Recipe: Chicken with Mushroom Pan Sauce

I like to have the Food Network on the in the background while I'm working on the computer at home - it's soothing to have people cooking delicious food while I'm trying to figure out what exactly I wrote in my dissertation again...

This show came on (I won't name names) in which this lady, I guess, makes typically high-fat foods into "diet" food.  Now, I am definitely a proponent of making healthy food choices.  I'm not an over-the-top organic nut, and I enjoy my wine and pizza as much as the next girl, but when cooking at home I do make efforts to create "balanced" meals.  Nicolai and I try to eat lots of greens, and to not go overboard with portion sizes.  I've even been known to occasionally substitute lower-fat or lower-sodium ingredients in recipes.  But overall I believe it's better to cook with food in its natural state, and just eat less of it if it's truly THAT bad for you.  Butter is better.

But yesterday, I watched with mounting horror as this unnamed Food Network woman created a "mock"-potato-salad with microwaved cauliflower, fat-free mayonnaise (what is that even made of?!), something called "dijonnaise," which appeared to be some sort of viscous fat-free mayo and mustard blend that squirts out of a tube, dairy-free creamer (WHAT?), sugar-substitute, and boiled egg whites.  I just threw up in my mouth reliving that.  She was praising this salad, saying that 2/3 of a cup had "only 90 calories" and "a few" grams of fat.  As opposed to Satan's candy, real potato salad, which has "HUNDREDS" of calories per cup and will make you fat and ugly.  I was so upset by this.  Why are we demonizing food?!  Potato salad is meant to be consumed occasionally, at BBQs, you have a scoop with your burger.  I cannot imagine living in a world where I brought that radioactive mess to a party and expected everyone to eat non-dairy creamer and sucralose-coated vegetables, all so I could fool myself into thinking I'm eating something sort of like evil, bad potato salad.  Food is not evil.  And you can't trick me with that cauliflower!

All of this gave me so much anxiety, I had to cook a Julia Child recipe for dinner.  Yes, there is butter in it.  No, I don't call this a "cheat" meal.  Nourishing my body and soul with a variety of rich, light, wholesome, and sometimes even entirely healthy meals is not cheating on anything.  

I believe Julia called this recipe "Chicken with Mushrooms and White Wine Cream Sauce."  I call it, "the shit."  I've modified it somewhat from her recipe to make it a little easier in my kitchen and with my cooking style.  I've made variations on this recipe dozens of times - one of Nicolai's very favorite things to eat is chicken with some sort of pan sauce.  There are endless possibilities.  

I chopped up a shallot, sliced some baby bella mushrooms, and got my lemon ready for squeezing!  I also preheated my oven to 350.

Then I placed two chicken breast between two layers of plastic wrap...

And beat them into submission.  Don't let those chicken breasts talk back to you.  You're the boss of the kitchen!  (you should probably use a rolling pin and not a mason jar, but I live on the edge).

I do this so that my chicken cooks a little quicker (and more surface area for tasty browning)

Then I melted about 4 tablespoons of butter in a pan, and added the shallot.

After the shallots absorbed some of the butter (only about 30 seconds), I laid the chicken breasts in the pan, salt-and-peppered them, and then gave them a healthy squeeze of lemon.

After the chicken has developed some color on both sides (for me, about 5 minutes on the first side, and 3 on the 2nd), I put the chicken in the oven to finish cooking.

Next I added the sliced mushrooms, about a half cup of white wine, a half cup of chicken stock, and another pat of butter (because I do what I want).

This is one of the bottles of wine I got on my birthday trip to Leavenworth!  Nicolai and I were drunk when we bought this, but luckily it ended up tasting okay!

After the wine, stock, mushroom mixture had simmered and reduced about half, I added about 1/4 cup of heavy cream.  At this stage, I added some thyme because it's Nicolai's favorite herb and I forgot to put it in before, but I would recommend adding them with the mushrooms.  You can see Nicolai dipping a spoon in to taste on the right hand side of this picture...  

Add more cream, butter, herbs, or lemon to taste.

I made some brown rice, and a nice fresh arugala, carrot, and celery salad with sweet onion dressing on the side.  I think this would be equally good served over spinach, or with asparagus!

**As a note, I typically use unsalted chicken stock when I cook.  I didn't this time, and, of course, the dish ended up tasting too salty.  I would say it's always better to buy unsalted stock and control your own seasoning.

Chicken with Mushroom Pan Sauce

2 chicken breasts

1 shallot, chopped

1/2 lemon

1/2 tsp thyme

1 1/2 cups fresh mushrooms, sliced

4-5 tbs butter

1/2 cup white wine

1/2 cup unsalted chicken stock

1/4 cup heavy cream

1.  Prep your food, and preheat your oven to 350

2. Melt 4 tbs of butter in a pan, and add chopped shallot

3. After the shallot has absorbed some of the butter 

(about 30 seconds), add the chicken breasts

4. Squeeze the lemon on the chicken, 

allow the chicken breasts to brown on both sides, 

then place them in the oven to finish cooking

5. To the butter and shallot mixture in the pan, 

add mushrooms, thyme, and 1 more tb of butter

6. Add chicken stock and wine, and allow this to reduce to about half

7. Add cream

8. Serve chicken with pan sauce poured over.

Et viola!  No non-dairy creamer in this recipe.  I think Julia would approve.

