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Apr 2009: Supreme of Chicken with Asparagus tips, Dauphinoise Potatoes
Serves 4
Cooking time – 2 hours
Ingredients
X 4 Chicken supremes 2 bunches asparagus
12 maris-piper potatoes 1 pint double cream
200g wild mushrooms ¼ pint chicken jus/ gravy
Method
Put your oven on to 180oC.
Starting with the potatoes, wash and peel, then slice thinly with a knife carefully, preferably with a mandalin ( which is a hand held machine found in restaurant kitchens, but becoming more and more popular in the domestic kitchen), its good for slicing things in bulk but also keeps all the slices evenly. Once you have sliced the potatoes, add the double cream( taking care not to flood the potatoes, just coat them, leaving a little double cream to the side) and season. Get a deep tray, and place all the potatoes in and press down firmly. Get a piece of tin foil enough to cover the all the potatoes, cover the potatoes and put into your pre-heated oven and cook slowly for about 1 ½ - 2 hours. Take the tray out every ½ or so and press the tin foil down keeping the potatoes firm at the bottom of the tray. Again once they have been cooked take out of the oven and press down for the final time and leave them to cool. When they are cool, what I would use is cutters as moulds (metal rings) and make individual portions (keeping the potatoes in the moulds until later), mainly because it looks good for presentation, but another way to serve these dauphinoise potatoes would be to carefully take out and place onto an earthenware serving dish ( that’s the easier option!!)
Moving onto the asparagus, you would cut off the woody part of the asparagus and then peel from the head down to the stem. When you are peeling the asparagus, start just before the petal part of the tip, taking care because the petal part is pretty fragile. Then cook in boiling salted water for 2 –3 minutes, then refresh in iced salted water and drain as soon as they are cold.
The wild mushrooms need to be picked and cleaned well. I’m using Pleurrottes and Shitake Mushrooms, and these are readily available in most supermarkets, cut each mushroom into quarters, then fry lightly in olive oil and then drain well.
Now you are ready to heat the dauphinoise potatoes. If you have used the moulds, place them back in the oven to warm and do the same if you have left the potatoes in a serving dish.
Whilst the potatoes are heating up, move onto the chicken. Season both sides of the chicken and colour them off evenly in a hot pan, skin side down first of all to get a crispy golden brown colour. When the chicken is cooked, take the pan off the heat and let the chicken rest for 5 minutes, then re-heat quickly, then carve into 3 or 4 slices.
Dressing the plate
When dressing your plate, place the nice, thick chicken slices on the bottom of the plate, make a nice pile of asparagus on top of the chicken, take the dauphinoise potatoes out of the oven and place gently on to the plate, taking care to remove the mould as it will be very hot and place the cooked, wild mushrooms over and all around. Then take a ladle and pour the sauce over the chicken.
Happy cooking
Breakout 1
You don’t need to use chicken for this recipe, the dish would still be great if you wished to use, pork, lamb or even fish. Just follow the recipe in the same way, and whatever main you have chosen to use, then cook it as to how you would like it.
Breakout 2
Another option for this dish would be by changing the sauce. If I was going to change the sauce a good choice would be by using fresh plum tomatoes, de-seed the tomatoes, add a ittle olive oil and warm up slightly on the stove and serve.
Tip of the week
If you put a little extra salt into the water (and I mean a little!) and when you have brought it to the boil, keep it boiling and add your asparagus, if you do that the asparagus will stay nice and green (sometimes the asparagus could turn brown if it has been in the water too long or the water hasn’t reached boiling point).
