Tag: wine sauce

Recipes

Chicken in White Wine Fennel Sauce

Whisk Away Kitchen

The Mediterranean flavors of fennel, garlic, and rosemary are perfect with chicken. The fennel and chicken are sautéed and then briefly braised in a chicken wine broth, which becomes a tasty light sauce.

Want to cook with wine? Always! Adding wine to a sauce makes it taste like it’s from a fancy restaurant…but it’s easy to make at home! The flavor is tangy from the wine and savory from the fennel rosemary, and garlic. It’s a perfect combination! 

Why cook with wine? Italian and French style recipes often call for white wine in the ingredient list. It’s used to deglaze the pan or add a complex, acidic flavor to dishes. It adds incredible complexity to risotto or pan sauces like this dish!

What wine to use for cooking? You can use any dry white wine for this recipe. You’ll want a crisp white wine that doesn’t have any hint of sweetness. A few types of white wine that are great for cooking are:

  • Sauvignon Blanc
  • Chardonnay
  • Pinot Grigio
  • Pinot Gris

Making a white wine sauce is easier than you think! It might sound fancy. But it takes just 15 minutes to whip up with a short list of ingredients. 

So grab a bottle of your favorite dry white wine, pour yourself a glass and let’s get cooking!

The fennel and the rosemary will pair especially nicely with a full-bodied red wine such as Scout & Cellar’s ETNICO PINOT NOIR. Elegant and bright with black cherry, pomegranate, herbs, and a hint of turned earth on a light-bodied frame with a lingering finish.

I served this dish with my creamy parmesan orzo.  

Ingredients

  • 4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 1 1/3 pounds in all)
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1 large fennel bulb (about 1 1/4 pounds), cut into 1/2-inch slices
  • 1 pint sliced mushrooms
  • ½ medium yellow onion, diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 medium shallot, diced
  • ½ cup canned low-sodium chicken broth  
  • ½ cup white wine, such as Scout & Cellar Gallivant Chardonnay
  • 2 teaspoons fresh rosemary, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
  • Fresh-ground black pepper and Salt to taste

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350F. 

In a large pan, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over moderately high heat. 

Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Add the chicken to the pan with 1 teaspoon of rosemary and cook until brown, about 3 minutes. Turn and cook until almost done, about 3 minutes longer. Remove chicken and set aside. We will finish cooking the chicken in the broth in the oven. 

Deglaze the pan. Pour 2 tablespoons of wine in the pan, scrape the bottom with a wooden spatula vigorously as the liquid comes to a boil. Do not let it boil for more than a few seconds and you make sure you’ve released all the particles from the pan. 

Add butter and melt. Add fennel, 1 teaspoon of the rosemary, and 1/4 teaspoon of the salt. Cook, stirring frequently, until the fennel is golden brown and almost done, about 12 minutes. Add the onion and saute for 1-2 minutes, add the shallot and garlic, stir and cook for additional 2 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook for 2 more minutes.  

Add the wine and broth bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat and simmer until the veggies are tender, about 3 minutes. Nestle the chicken into the pan and bake for 10 minutes until chicken reaches an internal temperature of 185 . 

Stir in the parsley.

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Dijon Chicken

Whisk Away Kitchen
Dijon Chicken

This chicken with creamy dijon mustard sauce is an easy and fast weeknight meal. The chicken thighs and sauce are all cooked in the same skillet, making clean-up a breeze.

Chicken thighs are easy to use without worrying too much about drying out the meat. They are juicy, flavorful and so versatile they go with absolutely anything! The Dijon adds amazing flavor to this creamy sauce. This is a true weeknight meal, ready in just over a half an hour from start to finish.

The sauce comes together quickly. Sauté diced onions and garlic in butter until softened, and then simmer with a little white wine, thyme, and of course, mustard. Stir in the heavy cream at the end to finish the creamy sauce.

Serve with rice or mashed potatoes. For a low-carb meal, serve the chicken alone or with some roasted or steamed vegetables.

Pour yourself a glass of Scout and Cellar FIDDLENECK CHARDONNAY and you have yourself a restaurant style meal!

Ingredients

  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 5 chicken thighs; boneless skin-on
  • 1 teaspoon Herbes de Provence- or you can use Italian seasoning
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon ghee/unsalted butter
  • ½  yellow onion, diced
  • 4 garlic cloves thinly sliced
  • 1 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes
  • ½ cup white wine; I used Chardonnay
  • 1 cup chicken broth
  • ½ cup milk or heavy cream
  • 2 teaspoons honey mustard
  • 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
  • 2 teaspoons country mustard or old-style mustard
  • 4 sprigs of thyme leaves only
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375°F

Heat a large cast iron skillet over medium heat for 1 minute and add the oil. Heat the oil until shimmering but not smoking.

While the oil heats, season both sides of the chicken with salt, pepper and Herbes de Provence. Cook the chicken, skin-side down until the skin is crispy and golden brown, about 5-6 minutes. Flip the thighs over and cook for another 4 minutes. 

Transfer the chicken, skin-side up, to a paper towel-lined plate and set aside. 

Set the heat to medium-low and add 1 tablespoon of butter to the skillet.

Add onion and sauté about 3-4 minutes or until translucent. Add the garlic and cook another 30 seconds, stirring often.

Slowly add the wine to the skillet and stir (scraping to deglaze any tasty brown bits stuck to the skillet).

Add the broth, cream, three mustards and thyme leaves. Season with salt and pepper and stir well.

Nestle the partially cooked chicken (skin-side up) in the skillet with the sauce. Be sure to leave a little space between each thigh for the sauce to seep through.

Cook, uncovered, at 375°F for 30-35 minutes. The chicken is done when the internal temperature registers 165°F on a meat thermometer. The sauce should reduce to about halfway.

Note: If the sauce is still too thin when the chicken is ready, remove the skillet from the oven, set the chicken aside and cover it with foil. Reduce the sauce stovetop, over medium-low heat, until it thickens to desired consistency.

Note: If the sauce is reducing too quickly while cooking, add a little more cream, wine & broth halfway through the cooking time.

Enjoy