← Nouns Cooking · French

Ingredients

• 500 g boneless chicken thighs or breasts
• 750 ml chicken stock
• 1 Bay leaves
• 250 g button mushrooms, quartered
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 40 g Butter
• 40 g plain flour
• 100 ml double cream
• 1 egg yolk
• 8 large puff pastry vol-au-vent cases
• 1 tbsp Parsley, chopped
• Nutmeg
• Salt
• White pepper

Method

1. Put the chicken, stock and bay leaf in a pan, bring to a bare simmer and poach for 15 min until cooked through to 75°C (165°F). Lift out the chicken and cut into bite-sized pieces; keep the stock.
2. Simmer the mushrooms in a ladle of the stock with a squeeze of lemon for 5 min, then drain, adding their liquid back to the stock.
3. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, stir in the flour and cook for 2 min without colouring. Gradually whisk in 500 ml of the hot stock and simmer, stirring, for 10 min until smooth and thick.
4. Heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan, 350°F) and warm the pastry cases on a tray for 8–10 min until crisp.
5. Whisk the cream with the egg yolk, stir into the sauce off the heat, then return to a low heat for 1 minute without boiling. Season with salt, white pepper, nutmeg and a little lemon juice.
6. Fold in the chicken and mushrooms and heat through gently. Fill the warm cases generously, letting the sauce spill over, top with their pastry lids and parsley, and serve with rice or salad.

Tips

• Traditional versions add veal sweetbreads, quenelles or prawns; use any mix you like.
• Contains gluten, milk and egg.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Anne’s Kitchen BBC Good Food