This recipe was a result of experimenting during a trip to San Francisco when I was trying to cook something for some friends. It is breast of chicken in a white wine and cream sauce flavoured with Roquefort cheese. If you have a consuming passion for cheese, particularly blue, then this is for you. Treat the Roquefort as a seasoning; adjust the amount suggested to suit your particular taste.
Planning
| serves: | 4 |
| preparation time: | 20 mins |
| cooking time: | 30 mins |
Ingredients
- 4 chicken breasts (boned)
- 1 oz unsalted butter
- 1 shallot, finely chopped
- 1½ oz Roquefort cheese (or blue stilton, if you prefer)
- 10 fl oz dry white wine
- 5 fl oz single cream
- salt and pepper
Method
Crumble the blue cheese and moisten it with 2 tbs. of the cream. Mix this to a paste (ignoring the colour!) and season lightly with a little salt and pepper.
Finely chop the shallot. Use a sauté pan that has a lid and will take the 4 chicken breasts comfortably. Melt the butter over medium heat, add the chicken breasts and brown them lightly on both sides. Remove the chicken from the pan and gently soften the shallot in the sauté pan without allowing it to colour. Return the chicken breasts to the pan moving them around a little to get them into the shallots. Cover the pan with the lid, lower the heat and cook the chicken covered until just cooked through (about 10 mins but test them – it depends how big your breasts are :)). There should now be some liquid in the bottom of the pan. Remove the chicken breasts and keep them warm while you finish the sauce.
Increase the heat and reduce the pan juices until they become slightly syrupy. Add the white wine and repeat the reduction process down to about one third. Add the cream and bring gently to simmering point stirring all the time. Lower the heat add stir in the blue cheese mixture until it dissolves. Adjust the seasoning (bearing in mind that blue cheese is inherently salty).
Serve the chicken breasts either nouvelle cuisine style on top of the sauce or “vielle cuisine” style underneath the sauce.
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