Borrowed Recipes: Sautéed Chicken Breasts with Whole-Grain Mustard Sauce

This deliciously saucy recipe comes from a Williams-Sonoma recipe book simply titled Sauce.  Whole grain mustard is the featured ingredient, which is great because it's one healthy condiment. But nutrition pretty much goes out the window when we add three quarters of a cup of heavy cream to the pan. Still, when paired with steamed green beans and a small scoop of mashed potatoes, this turns into a pretty well-balanced meal (at least that what I tell myself anyway.)

We make the sauce after cooking the chicken by deglazing the pan with a little white wine, making sure to scrape up and mix in the yummy brown bits left over by the meat.

William-Sonoma's Sautéed Chicken Breasts with Whole Grain Mustard Sauce

Serves 4

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (preferably organic)

2 teaspoons unsalted butter

2 teaspoons olive oil

salt & pepper

For the sauce

1 shallot, minced

1/2 cup dry white wine

3/4 cup heavy cream

3 tablespoons whole-grain mustard

salt & pepper

Place a large baking dish in the oven and preheat to 65C (150F.) We''ll be using it to keep the chicken warm while we make the sauce.

Rinse the chicken and pat dry with paper towels. Use a meat pounder to lightly pound the breasts to an even thickness of around a 1/2 inch. (Or, if you don't have a proper meat pounder, as in my case, use something flat and heavy. Be creative. I ended up using our stone mortal as a pounder. It did the job!) Season both sides with salt and pepper.

Heat a large pan over medium-high heat and melt the butter with the oil. When the foam begins to subside, add the chicken breasts and cook, being careful not to crowd the pan (do them in batches if you need to), until just beginning to brown, roughly 2 minutes. (If the chicken is thicker than 1/2 an inch it will obviously take longer to brown.) Turn the chicken over and cook, around 2-2 1/2 minutes, until firm. With a sharp knife, cut a small slit in the middle of the thickest piece and make sure there is no sign of pinkness. Transfer the chicken breasts to the baking dish in the oven.

Now on to the sauce!

Return the pan to medium-low heat and add the shallot. Cook, stirring, until slightly softened, about a minute. Add the wine and raise the heat to medium-high. Simmer, stirring with a wooden spoon to scrape up the tasty bits from both the bottom and sides of the pan. Keep stirring until the wine has reduced to about 2 tablespoons. This should take around 3 minutes. Stir in the cream, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Bring to a boil, and then simmer, stirring constantly, until the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, 1-2 minutes. 

Turn off the heat (if using an electric stove, remove from the element) and whisk in the mustard until smooth. Take the chicken breasts out of the oven and place one on each plate. Top with a couple spoonfuls of the sauce and serve at once.

Serve with green beans and mash or a simple spinach salad.

Bon appétit!

Tip: I always have extra sauce leftover which makes a great salad dressing for lunch the following day. Just toss it with arugula, grilled chicken slices, and some sauteed onion. It's deliciously quick.

A16's Chocolate Budino with salt and olive oil (modified version)

I feel bad sharing this recipe with you. I feel bad because once you make it, you will devour it, and then, you will be hooked. Consequently, I will be personally responsible for adding inches to your waistline. For this I am truly sorry. But I made the decision to share this recipe because I believe it will make you happy. And wouldn't it be worse to deprive you of that?

The original recipe includes tart shells, but we lose them in this modified version, which means we make only the filling (the budino.) There are two reasons why we're doing this: 1. It's easier, and 2. We don't have a mixer yet, which is needed to make the tart shells. 

I can assure you, however, that on the day we buy a mixer we'll be racing home to give the full version a try. (It'll be interesting to see if we can make it taste as good as it did at the restaurant.)

A16's Chocolate Budino with Sea Salt and Olive Oil

(modified version)

For 8 servings you will need:

200 grams (7 ounces) bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (we use chocolate that is 70 percent cacao)

42 grams (1½ ounces) milk chocolate, coarsely chopped

½ cup whole milk

6 egg yolks

1/3 cup sugar

2 cups heavy cream 

For garnish:

unrefined, flaky sea salt

extra virgin olive oil

Start at least 4½ hours before you plan on serving because they will need to be refrigerated for a minimum of 4 hours.

Preheat your oven to 150C (300F.) 

Combine the bittersweet and milk chocolates in a heatproof bowl (a Pyrex baking bowl, for example), and place it over a pot of water that is just barely simmering—careful the bowl isn't actually touching the water, just resting directly over it. Leave it to melt.

It's about this time when my mouth starts to water.

While the chocolate is melting, warm up the milk in a small pot over medium heat just until it's about to simmer. Do not allow the milk to boil. Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl, and then gradually whisk in the milk.

Once the chocolate has melted, remove the bowl from the heat and stir until smooth. Strain the egg yolk mixture through a fine-mesh strainer into the melted chocolate. Stir until everything is combined and is smooth. 

Heat 1 cup of the cream over medium heat in a small pot until it begins to simmer. Remove from the heat and slowly stir the warm cream into the chocolate mixture. Then stir in the remaining 1 cup of cream.

It's a beautiful thing.

Pour the mixture into 8 (1-cup) ramekins, or, if you have them, mini cocottes (shown here in the first row.) Cover each dish tightly with aluminium foil, or a tight-fitting lid, and place in a baking pan at least two inches deep. 

Carefully pour hot water into the baking pan until it comes two-thirds up the sides of the dishes. Bake until the edges appear to be set but the middle is still loose, about 40 minutes.

Licking the bowl will certainly whet your appetite for dessert. But you'll have to be patient. When the dishes are ready to come out of the oven, you'll need to (carefully) remove them from the pan, let cool, and then pop them in the fridge for 4 hours.

When they're ready to serve, sprinkle on the salt and drizzle a liberal amount of olive oil on top to finish.

The sheer decadence of this dessert means I could easily share it and still be satisfied; it's very rich. However, I believe I'm alone in this. I have yet to come across a single person who will split one with me. It's just too damn good I s'pose.