Thursday, November 4, 2010

Chicken and Potatoes

Dinner was Mushroom Chicken, Roasted Brussel Sprouts, and Mashed Potatoes. I also made this sort of mushroom gravy.
I like roasted brussel sprouts for thanksgiving. I also like mushrooms and gravy is popular. I roast a lot of things so I didn't need a lot of practice doing that. Gravy is something totally out of my comfort zone though. I actually don't think I've ever made gravy. Sauces are delicious but I don't make a lot of them because they seem scary and hard to make. Do you make sauce? Can you give me any pointers?


Dinner's Ingredients:
Butter - I used butter, For the sake of thanksgiving only!
Olive Oil - Only to roast the brussel sprouts.
Chicken Breasts - I removed the skin and bones before cooking, a little bit of butcher skill is quite useful.
Mushrooms - For the chicken and the gravy.
Brussel Sprouts - Gotta get those vegetables.
Red Potatoes - I like these little ones for mashed potatoes, I leave the skin on.
Red Onion - Chopped fine, sauteed in butter, and put into the potatoes.
Salt
Pepper

Gravy Talk:
I pan seared the chicken in a stainless steel pan, not non-stick, with some mushrooms. It was getting that brown delicious stuff all over the bottom of the pan and I thought, well I simply cannot waste all that goodness, having used some butter instead of olive oil! I had about a cup of vegetable stock in the fridge leftover from Pumpkin Risotto. I poured it in to de-glaze the pan and let it reduce for a bit. I added a bunch of mushrooms too. Plus a splash of milk. Turns out gravy isn't as hard as I had thought, it just takes a little time. The mushrooms gave it that savory taste, umami, which I LOVE!
I had to put the sauce on the table in a tupperware so I'm pretty sure I'm going to need one of these before the big day, good thing I had a trial run!

Happy Pre-Thanksgiving Eating!
What are you thankful for?

2 comments:

  1. I am so thankful for my beautiful wife and our wonderful life.

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  2. I am so thankful for close family. They are the people that let us try out new food on them :)

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