Practicing What I Preach (sort-of)

Last night I grabbed a $1 cheeseburger at McDonald's on my way home from a speaking engagement in Vicksburg, Mississippi. I won't bore you with the pictures. Suffice it to say that the burger was mediocre at best. I was not however disappointed since it tasted exactly how I expected and provided me with enough energy to get home and go to sleep.
Wednesday night I took my own advice from the day's blog entry and whipped up a chicken breast without any notion of a recipe. I had some chicken in the freezer, some cream in the fridge and some chicken stock in the pantry (didn't feel like thawing out the homemade stuff). I put that together with a pouch of frozen butter beans and some basmati rice. It wasn't haute cuisine, but everyone was happy, the sauce was rich and it went nicely with the leftover bottle of Parados Malbec that was sitting on the dining room table in the cool  chef-thingy I got for Christmas from my in-laws. Despite the fact that I didn't use a recipe to cook the dish, I did remember what went into it and even took the time to write it down. here is my recipe for no-recipe chicken. If you want to get all fussy and go lower-cal, you could substitute milk for cream. It just won't taste as good. Instead, I would recommend just pouring a little less sauce on the chicken and none on the rice. That stuff tastes great without any sauce. Or you could hide your TV remote and chase the kids around the yard for a while to burn off the extra calories from the cream. Or you could just not worry about it and cook something extra light the next night. Or you could eat cream with every meal and just COMPLETELY stop snacking on junk between meals. Wow - I'm preachy tonight. Sorry about that.
Bon Appetit!

~Tom
Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts with Cream Pan Sauce

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 Tbsp. olive oil

3 Tbsp. unsalted butter

1 tsp. Ivy & Devine Poultry Seasoning Blend

¼ cup chicken stock

¼ cup heavy cream 

2 green onions

Prep

Liberally season chicken breasts with Ivy & Devine Poultry Seasoning Blend. Chop green onions. Set stock out and allow it to come to room temperature while cooking the chicken.

Cook

Heat a large iron skillet over medium heat. Add 1 Tbsp. butter and olive oil to skillet. When the butter foams and begins to brown, add chicken smooth side down first and cook until done, turning only once. This should take about 5 minutes for each side. Remove the chicken from the heat and either wrap in foil or place in a bowl, covered with foil. Deglaze the pan with ¼ cup chicken stock, loosening any brown bits from the bottom of the pan. When stock is reduced by ½ of its original volume, add cream and reduce by ½. Reduce heat to low and add to the sauce any liquid that has accumulated in the bowl or foil pouch of cooked chicken breasts plus the remaining 2 Tbsp. of butter. Stir with a spoon or whisk until the butter is completely incorporated in the sauce.

Plate

Place the cooked breasts over a starch (rice, potatoes etc.) in the center of the plate and drizzle over the top with the sauce. Garnish with chopped green onions.

(Serves 6)