Chicken in Dijon Sauce - 8/25/08

Here's my first meal of my first semester in grad school.


It's chicken in a Dijon cream sauce. I preheated the oven to 450 degrees F. Then I patted dry three bone-in chicken breasts and sprinkled them with some salt and pepper. I browned the chicken (starting with the skin side down) on both sides. Once brown, I put the entire oven-safe skillet in the oven for 20 minutes to finish cooking the chicken. After taking the skillet out, I removed the chicken from the pan and set it aside. To the pan, I added some sliced shallots and 3/4 cup each white wine and chicken stock. After letting this reduce by half, I added 1/4 cup heavy cream and let it boil until it was thickened. After removing the sauce from the pan, I whisked in about 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard, some chopped chives, salt, and pepper. To serve, I poured the sauce on top of the chicken. One great thing about using a little heavy cream in a sauce is that by cooking it, it turns out nicely thickened. But don't cook it too long or it will "break" and not set up as nicely. On the side, I chopped up some purple onion and sweet potato and I peeled some garlic, then sprayed it with Pam and sprinkled on some dried sage (I was hoping to match the earthiness of Dijon with sage). I stuck these in the oven while I prepped and cooked the chicken until they were roasted and cooked through. Truth be told, I should cook with chicken on the bone more often because it tends to be juicier and tastier than plain breasts.


For dessert, I prepared a blueberry-pineapple angel food cake. I wanted to make something reasonably light to eat so I did not get cravings for chocolate cake all the time. I used a large can of crushed pineapple as the liquid portion for a boxed angel food cake. I also stopped by the Raleigh farmers' market and picked up some fresh blueberries, so I threw some in to the cake as well. They tended to collect on the bottom of the cake while baking, so it almost created a blueberry layer with angel food on top. In any case, I like the cake prepared in a 13x9 Pyrex pan (or larger size) so you don't have to worry about the ring form of the cake falling. With some Cool Whip on top, this cake was quite the delicious topper to a good meal.