Chicken with Herbs

Recipe eight:

Poutet Saltte altx Herbes de Provence -  Vegan Chicken with Herbs 

To seitan or not to seitan. . . that is seriously the question we have been trying in earnest to perfect our meatless meat recipe, we are still in the progress of getting it right so in the meantime we will be using store bought meatless chicken patties, thank goodness to all of the meatless offerings found at the local Whole Foods.

Today we are using Gardein meatless chicken patties to create Julia’s’ Chicken with Herbs for dinner.

After experimenting we found the closest thing to what we are trying to perfect are the Gardein patties, they are truly a marvel, even down to the texture. 

From top left to right: Vegg egg substitute, garlic, vegan butter, thyme, basil, white wine, vegan chicken patties, lemon, herbs de provonce.

Use any white wine you prefer, but the dryer the better in this case.

The final plate - turned out delicious.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup - butter  (Julia’s recipe calls for 1/4lb (one stick) of butter! However we’d like to go a little easier on our hearts and arteries so we lowered the amount a bit. The flavor will come out with the herbs and wine in the sauce. 
1 package - Gardein chicken patties

1 tsp - thyme
3 tbsp - fresh basil - halved
1 tsp - herbs da provence
3 Cloves Garlic - peeled
1 cup - dry white wine
2 tsp - Vegg powder mixed with 1/2 cup of water
1 tbsp - fresh lemon juice
4 cups - chopped kale
2 cups - broiled tomatoes
2 tbsp shallots - small diced
2 tbsp - olive oil

Process:

This was a little bit of a challenge since we are not using really chicken, but pre-made patties. In Mastering the Art of French Cooking, the recipe breaks down what to do with the dark meat vs. the white meat and how to treat it differently. Here is how we prepared the chicken:

1) Julia calls for ‘frying pieces’, which mean the breast, thigh, wing, and leg (basically quartered). Since our pieces are already cut, we put them in whole. Heat the butter over medium until it foams- do not let it brown. Add the chicken and turn it in the butter until they develop a golden color

2) Remove the chicken once golden, lower the heat, and set chicken aside into a covered warm dish. (Chef’s note: if you put chicken onto a cold plate the meat will instantly cool)

3) Add the herbs and garlic into the still cooking butter, and then lower the heat so nothing burns. Cover and cook for 8-9 mins to soften garlic and bring out the flavor. (Note: Julia’s recipe calls for the whole garlic clove, peel and all, but we decided to remove it first so none of the peel accidently mixed in with the herbs).

4) Now while herbs and garlic is cooking and softening, add a little butter as needed to prevent burning, then add the chicken back into the mixture after a few minutes and cook for another 10 minutes.

 While the chicken is cooking and taking on the flavor of the herbs and garlic, start on your side dishes.  (At this point, the smell of savory herbs and garlic will overwhelm your kitchen and make your mouth water..)
 

For a side with this chicken dish, Julia recommends broiled tomatoes and potatoes sautéed in butter.  We wanted to make it a bit healthier so we will serve with broiled tomatoes (specifics here) and kale sautéed with shallots and 1tbsp of olive oil.

From left: Chopped kale, shallot, small sugar tomatoes, yellow and red

Served with a side of kale cooked with shallots and broiled tomatoes (recipe here).

5) In a small saucepan, whisk together vegg yolks, lemon juice, and 1 tbs of the white wine. (This will create a hollandaise-like sauce) Because we are using vegan eggs (*) this process is easier since you don’t have to worry about the eggs scrambling.  However it doesn’t thicken like we anticipated so here is a quick amendment:

 6) Mix 1 teaspoon cornstarch and 1 tsp. water and mix together into slurry, then pour into the vegg mixture and whisk quickly to thicken up the sauce.  (If necessary, add more slurry to thicken as you go)

7) By now the herb and garlic mixture is done cooking. Remove the chicken and using a fork crush the garlic cloves releasing the flavor of the garlic into the butter. Pour in the white wine  to degaze the pan and increase the heat slightly until the wine reduces down to about ½ of what you originally put into it.

8) After it reduces, strain out the herbs and combine the butter into the yolk (do this twice so you don’t burn the egg mixture – just ½ at a time.) Then add in the rest of the fresh herbs to the sauce and mix. Adjust the seasoning with a little salt and pepper. This should taste delicious. A strong savory, lemony buttery blend.

9) In the same pan you cooked the chicken and butter, add 1 tbsp of olive oil and the shallots to sauté the kale.

10) Plate and serve.

To plate, place kale on bottom, 1/2 peice of chicken, then some tomatoes and finally other half of chicken and more sauce.

This tasted incredible. The sauce tastes like a well-balanced herb hollandaise and the chicken has a hearty, savory flavor. The combination of taking a bite with the crunchy kale, saucy chicken, and soft sweet tomatoes truly explodes in your mouth.

Julia recommends serving with a pink Rose wine if you wish

****** Again we survived our unorchestrated chaos, but we find that with each dish, each challenge becomes a small victory. **********