My Favorite Chicken Dish

Or Poulet Vallee d'Auge. We just call it 'Calvados Chicken' to avoid butchering the French name. We got this recipe about 7 years ago from Bryan, and have loved it ever since. We made this New Years' Eve. I'm not sure if I've posted this before. If not, it's high time I shared it. It's pretty rich, so we only make this about once a year. We don't always add the whole cup of heavy cream.

1 chicken, about 3 1/2 lb.
1/4 cup unsalted butter
vegetable oil, for cooking
1/4 cup Calvados (apple brandy) or applejack
2 shallots, chopped
2 cup hard cider
1 2/3 cups sliced button mushrooms
1 cup heavy cream
1-2 apples (Golden Delicious)
3 tablespoons clarified butter (see Chef's Tip)
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

1. Cut the chicken into 4 or 8 pieces and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Heat half the butter and a little oil in a skillet and saute' the chicken in batches, skin side down until lightly browned. Pour off excess fat, return all chicken to the pan, add the Calvados or applejack and light with a match to flambe' (keep the saucepan lid on one side in case of emergency). Add the shallots and cook gently until softened but not brown. Add the cider, cover and cook for 15 minutes, turning the chicken after 10 minutes.

2. Meanwhile saute' the mushrooms in the remaining butter, covered for 4 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cooking juices and the cream to the chicken and cook for 5 minutes. Remove the chicken and keep warm.

3. Continue cooking the sauce for 10 minutes, or until is reduced enough to coat the back of a spoon. Adjust seasoning to taste. Return chicken to pan, bring to boil, and reduce heat and simmer for 2 minutes to heat the chicken through.

4. Core the unpeeled apples and cut crosswise into thin slices. Fry in the clarified butter until brown on both sides. Garnish the chicken with the apples and chopped parsley.

Chef's Tip: Clarified butter is used because it will cook at a higher temperature without burning. You will need about 1/3 cup butter to yield about 3 tablespoons clarified butter. Melt butter gently over low heat in a small heavy-bottomed saucepan without stirring or shaking the pan. Skim froth from the top, and carefully, then carefully pour the clear butter into another container, leaving the white sediment in the base of the pan. Cover and keep in the refrigerator for up to 4 weeks.

Or you could just do what we did this time, and use our Ghee we bought at Ellen's suggestion for Indian dishes. It worked great for this. More expensive, but it's a lot easier to just open a jar.

Since we don't much care for dark meat, we always use chicken breasts, bone-in, for this dish. Boneless skinless work well, too, but there isn't as much flavor.

To go with it, we enjoyed bubbly Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin, a mixed green salad with pomegranate and clementines, and crusty bread.