Whole Beauty, Part 1: We do what we want

I was asked recently by a client whether I am a feminist.

For those of you who don't know what I do, I'm currently in year 5 of 6 working towards my clinical psychology Ph.D.  I work as a counselor at an all-girls high school.  

The answer to this question was important to my client because she considers herself a feminist, and had received some negative feedback from her friends about this.  She'd essentially received the message that to consider yourself a feminist is outdated, and conjures up images of "hairy armpits" - this is what a few teen girls had said.  It sort of boiled down to the idea that being a feminist is un-feminine.  That it means you eschew "womanly" things like make up and motherhood.  That you hate men, and think they're all out to get you.  

I asked my client what it means to her to be a feminist, and she said, "It means I like being a girl...and I think girls should be free to do what they want."

I thought this was a perfect explanation.  Yes, I am a feminist.  I like being a girl, too.  And I will continue to be a feminist until girls really can do what they want.  Whether they have hairy armpits or not.  

That's what inspired me to write this next blog series on women I know who do what they want.  Each of these women is a strong, cool, smart, sexy, fun, boss-lady, and I wanted to talk to each of them and share my conversations about some of my favorite topics, namely beauty and wellness.  Basically talking to broads about being broads.  Lady on lady conversing.  Chick shit.  All girls allowed.  (Boys can read, too).

I wanted to start off this series by rapping about my female friends and family.  (not literally rapping, I can't rap, though I rhyme sometimes for funsies).  

I hear all the time that women find it hard to have close relationships with other women.  My [feminist] take on that is that it's pretty hard to establish yourself as a powerful, smart, assertive, boss-lady and still seem accessible.  I think women are often intimidated by other women, and/or competitive with them.  Or maybe you were just a shy late-bloomer and didn't get to have fun female friendships until adulthood (who is that??  oh me, haha).  

These challenges to female friendship are exactly what makes me so grateful, on the daily, to be included in the friendships I've found here in Seattle, and to be inspired by women who celebrate themselves and each other.  

Namely, Smash Club, friends from college, and my sisters and Mama

SMASH CLUB

I can't believe how lucky I am to have been adopted by this crew... I've truly never encountered a group of women who are as genuinely supportive, positive, and kind to each other as these ladies.  I look around at them and see how much happiness we take in each others' wellbeing and accomplishments.  To me, they are the model of modern female friendship.

We're also really good at making human pyramids

College friends

My sisters and these women I met in college (and before) became my bridesmaids, along with some Smash Club beauties you see in there.  I lived with Kim for 4 years and I consider that my first marriage.  She is an inspiration for powerful women everywhere.  She works ridiculously long hours in D.C. for the awesome Shot@Life campaign, and does it all in amazing fashion.  And Meghan, who's a bride this year (!!!!), has constantly amazed me with her loyalty and kind friendship.  We survived years of working for bad pay at [un-named coffee corporation].  Julia is my oldest friend.  That deserves a blog post of its own (and will have it).

Sisters

Chelsea is StewDrew's girlfriend, and quickly became my closest confidante.  She's hung out with my family for years now and doesn't even think we're crazy!  She's genuinely one of the most un-selfish people I know.  I admire her so much.

Katie is Jake's wife.  She bring so much joy every place she goes...she lights up a room, and has the most contagious laugh.  And she should serve as an inspiration for all women through her toughness, brilliance, sweetness, and strength.

Little B is my darling baby sister.  I think, within minutes of meeting her, everyone knows she is something special.  She loves fully and is never afraid to laugh at herself - I think this is the epitome of grace.  I want to be like her when I grow up.

And finally,

Mama

This is the woman who taught me everything I know about being a woman.  She mothered 4 children as a Navy wife and created a beautiful, healthy, love-filled home for all of us.  I've never heard her complain.  She taught me how to be a listener.  She is gentle.  She is beautiful.  She taught me to dress with class, even if you're just going to the grocery store, and to wash my face every night before I go to sleep.  She is patient.  She is affectionate.  She taught me that Wife and Mother are two jobs with capital letters.  She taught me to love and respect my body.  She taught me to be kind to other women.  And to be kind to myself.  She taught me all those things on purpose, but even if she hadn't, I would have learned them from watching her.  So really she is the queen of boss-ladies, and the inspiration for all these posts to follow.

If you're still reading now after all that gushing prose about the women of my life, I thank you, and ask you to stay tuned for more posts in the Whole Beauty series (which, I promise, will be shorter, dirtier, and more useful).

Now go hug some woman you love!