Retro Recipe Chicken breasts on spinach, mushroom bed en papillote

medtran49

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The original recipe I have for this is close to 30 years old and is just the chicken, spinach and mushrooms. It's actually printed out on a dot matrix printer. I decided to try to make it a complete meal by adding freshly made egg noodles. It worked sort of. I placed the noodles on the bottom, then proceeded with the rest of the recipe. The noodles did cook, but, they nearly all clumped together in a big mass. Possibly if they were mixed in with the veges, thus being separated, they might turn out okay. I will get around to trying that eventually. Obviously, the dish may be made without the noodles in the packet or served with rice or whatever other side you wish.

I will say the one thing I did like about putting the noodles in the packet was they soaked up nearly all the excess liquid you usually get when making something en papillote. I'm sure rice would do the same, but I would definitely pre-cook rice some.

Please note, the recipe only uses half of the noodle dough and half of the sauce. So, you can make 2 more servings or, instead of wasting them, add some Parm R to the sauce and have the leftover noodles and sauce for lunch the next day. The sauce recipe can be easily cut in half, but it's hard to cut an egg in half, though not impossible. You also could probably just use the yolk and half of the rest of the ingredients if you wish for a richer egg yolk noodle. Just remember to cut the sauce recipe in half if you do that.

2 servings

2 boneless breast halves (we get huge, Dolly Parton chicken breasts, a little over a pound each, where we buy them, so I cut 1 in half horizontally.
One 5-ounce bag of baby spinach
2 cups fairly thinly sliced brown mushrooms (about 1/2 pound)
3 Tbsp finely chopped shallots (or sweet onions with 1 small garlic clove finely chopped)
3 Tbsp butter
small pinch of nutmeg
salt and pepper
1/4 cup grated Parmigiano reggiano cheese
3/4 cup chicken cream sauce (see below)
1/2 of egg noodle recipe (see below)

Make the noodle dough at least 15 minutes before you are ready to start making the meal and set aside to rest.

Preheat oven to 425 F/218 C. Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Set aside. Pick through spinach, removing any bad leaves. Heat 2 Tbsp of butter in a medium skillet over medium high heat. Add chicken breasts and brown on both sides, about 2 minutes each side. Remove and set aside. To the same skillet, add remaining butter, then add mushrooms, shallots, and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring often, until mushrooms give up their liquid, then continue cooking until liquid is almost gone. Add spinach and cook until wilted. Season with nutmeg and stir.

While the vege mixture is cooling, roll out and cut the egg noodles if you are making them. Mix them in with the vege mixture if desired.

Cut 2 large hearts out of parchment paper. I use the 16-18 inch parchment and fold a corner over to make a triangle, then cut out a heart using nearly the entire horizontal width of the triangle to make the "fat" part of the heart. Place half of the noodle/vege mixture on each of the hearts just to the right of the center line, centering evenly between the point and the dip of the heart, leaving about an inch border at top and bottom. Place 1 piece of chicken on each heart. Sprinkle each chicken piece with half of the cheese. Form the packages by folding over the left side of the heart and crimp, starting at the point by folding a small section over, then another small section, etc (will look similar to a rope) all the way around to the dip of the heart. Place the packages on a baking sheet, transfer to preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes.

Make the sauce while the chicken is baking.

Remove the packets from the oven, open by cutting an X in the package, peel back paper, drizzle some of the chicken cream sauce over and serve.

Chicken Cream Sauce (makes about 1-1/2 cups)

2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour
1-1/4 cups rich chicken broth
1/2 cup heavy cream
1-1/2 Tbsp white wine OR lemon juice
salt and pepper

Melt butter in a small saucepan or in the skillet used above, add the flour and whisk for several minutes until you have a blonde roux. Slowly add the broth, whisking constantly until smooth and bubbling. Add cream and white wine, mix well. Season with salt and pepper.

Fresh egg noodles
1-1/4 cups flour
small pinch of salt
1 egg
1/2 Tbsp butter, melted, cooled somewhat
1/4 cup milk
water as needed

As noted above, the meal recipe only uses half of this dough. If you don't want it for something the next day or 2 more servings, I would just use the yolk and halve the rest of the ingredients.

I made this in the food processor, but it can be made the traditional way.

Place flour and salt in the food processor (FP), pulse to mix. With processor running, add egg, then butter, then milk, and a small amount of water (if needed) for dough to start to form a ball. Remove dough from FP onto a lightly floured board, knead lightly to form a smooth, cohesive ball of dough. Flatten evenly into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Set aside for at least 20 minutes.

After resting, use a pasta machine or roll out the dough using a rolling pin into thin sheets, then cut into 1/4 inch (0.63 cm) wide noodles. If you are using a pasta machine, you can do this with half of the dough at a time. If you are rolling by hand, I would suggest quartering the dough, which is what I did because I didn't want to bother hubby to get the pasta machine down.
 
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This looks really delicious, clumped noodles or not! However, it does use rather a lot of pans despite being en papillote...

Just 2, the saucepan and a skillet. I edited the directions to clarify a bit. I don't know if you could get away with not precooking the vege mix since butter adds flavor. Besides that, the skillet is already dirty from browning the chicken. You could make the sauce in the skillet since it doesn't really make that much, didn't think about that until just now.
 
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Just 2, the saucepan and a skillet. I guess I need to add to the directions.

