Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

  

I had a bit of heavy cream left over from when I made the Salted Caramel Cream Sauce last week and I did not want it to go to waste.  Fortunately, I was able to find another recipe that called for the exact amount of cream that I had left:  Chicken Breasts Baked in Cream (1956 Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook).  I am not normally one who enjoys a lot of sauces on foods.  I would much rather taste the food itself.  That being said, I found Chicken Breasts Baked in Cream to be a wonderful surprise.

My local grocery store was out of organic, cage-free, hormone-free chicken breasts so I simply substituted a whole chicken which I cut up myself.  It was a bit of an ordeal as I managed to break one of the finger rings on my kitchen shears in the process.  For me, the loss of a pair of shears was worth it to have the organic, cage-free, hormone-free chicken over the standard, cheaper chicken available.

Making the chicken was quite easy, though it did require two hours to bake.  That gave me plenty of time to do the dishes and relax before whipping up a batch of Spinach Provençale to pop in the oven for the last 25 minutes of baking.  My husband, who absolutely loves anything involving a nice sauce or gravy, raved about the chicken and was happy to eat it again when I served leftovers for dinner the next night. 

The combination of the chicken drippings and the cream made a wonderful gravy and I found that I only had to season it a little bit when I added the flour.  It was creamy and velvety (not surprising, considering the ingredients) and it does not overpower the natural flavor of the chicken.  When dinner was done, I just put all of the leftover chicken and gravy into one bowl and tucked it away in the refrigerator to be warmed up another day.

Chicken Breasts Baked in Cream Sauce

Serves 6 – 8

Ingredients

·        1 – 2 tbsp butter or other cooking fat

·        3 lbs chicken breast

·        ½ cup chopped onion

·        1 clove garlic, minced

·        2 cups cream

·        2 tsp salt (I only used 1 teaspoon of sea salt)

·        1/8 tsp pepper

·        1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

·        2 – 4 tbsp flour (depending on desired thickness of gravy)

·        ½ cup water (I omitted this as I felt the gravy did not need it)

Ready for the oven!

Directions

1.   Preheat oven to 300°F.

2.   Melt cooking fat in a skillet and brown chicken on both sides.

3.   Transfer to 9 x 13-inch baking dish.

4.   Evenly sprinkle chopped onion and minced garlic over and around chicken.

5.   Mix cream, salt, pepper and Worcestershire sauce in a small bowl then pour over chicken.

6.   Bake at 300°F for 2 hours or until chicken is cooked through.

7.   Remove from oven and remove chicken to a serving plate.

8.   Add 2 tablespoons of flour (and water) to cream still in pan and whisk thoroughly.  If you wish, you can add an additional 2 tablespoons of flour and whisk thoroughly.  Keep in mind that the gravy will thicken quite a bit as it cools.

9.   Serve chicken hot, topped with gravy.

Set chicken aside while you make the gravy.

Do you generally prefer your food plain or with sauce?  Comment below and let me know!

Gravy will thicken as it cools.