Chicken Veronique W/ Dijon and Mushrooms
By: Cynthia Corpuz
Published: Sunday, December 5, 2010 - 7:32pm

Ingredients




2 skinless chicken breasts
1 cup of cream
1 cup of white wine
2 cups of chicken stock
1 cup of sliced mushrooms
1 cup of grapes, cut in half
3 tablespoons of coarse Dijon mustard
1/4 cup of flour or cornstarch
2 tablespoons of butter
Olive oil
Salt, pepper
Fresh sage, cut chiffonade

Preparation

1 Cut chicken breasts into 1-inch bite size pieces. Place in a small bowl and season with salt, pepper, olive oil and lemon juice. Sprinkle with cornstarch and set aside for about 5 minutes 2 Slice about a dozen medium sized button mushrooms. Sauté mushrooms and fresh sage in 1 tbsp of butter and olive oil. 3 In a large pan over medium-high heat, begin cooking the chicken pieces in some olive oil and the remaining butter. 4 After a few minutes, add white wine and bring the liquid to a boil and then reduce the heat. Cook for about 5 minutes or until the liquid has reduced to about half. 5 Push chicken to one side of the pan. On the opposite side stir in the coarse Dijon mustard and the cream. When the two are mixed, stir the chicken pieces back in so that the cream and mustard mixture coast each piece. 6 Add and stir in the chicken stock and again bring to a medium boil and then reduce heat to simmer for about 15-20 minutes. Stir occasionally and season with salt and pepper if necessary. 7 After about 15 minutes, check the consistency of the sauce. It should be creamy, but not too thick. If it is okay, stir in the sautéed mushrooms and grapes and heat for a couple of minutes. 8 Serve immediately with some rice pilaf, fried fingerling potatoes or couscous.

About


To call a dish ‘Veronique’ means to garnish or cook with white grapes. The technique has been around for a long time and is assumed to be French in origin, but truthfully I don’t think anyone really knows. As a result you’ll find hundreds of recipes cooked either with chicken or white fish. However, one thing always remains the same and that is the addition of grapes. 
In my recipe I like to use red grapes to give it a nice color contrast and plus it adds just enough sweetness. Another addition to my recipe that you might not find in others is the addition of coarse Dijon mustard, which gives the dish a subtle but nice peppery kick. You’ll be surprised at how all the sweetness from the grapes, tartness from the white wine, creaminess from the cream and peppery from the mustard all blend nicely together to make this elegant dish.