Chicken Fricassée with Morels

This one-pot chicken and mushroom fricassée recipe is brimming with indulgent French flavours, and a luxurious white wine and cream sauce based on a recipe of Rick Stein.

Chicken with fresh morels is as irresistible on a menu as turbot with hollandaise sauce. For me, this dish seems to be the very heart of French cuisine. The French invented this way of cooking with lot of cream and there is something so luscious and comforting about a beautiful free-range chicken cooked with a cream and wine sauce with the smoky flavour of dried morels. It also happens to be a wonderful partner to a nice white Burgundy. Traditionally it is made with poulet de Bresse. A Noilly Prat but sherry would be a good substitute because the cream element is crème fraiche and there is too much acidity in other wines.

Ingredients

20g of dried morels

20g of fresh morels

200 ml of tepid water

40g of unsalted butter

4 boneless chicken breast of a poulet de Bresse (if you buy a whole chicken) take the bones out of the legs and use the whole chicken boneless)

1 banana-shallot finely chopped

100ml of Noilly Prat (or dry Sherry)

130ml of chicken stock

300g full-fat crème fraiche

finest sea salt and fresh grounded black pepper

Instructions

Soak the morels in the tepid water for about 15 minutes, then drain them in a fine sieve over a bowl. Strain the liquid and reserve 75ml for the sauce. Rinse the morels under cold running water to remove any debris and dry them on kitchen paper. Cut them in half lengthways.

Clean and trimm the fresh morels and also cut them half lengthways. To cook morels, start by searing them in oil over high heat to brown them, just as you would other mushrooms and put them as the dry soaked ones aside.

Melt half of the butter in a large sauté pan or frying pan. Fry the chicken, skin-side down, for 2–3 minutes until light golden brown, then turn them over and repeat on the other side. Take the chicken out of the pan and set aside.

Add the remaining butter to the pan. Fry the shallot over a medium heat until softened, then add the morels (dried and the fresh once) and fry for a few minutes. Add the Noilly Prat or sherry, the morel soaking liquid and chicken stock, bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and simmer for 2–3 minutes.

Add the crème fraiche and stir, then put the chicken back in the pan, along with any juices that have seeped out. Cover the pan and cook the chicken over a medium heat for about 8 minutes or until it is cooked through. Season with salt and plenty of black pepper and serve immediately with pilaf rice or potatoes