Chicken with Morels and Sherry wine

Chicken with Morels and cream is a specialty recipe from the Franche-comte region. in this region most dishes are quite rich (hence the use of loads of cream) but also very tasty which I personally really like.

• Ingredients: 4 chicken breast or tighs (best quality you can find)
• 15g / 1 tbsp Unsalted butter 2 shallots finely sliced lenghtways
• 2 pinches of Sea salt or a chicken stock cube
• 40g Dried morels soaked in hot water for 1 hours at least (use about 200 ml /0.8 cup of water) https://amzn.to/2FNNChf
• 100ml (0.40cup) to 150ml (0.60 cup) sherry depending on taste (I used Sherry Don jose oloroso de romate)
• 150ml (0.60cup) of Morel juice* (*that is the water in which the Morels soaked in)
• up 500 ml (2cups) of Double cream (heavy whipping cream)

Cooking time: Chicken breast 4 minutes on each side first in butter. then when the sauce is ready, finish to cook in the cream for 15 minute on low heat.

How to use dried Morels:

Put the dry morels in a Bowl and cover with a maximum of 1 cup of hot water. Add a small plate on top of the morels to make sure the morels keep underwater. leave to soak for at least 1 hour. then take the morels out press the juice out, rinse and reserve. Keep the Morels soaking juice for cooking.

Chicken with morels recipe Instruction

Food preparation:

• Drain the morels, squeeze to extract as much of the soaking water as possible, reserve the water.
• Then wash the morels under runny water to remove any sand.
• Drain and squeeze excess water from the morels. Chop large morels in smaller size and  and reserve the soaking juices for cooking.
• Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper.
• Finely sliced the shallots lengthways.
• Measure you sherry wine, cream

Making the recipe:

In a frying pan, melt the butter on low heat until it is foaming. Add the chicken breasts and colour lightly for 4 minutes on each side, remove from the pan and reserve on a tray for later use.

In the remaining fat, lightly cook the shallots for a 1 and 2 minutes  add the Morels in and stir well,   Add the sherry wine* and leave to reduce by half, add now the Morels juice and reduce by half again. To Finish, correct the seasoning by adding either a bit of salt or a chicken stock cube in the pot, then add the cream. Turn now the heat back up to medium-high to bring the cream to the boil. when it boils leave to reduce for 10 minutes.

Once the sauce has reduced, place the chicken pieces back into the pan. The sauce must cover the chicken pieces. Lower the heat back to a simmer and cook the chicken for a further 15 minutes (it can be more or less depending on the size of the chicken pieces you are using) .  when cooked,you can adjust the taste of the sauce by adding more Morels juices or sherry wine. once you are happy with the taste of your sauce, place the  chicken pieces in a serving dish, cover with the sauce and serve.

If serving in plates:

Place one piece of chicken in the middle of the plate and sprinkle 5 or 6 morels evenly on the plate. then cover the chicken lightly with sauce. you can add a serve of vegetable or pasta on the plate too if you prefer then have the rest of the sauce in a sauce boat on the table as shown in the video.

you can pair this with a chardonnay, or a wine for the Jura region.

Enjoy

FCA

Host and author on The French Cooking Academy.