Poulet Sacha Guitry
Fine dining-style sauté chicken with a prawn butter sauce inspired by Fernand Point.
Sauté Chicken Breasts with Prawn Butter Sauce Inspired by Fernand Point
Fernand Point was the ‘larger-than-life’ chef behind La Pyramide in Vienne – a restaurant where presidents, poets, actors and food critics all came to eat. Point was known for dedicating dishes to the people he admired, and this particular recipe was created in honour of Sacha Guitry, the famous French actor and screenwriter, who had a great love for crayfish butter.
In Point’s original recipe, the compound butter is made with freshwater crayfish, a once widely used ingredient in classical French cuisine that’s now difficult to source. So we’ve adapted this for the home kitchen using cooked prawns, which make a flavourful butter with far less fuss. And if you’ve ever picked up Point’s cookbook, you’ll know his recipes are more like outlines than instructions. There are no precise measurements, no step-by-step method. Just the idea, and the rest is left to you. It’s a challenge to fill in the gaps so I’ve done it for you.
What makes this dish really special is the technique of using a compound butter not just on top of the meat, but as a cooking medium and sauce thickener. The prawn butter brings a subtle shellfish richness that pairs beautifully with the Madeira, cream and morels. It’s the kind of combination you wouldn’t necessarily expect, but once you taste it, you’ll understand why Point’s cooking was considered legendary. Even this toned-down home version delivers something that feels unmistakably like fine dining.
INGREDIENTS
Serves 2 | Prep time: 30 MIN | Cook time: 30 MIN
For the Prawn Butter
100 g (3½ oz) cooked prawns, shell on, chilled
100 g (3½ oz) unsalted butter, softened
Pinch of Cayenne chilli flakes
For the Chicken
2 bone-in chicken breasts, wing joint attached 1 tbsp
(15 g / ½ oz) prawn butter + 1 tbsp plain butter
30 g (1 oz) carrot, finely diced
20 g (¾ oz) celery, finely diced
50 g (1¾ oz) onion, finely diced
100 ml (3½ fl oz) dry white wine
30 ml (1 fl oz) Madeira wine, plus extra for finishing the sauce
200 ml (6¾ fl oz) heavy cream
Salt and pepper to season
For the White-Cooked Mushrooms
200 g (7 oz) button mushrooms, quartered
Enough water to almost cover the mushrooms
20 g (¾ oz) unsalted butter
Juice of a quarter lemon
Salt and pepper to season
For the Morel Garnish
Small handful of dried morels, rehydrated, or fresh morels
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
Salt and pepper to season
MISE EN PLACE
Prepare the prawn butter in advance (see instructions below) and refrigerate until needed.
Peel the prawns, reserving the shells and any coral (the reddish matter inside the heads – this is full of flavour and essential for a good butter). Devein the prawns by making a shallow incision along the back and removing any dark intestinal tract.
Rehydrate the dried morels according to the packet instructions, if using dried. Dice the carrot, celery and onion for the mirepoix.
Preheat the oven to 50°C (120°F) to keep the chicken warm while you finish the sauce.
METHOD
To make the prawn butter, place the peeled prawns, reserved shells, any coral from the heads and the softened butter into a tall, narrow container. Using a stick blender at maximum speed, process until you have a smooth, pink-tinged paste. Push the mixture through a coarse sieve using a firm spatula, pressing well to extract all the butter and discard any remaining shell fragments. Season with the cayenne pepper and mix through. Set aside in the fridge. (For a quicker approach, you can skip the sieving and use the butter as is, the texture will be slightly rustic but the flavour is the same.)
To white-cook the mushrooms, place the quartered button mushrooms in a saucepan with enough water to almost cover them. Add the butter, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, then reduce to low and let the mushrooms cook gently while you cook the chicken.
To cook the chicken, heat a generous tablespoon of prawn butter with the same amount of plain butter in a sauté pan over low heat. When the butter is gently foaming, place the chicken breasts skin-side down and cook à blanc, that is, with the minimum amount of colouring. You're looking for a pale, barely golden surface, almost as if the chicken has been poached. Turn once and cook for a few minutes on the other side, then remove the chicken to a tray and set aside.
In the same pan, add the diced carrot, celery and onion. Cook gently over low heat for 3 to 5 minutes to release the flavours without colouring. Raise the heat, pour in the white wine and use a spoon to detach any cooking residue from the bottom of the pan. Let the wine reduce by at least half. Add the Madeira and follow by adding the cream a few spoonfuls of the mushroom cooking liquid along with a few of the poached mushrooms
Stir everything together, then return the chicken breasts to the pan. Cover partly with a lid and simmer gently for about 7 minutes per side, or until the chicken is cooked through and the juices run clear.
Transfer the chicken to a tray cover with foil and keep warm in the oven while you finish the sauce.
To prepare the morel garnish, melt the butter in a small pan over medium heat. Add the morels, season with salt and pepper, and sauté briefly until warmed through and lightly golden. Toss with the chopped parsley and set aside.
To finish the sauce, strain the cooking liquid through a fine sieve into a clean saucepan, pressing on the vegetables to extract all the flavour. Place over low heat (the sauce should be warm but not boiling). Adjust with an extra teaspoon or two of Madeira to taste. Then, piece by piece, add the prawn butter, swirling the pan gently (rather than whisking) to emulsify the butter into the sauce. This thickens the sauce and gives it that beautiful shellfish richness. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
Serve the chicken in a pool of sauce, topped with the sautéed morels and the white-cooked mushrooms. A scattering of fresh tarragon leaves or parsley finishes the dish beautifully. For accompaniments, steamed carrots, pilaf rice or even a simple macaroni work well alongside.
Tip
The prawn butter can be made ahead and stored in the fridge for up to 3 days, or frozen for up to a month. Roll it into a log in cling film for easy portioning. This butter is also wonderful melted over a grilled steak or piece of pan-seared fish.