

Freakin'.

Flavourless.

I told DucCat I wouldn't be at all offended if he wanted to heat up a Stouffer's mac n' cheese.

The meal was unceremoniously tossed; time passed. DucCat was unable to find any Stouffer's products buried in the freezer, but lucky for him, we had some nacho chips leftover.


Ah, the power of cheese.

If you'd like to make a French Country Captain recipe worth a damn, I'd suggest pounding flat a couple of chicken breasts, coating them in a spiced flour mixture, and pan-fry until golden and cooked through.

Meanwhile, make the following sauce in another pan. When done, combine- and enjoy.

Mushroom Sauce for Chicken

1/4 small onion, minced
2 ounces unsalted butter (1/2 stick)
8 ounces mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
1/2-3/4 cup dry white wine
1 1/2 ounces jus de poulet lie gold demi-glace (I use the ‘More than Gourmet’ brand- wonderful stuff!)
hot water (up to 5 ounces)
fresh ground black pepper

Melt butter in a sauce pan over medium high heat and saute shallots/onions until they become translucent.
Add the wine, then the mushrooms, and cook until most of the wine is cooked off.
The mushrooms will also release their liquid at this time, so it will take a little while for the liquid level to reduce.
Add the pepper and the Jus de Poulet Lie Gold, and let it melt in the pan.
Whisk in about 1/2 of the hot water (add more if it still seems too thick at this point); taste and adjust the seasoning, if necessary; simmer for about 6 minutes, or until thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon.