Recipe Chicken Fettuccine with Four Cheese Wine Sauce

[flyinglentris]

Chicken Fettuccine with Four Cheese Wine Sauce:

Ingredients:

1) Chicken half breast - 1
2) Fettuccine - 6 to 8 Oz.

NOTE: 6 to 8 Oz. of dry fettuccine will be enough for one large serving. However, this recipe may create 2 or more servings of sauce. Allow extra sauce to cool, bottle it and refrigerate for later use.

3) Garlic 4 to 5 tspns.
4) Chives - 1 bunch or about 1/8 cup
5) Mozzarella Cheese - 2 tblspns.
6) Provolone Cheese - 2 tblspns.
7) Parmesan Cheese - 2 tblspns.
8) Romano Cheese - 2 tblspns.
9) Half n Half - as required
10) Unbleached Flour - as required
11) Wine - Chenin Blanc - as required
12) Olive oil - as required
13) Basil - 1 to 3 tspns.


Procedure:

1) Cross cut and halve the chicken half breast into pieces.
2) Dice the garlic.
3) Cut off the root mass from the chives and wash away dirt.
4) Dice up the chives.
5) Chop up or shred the cheese.
6) In a double boiler, melt all cheeses into a blob.

NOTE: The melted cheese will not be liquid, but a sticky mass. This is to be expected and normal. Simply adding other liquids will not break the blob(s) up.

7) Move the cheese blob to a pan.
8) Add half n half, 2 tblspns. olive oil and wine.
9) Heat while slowly blending in flour with a stick blender.

NOTE: Flour is used to loosen up the cheese blob and disperse it throughout the sauce. It is not there to thicken the sauce. But since it does thicken the sauce, don't worry about the amounts of wine and/or half n half added. Adjust all ingredients to suite tastes, but ensure that enough flour is added to break down the cheese blob(s).

10) Pan fry in olive oil, the chicken, garlic and chives.

11) Combine all ingredients in the sauce pot (except fettuccine).
12) Simmer and stir often so cheese does not build up on the bottom.

NOTE: Stir the sauce constantly and while fettuccine is cooking, keep the sauce at a desirable serving temperature.

13) Boil the fettuccine until soft.
14) Cover a serving dish with fettuccine.
15) Cover the fettuccine with sauce.
16) Serve.

 

[The Late Night Gourmet]

Wine and cheese seems to be a winning combination in any context. How much did you end up using here? I know you wrote “as required”, but it’s hard to tell how it comes through without knowing the quantity.

 

[flyinglentris]

Wine and cheese seems to be a winning combination in any context. How much did you end up using here? I know you wrote “as required”, but it’s hard to tell how it comes through without knowing the quantity.

As this was my first attempt at four cheese sauce, I got a bit surprised by how difficult it was to disperse the cheese in the sauce. The amount of flour needed got a bit elusive and depended, I suppose, on the types of cheeses used. In this case, the mozzarella was soft and the other three were hard cheeses. It took some toying around, adding more flour, more half n half and more wine, until the stick blender managed to get the job done. When I went into the recipe, I had not thought to include flour, but during my research on four cheese sauce, noted some folks included it, but I hadn't a clue why, since their recipes didn't say way and I didn't want a thickener. It was only after I got started that the light bulb turned on and I realized what it was for, not thickening, but dispersing.

With that said, I could not resolve to put actual quantities, knowing full well that this might vary, depending on who is preparing this recipe. So I elected to put 'as required'. I made more of the sauce than indicated in the recipe as well, because I wanted to bottle some. And I did - about 8 Oz. The amounts marked 'as required' indicate that preparing the recipe requires some testing to ensure that the stick blender does its job and that the person preparing the sauce has a choice between thicker or thinner sauce. I preferred this sauce at medium thickness, but some might like it thicker or thinner. So, 'as required' is the best way to set it.

 

[The Late Night Gourmet]

Totally understood. I did get a sense of your process with the way the recipe is laid out. But, the end product looks really good, and that’s what matters most.

 

[flyinglentris]

Totally understood. I did get a sense of your process with the way the recipe is laid out. But, the end product looks really good, and that’s what matters most.

Yeah, there was something to be learned in this recipe. When I researched it again, later, after realizing what the flour did for the recipe, I looked for people who might have used corn starch or something to do the dispersing thing. The only thing I could find was people using flour and others who did not use anything at all - and I assume that their sauce was a blob or maybe they used sprinkle on dry grated cheese in small amounts. But to do this sauce justice, you need to use real cheese blocks.