I think its in the directions. I didn't mean to be critical - I suppose that when I think 'en papillote I aways imagine 'all in one' with no washing up! I just bought a halogen cooker and was looking at some halogen recipe book reviews and reading a few recipes from them where there is 'look inside' access on Amazon. I was expecting the recipes to be entirely cooked in the halogen cooker but it was surprising that many of the recipes involve cooking in pans first.
 
I knew what you meant. I don't have a problem with putting fish in raw, but putting chicken in raw just yields a not very appetizing looking piece of white chicken to me. I'd rather it have some color on it from browning.
 
View attachment 21059

The original recipe I have for this is close to 30 years old and is just the chicken, spinach and mushrooms. It's actually printed out on a dot matrix printer. I decided to try to make it a complete meal by adding freshly made egg noodles. It worked sort of. I placed the noodles on the bottom, then proceeded with the rest of the recipe. The noodles did cook, but, they nearly all clumped together in a big mass. Possibly if they were mixed in with the veges, thus being separated, they might turn out okay. I will get around to trying that eventually. Obviously, the dish may be made without the noodles in the packet or served with rice or whatever other side you wish.

I will say the one thing I did like about putting the noodles in the packet was they soaked up nearly all the excess liquid you usually get when making something en papillote. I'm sure rice would do the same, but I would definitely pre-cook rice some.

Please note, the recipe only uses half of the noodle dough and half of the sauce. So, you can make 2 more servings or, instead of wasting them, add some Parm R to the sauce and have the leftover noodles and sauce for lunch the next day. The sauce recipe can be easily cut in half, but it's hard to cut an egg in half, though not impossible. You also could probably just use the yolk and half of the rest of the ingredients if you wish for a richer egg yolk noodle. Just remember to cut the sauce recipe in half if you do that.

2 servings

2 boneless breast halves (we get huge, Dolly Parton chicken breasts, a little over a pound each, where we buy them, so I cut 1 in half horizontally.
One 5-ounce bag of baby spinach
2 cups fairly thinly sliced brown mushrooms (about 1/2 pound)
3 Tbsp finely chopped shallots (or sweet onions with 1 small garlic clove finely chopped)
3 Tbsp butter
small pinch of nutmeg
salt and pepper
1/4 cup grated Parmigiano reggiano cheese
3/4 cup chicken cream sauce (see below)
1/2 of egg noodle recipe (see below)

Make the noodle dough at least 15 minutes before you are ready to start making the meal and set aside to rest.

Preheat oven to 425 F/218 C. Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Set aside. Pick through spinach, removing any bad leaves. Heat 2 Tbsp of butter in a medium skillet over medium high heat. Add chicken breasts and brown on both sides, about 2 minutes each side. Remove and set aside. To the same skillet, add remaining butter, then add mushrooms, shallots, and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring often, until mushrooms give up their liquid, then continue cooking until liquid is almost gone. Add spinach and cook until wilted. Season with nutmeg and stir.

While the vege mixture is cooling, roll out and cut the egg noodles if you are making them. Mix them in with the vege mixture if desired.

Cut 2 large hearts out of parchment paper. I use the 16-18 inch parchment and fold a corner over to make a triangle, then cut out a heart using nearly the entire horizontal width of the triangle to make the "fat" part of the heart. Place half of the noodle/vege mixture on each of the hearts just to the right of the center line, centering evenly between the point and the dip of the heart, leaving about an inch border at top and bottom. Place 1 piece of chicken on each heart. Sprinkle each chicken piece with half of the cheese. Form the packages by folding over the left side of the heart and crimp, starting at the point by folding a small section over, then another small section, etc (will look similar to a rope) all the way around to the dip of the heart. Place the packages on a baking sheet, transfer to preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes.

Make the sauce while the chicken is baking.

Remove the packets from the oven, open by cutting an X in the package, peel back paper, drizzle some of the chicken cream sauce over and serve.

Chicken Cream Sauce (makes about 1-1/2 cups)

2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour
1-1/4 cups rich chicken broth
1/2 cup heavy cream
1-1/2 Tbsp white wine OR lemon juice
salt and pepper

Melt butter in a small saucepan or in the skillet used above, add the flour and whisk for several minutes until you have a blonde roux. Slowly add the broth, whisking constantly until smooth and bubbling. Add cream and white wine, mix well. Season with salt and pepper.

Fresh egg noodles
1-1/4 cups flour
small pinch of salt
1 egg
1/2 Tbsp butter, melted, cooled somewhat
1/4 cup milk
water as needed

As noted above, the meal recipe only uses half of this dough. If you don't want it for something the next day or 2 more servings, I would just use the yolk and halve the rest of the ingredients.

I made this in the food processor, but it can be made the traditional way.

Place flour and salt in the food processor (FP), pulse to mix. With processor running, add egg, then butter, then milk, and a small amount of water (if needed) for dough to start to form a ball. Remove dough from FP onto a lightly floured board, knead lightly to form a smooth, cohesive ball of dough. Flatten evenly into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Set aside for at least 20 minutes.

After resting, use a pasta machine or roll out the dough using a rolling pin into thin sheets, then cut into 1/4 inch (0.63 cm) wide noodles. If you are using a pasta machine, you can do this with half of the dough at a time. If you are rolling by hand, I would suggest quartering the dough, which is what I did because I didn't want to bother hubby to get the pasta machine down.


Dag, that looks GOOD!! :wink:
 
My wife would probably love this. I personally do not like mushrooms.

Have you ever had wild mushrooms? Morels, hen of the woods, chanterelle, lobster, black trumpet or black truffle (not a mushroom but still a fungi)? I'd include oysters, but they are now being cultivated.
 
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