Main Course

Posts Tagged ‘Main Course’

Chicken Provençal* with Rice Mélange

April 22nd, 2009 |

Author: Robert

My version of a classic French sauce that can be used on either chicken or a firm white fish such as cod. The preparation time is relatively short and can be frozen for future use.

You will need:
Boneless skinless chicken breast* – approx. 6 oz./person
Red bell pepper
Onion (sweet such as Walla Walla)
Canned diced tomato
Capers
Black olives, pitted
Fresh Rosemary, thyme and parsley
Unbleached flour
Salt/Pepper
Olive Oil

Cut pepper and onion in half. Remove seed and core from pepper and skin and both ends from onion. Slice onion, pepper and olives very thin (Julienne in cooking terms), set aside. Drain tomatoes in a sieve reserve liquid. Tie fresh herbs into a bundle and place into a sauce pot with reserved tomato juice. Bring juice/herb mixture to a slow boil – remove herbs. Add onion and pepper to pot and cook until both are soft. If there is not enough liquid you can add water or dry white wine so that the liquid covers the vegetables. Add diced tomato, capers and olives to pot, cover and simmer for approximately ten minutes, keep warm.

Heat oven to 350°. Place flour in a receptacle, pat chicken* dry, dredge in flour and pat off excess. In a sauté pan, large enough to hold chicken* without crowding, heat one teaspoon/breast of olive oil, sear chicken until just browned on both sides, put in oven to finish cooking until internal temperature is 160°.

Remove chicken from oven spoon approximately 1/4 cup of sauce on each breast cover pan and let it rest for approximately ten minutes. The heat from the pan along with the sauce will finish the chicken. Serve with Rice Mélange.

Rice Mélange

For this recipe I used Rice Select Royal Blend. It is equal parts Texmati white, brown, red and wild rices.
Finally chop herbs used in the chicken recipe. Cook rice according to package directions. When rice is cooked stir in herbs with a little butter. As an alternative you can purchase individual packages of these or other rices to make your own unique side dish.

*Fresh Cod or other firm white fish can be substituted in place of the chicken.

Posted in Chicken, Main Course, Recipes |

Tags: Chicken, Cod, food, Main Course, Provençal, rice, whitefish |

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Filet de boeuf Bourgogne

April 8th, 2009 |

Author: Robert

I’ve taken the traditional Burgundy Beef and went a little upscale while reducing the amount of time to prepare this wonderful meal.

You will need:

Beef Filet (approximately 4 oz. /person)
Small button mushrooms or medium/large cut into quarters
Pearl onion (I used frozen par-cooked) 4 or 5/per person
Carrot (I used bagged baby carrots) 4 or 5/per person
Red wine (I used a good Merlot instead of Burgundy) approximately 1/2 cup/person
Salt/Pepper
Beef broth (no salt) approximately 1/4 cup/person
Egg Noodles approximately 4 oz. /person
Fresh Thyme
Butter and Olive Oil

Cut filet(s) into one-inch pieces, set aside. Defrost pearl onions. Clean mushrooms, if using larger mushrooms quarter them at this point, set aside. Fill a small saucepot with water and carrots; cook until the carrots are fork tender. Put approximately 1 tablespoon each of oil and butter in a sauté pan heat until butter starts to bubble. Sauté beef cubes until just seared, do not crowd pan, sauté in batches if necessary remove as the beef browns and place in a bowl. Deglaze sauté pan with the wine scraping brown bits (fond in culinary terms) on bottom of pan. Add one or two twigs of thyme, there is no need to strip the leaves, as it will be remove later. Continue to cook wine and thyme until wine is reduced by half, remove thyme set aside in bowl.

Place approximately one tablespoon each of olive oil and butter in sauté pan Sauté mushrooms, carrots and onions until caramelized (salt and pepper the vegetables to taste). Put wine reduction, beef broth and vegetables in a sauce pot bring to a rolling simmer (at this time you should prepare noodles according to package directions). Add beef filet cubes with any accumulated juices to sauce pot turn off heat (the beef will warm through with the residual heat in the pot, caution do not overcook beef).
Place cooked noodles on a serving plate, ladle beef, the vegetables and stock over noodles. Garnish with chopped parsley.