Tonight, Kevin and I played the time honored game of "rescue that sauce!" We also proved once again something we already knew. We each cook well. But we cook far better when we work together.
When I walked in the door from work, he was fishing through the freezer seeking something to make for dinner. He'd already put a beef roast in the fridge to defrost for later this week, but he needed something for Right Now.
He came up with boneless, skinless chicken breasts -- our staple. He told me he planned to pan sear them, and make some sort of a sauce. I pointed out the white Bully Hill wine, and the new mustard we'd gotten yesterday (and the blooming onion sauce). Then I headed downstairs.
When I came back up, he had the chicken in the pan, searing up a storm. The oven was preheating so he could finish them off, and sitting next to the stove was his planned sauce, already mixed together (white wine and the blooming onion horseradish sauce). He then got everything into the oven and headed off to do something. So when the pan was ready, I started the sauce.
This was when the problem started. The blooming onion sauce had curdled in the wine. Ew! We started whisking and throwing things at the problem and in the end, we had an amazingly good pan sauce that wasn't a bit broken.
Seared Chicken with Horseradish Sauce
The Chicken:
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, about 4-6 oz each
oil (we used peanut oil)
salt
pepper
Preheat oven to 350. Heat a cast iron pan to hot. Rub the chicken with oil, salt and pepper. Place chicken in pan and immediately cover with spatter guard. Cook for four minutes on each side, then place pan in the oven for 8 minutes.
Check for doneness, and remove to a plate and keep warm.
The Sauce:
1/3 c wine + water to make 1/2 cup
1 T butter
2 heaping Tbsp Rothschild's blooming onion sauce
1/3 c sour cream (until thick)
Add wine to hot pan to deglaze over medium heat. Stir in butter until melted and combined. Whisk in blooming onion sauce and raise heat to medium-medium high (you want a good bubble, but not burning). Add sour cream (I used light) by the spoonful and whisk thoroughly until you reach a decent consistency. I added two heaping soup spoonfuls.
Spoon sauce over chicken and serve. Makes four servings.
Posted by Deb Atwood at December 6, 2004 07:15 PM