Signature · about 3 hours, with 2 h of brining · Serves 4
64 °C chicken breast with crisp skin, Amontillado velouté, roasted cauliflower cream, roasted grapes and oyster mushrooms
The root is the chicken breast with sherry cream of the family, a dish of Andalusian and French inspiration: browned chicken, a cream and sherry sauce and glazed mushrooms. This version keeps the combination of chicken, sherry, cream and mushrooms, and arranges it so each element has its right texture and temperature.
The twist is to separate the juiciness of the meat from the crispness of the skin. The breast is brined, cooked at 64 °C (147 °F) until moist and firm, and only at the end browned on the skin side until it crackles. The sauce is an Amontillado velouté reduced and mounted with butter, with the juice from the bag. A roasted cauliflower cream, with hazelnut notes, gives the sweet, toasty base; grapes roasted with sherry repeat the wine as fruit, and some browned oyster mushrooms and toasted hazelnuts close the dish.
Special equipment: sous vide circulator and vacuum bags; cast-iron or heavy-bottomed pan; hand blender or blender; instant-read thermometer
Ingredients
Brine
- 1 liter cold water
- 50 g fine salt
- 20 g sugar
- 2 thyme sprigs
64 °C chicken breasts
- 4 skin-on chicken breasts, 200–230 g and no more than 3.5 cm thick
- 20 g butter
- 2 thyme sprigs
- 15 ml neutral oil
Roasted cauliflower cream
- 500 g cauliflower, in florets
- 20 ml olive oil
- 250 ml whole milk
- 80 ml heavy cream
- 30 g butter
- Fine salt and white pepper
Amontillado velouté
- 1 shallot, finely chopped
- 10 g butter
- 150 ml Amontillado sherry
- 400 ml poultry stock
- The strained juice from the bags
- 150 ml heavy cream
- 30 g cold butter, in cubes
- 3–5 ml sherry vinegar
- Fine salt
Sherry roasted grapes
- 150 g seedless pink or black grapes, in small clusters
- 15 ml Amontillado sherry
- 5 g honey
- 5 ml olive oil
Browned oyster mushrooms
- 200 g oyster mushrooms, separated into clusters
- 15 g butter
- 10 ml neutral oil
- 1 thyme sprig
- Fine salt
Finishing
- 40 g hazelnuts, toasted, peeled and coarsely chopped
- Lemon thyme or regular thyme leaves
- Flaky salt
Method
Brine
- Salting. Dissolve the salt and sugar in the water, add the thyme and submerge the breasts 2 hours in the refrigerator, no more. Remove, rinse briefly and dry very well, especially the skin.
64 °C chicken breasts
- Cooking. Vacuum-seal each breast with a piece of butter and a thyme leaf, in a single layer. Cook them in the bath at 64 °C (147 °F) for 1 h 30 min, up to 1 h 45 min if thick: the center must reach 64 °C (147 °F) and stay there long enough to be safe, so do not shorten the time with thick pieces.
- Browning the skin. Take out the breasts, strain the juice from the bags and set it aside. Dry them thoroughly with paper towels. Heat the pan over medium-high heat with the oil and lay them skin side down, pressing with a spatula for the first few seconds so the whole surface touches the metal. Brown 3–4 minutes, without moving them, until the skin is golden, crisp and releases on its own; turn them 20–30 seconds. Rest 2 minutes skin side up and cut each into 3 thick diagonal medallions.
Roasted cauliflower cream
- Roasting. Toss the cauliflower with the oil and salt and roast on a tray at 220 °C (430 °F) for 25–30 minutes, turning once, until tender and with well-browned edges.
- Blending. Move it to a pot with the milk and cream and simmer gently 8–10 minutes. Blend with the butter until completely smooth and strain if you want it finer. Adjust salt and white pepper. It should be thick, hold on a spoon and leave a furrow when dragged. Keep hot.
Amontillado velouté
- Base. Sweat the shallot in the butter over low heat 3 minutes, without browning. Deglaze with the Amontillado and reduce by half. Add the poultry stock and reduce over medium heat to 200 ml, about 15 minutes.
- Juice and cream. Boil the bag juice in a small saucepan 1 minute, until the proteins coagulate, and strain it through a fine sieve onto the base: the boil is necessary, because it was in contact with raw chicken. Add the cream and reduce 3–4 minutes, until it coats a spoon.
- Mounting. Off the heat, whisk in the cold butter in cubes, until a glossy, silky sauce. Adjust with the sherry vinegar and salt: the Amontillado should be noticeable, with its nutty note, without the alcohol biting.
Sherry roasted grapes
- Roasting. Toss the grapes with the sherry, honey and oil and roast in a small dish at 200 °C (390 °F) for 12–15 minutes, until the skin wrinkles and begins to split and the juice caramelizes in the dish.
Browned oyster mushrooms
- Browning. Heat the oil in a pan over high heat and lay the mushrooms in a single layer, pressing them; brown 3 minutes without moving them, turn them, add the butter and thyme and continue 2 minutes, basting them. Salt at the end.
Finishing
- At serving. Have the hazelnuts, thyme and flaky salt ready.
The dish
Use wide flat plates of light or gray ceramic, hot. Put a generous spoonful of cauliflower cream slightly off center and drag it with the back of the spoon into a wide, curved stroke. Set the three breast medallions on the stroke, slightly overlapping and with the crisp skin up, showing the moist cut. Pour the Amontillado velouté around the meat, on the plate, without touching the skin. Group a small cluster of roasted grapes with their juice on one side and, on the other, the mushrooms in a group with some height. Finish with the chopped hazelnuts over the cream and mushrooms, a few thyme leaves and flakes of salt on the skin. Final look: medallions of golden, crisp skin with a white, juicy interior, the ivory stroke of cauliflower, the glossy velouté, the purple of the grapes and the golden mushrooms.
Key points
- Do not exceed the 2 hours of brine.
- Respect the bath time according to the thickness of the breast.
- Dry the skin very well and brown only that side, without moving.
- Boil the bag juice before adding it to the sauce.
- Serve the velouté around, never over the skin.
Pairing
A cold Amontillado sherry, the same as in the sauce, or an aged Chardonnay. Without alcohol, white grape must with sparkling water.
Notes
- 64 °C chicken: it is safely cooked if the center reaches 64 °C (147 °F) and holds the time indicated. Without a circulator, cook the breasts in the oven at 160 °C (320 °F) to 74 °C (165 °F) at the center and brown the skin at the end.
- No Amontillado: use a Fino with a teaspoon of Pedro Ximénez, or a dry Oloroso.