Poulet fleuri (flowering chicken)

4 Servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
4 Boned and skinned chicken
Breast halves
1 large Carrot -- peeled and
Julienned
1 large Celery stalk -- julienned
8 Snow peas
8 Scallions
2 cups Chicken broth
1 cup Whipping cream
1 ounce Dried porcini mushrooms
Salt and white pepper -- to
Taste
Paprika

Directions

Cook carrots and celery, separately, in salted water until crisp/tender.

Blanch snow peas for 1 minute in boiling water. Plunge vegetables in cold water immediately to stop the cooking.

Julienne the snow peas. Clean scallions; cut off and save the green tops (save the whites for another recipe). Cut all vegetables to the same length, about 3 inches.

Pound each chicken breast lightly with a flat-bottomed, stout glass until breast is uniform thickness, about ½ inch. Lay one or two pieces of each vegetable, lengthwise, in the middle of each flattened breast. Fold the point opposite the long edge of the breast over the vegetables. Then fold in the two ends. Finish by rolling from the long edge over the vegetables.

The goal is to have a nice, uniform-thickness roll with the vegetables completely enclosed.

Bring the chicken stock to a boil. Place each breast roll on a sheet of plastic wrap 3 times its length. Roll up the meat tightly in the wrap; twist the ends of the wrap tightly and fold them under the roll. Each roll should now look like a giant piece of tightly wrapped taffy.

Poach the rolls in the simmering stock. If the liquid covers the rolls, poach for about 6 minutes. Otherwise, poach for 4 minutes, turn, and poach another 4 minutes. While the rolls are poaching, soak dried mushrooms in very hot water until soft.

Hold still-wrapped rolls in a warm oven while you make the sauce.

Drain the mushroom soaking liquid through a paper towel or coffee filter to remove grit, and add the liquid to the chicken stock. Boil the chicken stock mixture, uncovered, over high heat until reduced by half. Add cream to stock mixture and reduce by half again. Be careful during this step as the cream tends to foam up. Slice mushrooms if very large, removing any tough stems, and add to sauce. Taste sauce and add salt and pepper as desired.

To serve: Unwrap chicken breasts. Slice each roll on the diagonal into about 5 equal pieces. Arrange in a star pattern, one breast per plate, with the most attractive sides up. Carefully spoon hot sauce around - not - over the chicken breasts. Try to include 3 - 4 mushroom pieces on each plate.

Dust the sauce areas with A LITTLE paprika and serve to raves.

Posted to Master Cook Recipes List, Digest #112 Date: Fri, 7 Jun 1996 11:05:48 EST5EDT From: NURPPL@...

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