If you're one of those people who, like me, thought foundue was a pot of warm cheese sitting at your table waiting for you to dip in pieces of bread or meat, you're mistaken. I suppose fondue originates from cooking things in a pot of hot cheese so there's a little similarity to this recipe for Fondue De Poulet A La Creme (Chicken Simmered with Cream and Onions) but not much. This was an easy and tasty way to cook chicken in a creme sauce (no cheese was used) to help infuse the chicken with the flavor of the cream sauces rather than just having the sauce added on top of the cooked chicken.
I say "easy" but that just makes i more likely that I'll let my guard down and make a dumb mistake? Let's just say it involved filling the kitchen with white smoke...again.
Julia's original recipe called for chicken breasts but, once again, I prefer using the boneless and skinless tenders -- they cook a bit quicker and are already broken down into individual portions. I started by using paper towels to dry about 2 1/2 pounds of chicken and then cooked them for about 4 minutes over a low heat with 3 tablespoons of butter. This was intended to only partially cook the chicken, just enough to make the pieces a bit "stiff" before being removed from the butter. As soon as the chicken was removed, 1 1/2 cups of thinly sliced onions were added to the butter, covered, and cooked very slowly for 5 minutes. Neither the chicken or onions were allowed to brown during this part of the preparation.
Next, the chicken went back into the pan to join the onions that had softened up nicely. The lid went back on and the chicken was cooked slowly for about 10 more minutes in the covered pan. After that, the spices were added (1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper, plus a half teaspoon of curry powder) and I added 3/4 cup of white grape juice (in place of white wine). The next portion was very similar to what's done to make a cream sauce after cooking chicken but the difference was that the chicken was still in the pan to finish cooking with the liquid. The heat was raised to rapidly boil the liquid (to reduce it) until the liquid was almost entirely gone. This was quite fun, actually, because I was able to make a lot of steam and share the smell throughout the house.
While the liquid was boiling off I began to multi-task (uh oh) by preparing my 3 cups of cream. The cream would be added next, but first it had to be brought to a boil. Everything was going along quite smoothly until I heard the gate to our deck banging in the wind. I stepped outside for just a moment to re-latch the gate and, when I returned to the kitchen, that's when the cream went from sitting there nice and calm to erupting out of the saucepan as it boiled over. **sigh** been there and certainly done that before. I wiped as much of the cream off of the burners and sat the cream on the other side of the stove on a burner that was still dry. Would you be surprised to learn that I then managed to boil it over again??? I've definitely learned to boil milk and cream, I just have trouble stopping the heating process at the right time. In any case, I did prove again that cream makes white smoke that doesn't burn your eyes and doesn't easily set off the fire alarm!
The boiling cream was poured over the chicken in the pan, covered, and simmered over a very low heat for about 20 minutes. If using whole chicken breasts the time would have been closer to 30 minutes. When the chicken was done, it was removed and placed on a hot plate while the heat was raised for the sauce. A little lemon juice was added (about 3/4 teaspoon) and really perked up the sauce. The sauce was stirred constantly while it boiled rapidly to thicken into a wonderful sauce. Once the sauce was thick enough to coat a spoon lightly it was ready to be added over the chicken. Julia had warned that the cream could look slightly curdled when the chicken was removed and, if so, adding some additional cream would smooth it out but I didn't experience that at all.
The sauce was absolutely delicious and together with the nice and tender chicken produced a wonderful entree that we all enjoyed. This is definitely one that will be made again. Writing about it is making me hungry for some more! Enjoy.
Bon Appetit!
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