Chicken with Chanterelles

One of my favorite meals I had in Paris, just about a year ago, was chicken with mushroom sauce at Polidor. Nothing fancy, just a really great lunch of chicken breast, a thick mushroom sauce, and fries.



The dish at the restaurant just had a mushroom sauce, but no whole mushrooms. I saw these chanterelles at the farmers market and thought I could try to make my own version.

Serves 2
2 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
2 shallots, minced
1/4 cup white wine
3/4 cup chicken stock
1 cup chanterelle mushrooms
1 tablespoon cream
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Rise the chicken breasts and dry well. Season with salt and pepper and brown skin side down in the skillet.



Bake the chicken in a baking dish for about 30-35 minutes.

Melt butter in the same skillet used for the chicken. Add the shallots and cook over medium heat until golden brown, about 5 minutes.



Add the white wine and let it cook down for a couple minutes to burn off the alcohol. Add 1/4 cup of the chicken stock to the pan. Slice chanterelles lengthwise and add to pan.




After a few minutes lower the heat. As the mushrooms cook continue to add the rest of the chicken stock a couple tablespoons at a time. After the mushrooms have cooked for about 10 minutes add the cream and flour. Stir to combine thoroughly. The flour should thicken the sauce to the point that if you scrape a line through the liquid down the middle of the pan it should take a few seconds to fill back in.



Keep the sauce on low heat until the chicken is done. Put the chicken onto plates, and pour half (or all, if you like) of the juice in the baking dish into the sauce.



Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour over chicken.



I think it was pretty close to the taste I remember. The original was a little thicker, probably more butter and flour, but I didn't want to go overboard and make it too rich. And I liked the addition of the whole mushrooms. If chanterelles aren't available any other kind of wild mushrooms should be fine, as long as they're cut into small enough pieces. This dish turned out really, really well. I'll definitely be making it again!