Category: Poultry

Camping Post: Chicken with Red Wine Sauce

I’m currently on the north coast of Barkley Sound. Three days ago I was on the South coast in Bamfield. My life over the last week has involved mainly surfing and fishing for halibut and salmon. I’ve scored on both accounts. Fishing was the best I’ve ever experienced, and a beautiful southwest swell has been dishing up consistent fun sized surf for the Tofino coastlines over the past three days. Today alone I logged about nine hours in the water. Since living in Vancouver, I’m like a crack addict when I get to surf, I never know when my next session will be so I make it count! Needless to say, life is good, but I’m exhausted!

Tonight I decided to document some of the food I’ve been making back at my little basecamp at Mussell Beach. Logging so much time surfing, I wanted something nourishing and  satisfying due to the energy I’ve been expending. I decided on chicken with red wine sauce; simple, and easily accomplished with limited camping supplies. The results were delicious.

You can make this on a stove or on some coals. Although I’d love to, I didn’t have time to establish a good fire for coals, so I just used my backpacking stove and cast iron pan.

Note, the measurements and techniques in this recipe are very approximate, as they should be since I’m currently camping!

The setup, not a bad vantage point to make a delicious meal.

Ingredients:

1 chicken breast

1 shallot, julienned

1 clove garlic

A half glass of red wine

A good knob of butter

A few new potatoes, sliced

1 sprig each of rosemary and tarragon, add some chives too if they’re handy

A few glugs of olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions: 

1. Get your cast iron pan on medium-ish heat, then add some olive oil and the potatoes and sauté for ten minutes. Toss in some of the garlic and the rosemary, then season. Sauté for another 5 minutes or so, then transfer to a pot with a lid to hold and let them keep cooking for a while under their own heat.

2. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Get the cast iron hot again, then place the chicken in the pan and monitor closely. It took me about 25 minutes of constant babysitting to get a good cook throughout without burning the chicken. Transfer to the pot with the potatoes to hold.

3. Get the cast iron pan to medium-high heat, then toss in the shallots and remaining garlic for 30 seconds. Add the red wine and let deglaze and reduce for a couple minutes, then add the butter and swirl the pan around to incorporate. Remove the pan from heat.

4. Add the potatoes and chicken back to the pan and add the tarragon and chives. Season again if needed, then eat directly out of the pan like this:

Enjoy!

Obligatory Morel Mushroom Recipe

A quick look at a dish conceived around beautiful fresh morels and one of my favourite concepts for cooking wild mushrooms.

Normally I conceive of a dish for dinner while shopping for groceries and not before, I like to be inspired by what is fresh, special, or even economical. On this particular day I stumbled across some rare early summer time jewels not normally available in your every day produce section, fresh morels!

My first inclination for these brainy shaped wild mushrooms was to saute them up with fresh thyme, shallot, white wine, and finished into a nice cream sauce. Normally morels and cream are a wicked combination, but dried morels are really better for that type of sauce due to their concentrated flavour. Also – you can pick up dried morels any time of the year, so I wanted to do something that showcased the freshness of these rare beauties.

What I decided to do was based on a mushroom bruschetta, which is one of my favourite things to make and serve to friends in my kitchen. The concept is simple, fresh wild mushrooms tossed onto a hot and dry cast iron pan (it brings out the woodiness and beautiful umami flavour of the mushrooms); then quickly sauteed in a piping hot pan with a glug of oil and some shallot or garlic, fresh herbs, scallions, and julienned chili; then finished with a splash of whatever alcohol you may have available, sherry and white wine are my favourites. Of course, once the alcohol is reduced to a nappe consistency it’s taken off the heat and finished with a generous knob of butter. Keys throughout the process are to maintain a high temperature, and not to overcrowd the pan. Once autumn rolls around again,  I will do up a post about a version I’ve made with fresh chanterelles over a fire pit during a surf trip in Tofino.

The brushetta in this dish consists of fresh morels, thinly sliced garlic scapes, roasted shallot, dry vermouth, and butter. Served with a simple pan roasted chicken breast and sauteed potatoes (which I take very seriously, and will warrant a post of their own in the future).

Official recipe to follow, but for now enjoy the food porn!

Recipe:

1 Chicken breast, boneless and skin on.

1/4 cup of butter

1 large shallot, halved

1 Sprig fresh rosemary, intact

Handful of fresh morels, about 6-8 per chicken breast, halved

2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup of fresh garlic scapes, thinly sliced

1/8 cup dry vermouth, white wine, or sherry

Kosher salt and pepper to taste

For the chicken:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Put nonstick oven-proof frying pan on medium-high heat and toss in a glug of olive oil.

2. Liberally season the chicken with the coarse pepper and salt, place (not toss) in the pan. Cook for about 5-6 minutes and flip once a nice golden brown colour has developed. Immediately add 1 tbsp of butter, as well as one of the shallot halves and the rosemary. Baste the chicken in the beautiful shallot-rosemary-butter sauce a few times, then toss the whole pan in the oven until the chicken is cooked through.

3. While the chicken is cooking, put another saute pan on high heat. Toss on the fresh morel mushrooms and dry saute until golden brown. You should be getting a beautiful nutty aroma at this point off the mushrooms. Set the mushrooms aside once browned and reduce heat to medium-high.

4. Add a glug of olive oil to the pan, then add the garlic scapes. Julienne the other shallot half, then add to the garlic scapes. Toss this around a few times with the oil so that good colour begins to form.

5. Toss the morels back in the pan with the garlic scapes and shallot, turn the heat to high. Wait about 30 seconds, then splash in the vermouth. We’re aiming for the vermouth to reduce to the nappe consistency in about 15 seconds, so there needs to be enough heat in the pan to achieve this without burning the mixture. Take the pan off the heat, and add 1 tbsp of the butter, season to taste and toss the mixture. Serve immediately over the chicken.

Enjoy!