What’s Will B. Cooking?

Continuing my journey into sauce making I made my first white wine sauce. I gained inspiration from reading some of the sauce recipes from the book “Sauces”. According to my biggest critic, the sauce was delicious.

I cooked a chicken fried chicken to go under my sauce, but any chicken preparation would go well with this sauce. The general recipe for this is 1 chicken breast: pounded thinly in a gallon size plastic storage bag. Seasoned with salt, pepper, granulated garlic on one side in the other a like coating of Tony Catchers Creole Seasoning. Coat with flour on both sides and cook over medium heat in a pan with the bottom about 1/8 to 1/4 inch of olive oil. Cook for six to eight minutes per side. It is important for this sauce that you do sear some kind of chicken in the pan.

Pull chicken from pan. I always cook with iron skillets. Iron skillets are well known for their even heating while cooking among other fine traits. It’s best to prep ingredients ahead of time, also known as ‘mise en place’. It helps cooking go as smoothly as possible with less mistakes. Another tip I always do is read the recipe a couple times to gain understanding of all that I need and a general idea of what I will be doing as I cook.

After removing chicken from pan you will add 1 small to medium onion - finely diced (you may substitute shallots), 1 cup of finely diced mushrooms of choice( shiitake mushrooms are best but portabella will do nicely as well), 1 tablespoon of minced garlic (I use the ones that come already minced in a jar) and 1 finely diced Jalapeno pepper. Let sauté till onions are translucid, mushrooms and garlic are brown. Next, add two tablespoons of cappers. Next add 1 half cup of dry white wine (I use Oak Leaf Pinot Gris), simmer for about 10 minutes. As the sauce is simmering be sure to loosen the chicken bits and sticky stuff on the bottom of the pan to incorporate it into the sauce. Next, we add 1 cup of heavy cream and lower heat as you whisk the sauce, pause briefly to taste the sauce. If a little under sea soned add a pinch of salt and a bit of fresh ground pepper. Be cautious as to not add to much salt as the final ingredient will add salt to the sauce. As you whisk you are going to reduce the sauce a bit. This is the part you have to play it by ear, so to speak. You are looking to see the sauce slightly thicken and as the sauce reduces it will intensify the flavors. Lastly, when you think the sauce is thick enough you will turn the burner off and add one cup of shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano (I purchase pre shredded). Once the cheese is incorporated into the sauce it is time to pull the sauce off the stove and sauce your meat. Be careful to not heat the sauce to much after the cheese is added or the sauce will seize up. It’s very hard to recover a sauce once it seizes up or breaks. This is a very hearty sauce and breaking is a very low risk. Last tip, as your building your sauce you may add chicken stock to help thin the sauce or cream to help thicken the sauce.

This is Will B. saying be daring in the kitchen and dig in!