Essential · 1 hour, plus 30–60 minutes of salting · Serves 4

Chicken breast with sherry cream

The classic combination of chicken, cream and sherry, with potatoes and mushrooms, taken to a tidier presentation. The aim is a juicy breast with golden skin, a silky sauce with just the right acidity and a fondant potato, golden outside and tender inside.

The method is direct but careful: the chicken is salted ahead and dried, browned skin side down, basted in butter with thyme and finished in the oven controlled with a thermometer. The sauce is made in the same pan, over the caramelized bits, with sherry, stock and cream, and a few drops of sherry vinegar that lighten it. The potatoes are browned and cooked in stock, and the mushrooms are glazed with a touch of honey and lemon.

Special equipment: instant-read thermometer; oven-safe pan; siphon optional

Ingredients

Chicken

• 4 chicken breasts of 180–220 g, preferably skin-on
• Fine salt: 1–1.2% of the weight of the chicken (about 8–10 g per 800 g)
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 20 g neutral oil
• 40 g butter
• 2 thyme sprigs
• 2 bay leaves, optional

Fondant potato

• 4 large potatoes
• 20 ml neutral oil
• 30 g butter
• 500 ml poultry stock
• Salt and pepper

Sherry cream

• 2 shallots, 80–120 g, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, sliced, optional
• 240 ml dry sherry: Fino, Manzanilla or, better, Amontillado
• 500 ml poultry stock
• 300 ml heavy cream with 35% fat
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard, optional
• 2 teaspoons sherry vinegar
• Salt and black pepper

Glazed mushrooms

• 500 g mushrooms: button, portobello, oyster or shiitake
• 20 ml neutral oil
• 30 g butter
• 2 teaspoons honey
• Salt, pepper and a few drops of lemon or sherry

Finishing

• Small thyme leaves
• Microgreens, optional
• A few drops of sherry reduction, optional
• Freshly ground black pepper

Method

Chicken

1. Salting. Dry the breasts very well and salt them evenly with 1–1.2% of their weight. Refrigerate 30–60 minutes, uncovered if possible, so the surface dries.
2. Browning. Heat a pan over medium-high heat with the oil and lay the breasts skin side down, pressing them for the first few seconds so the skin does not contract. Cook 6–8 minutes, until the skin is well browned. Turn them, add the butter, thyme and bay leaves and, when the butter foams, tilt the pan and baste them 30–45 seconds.
3. Oven and doneness. Move them to the oven at 160–170 °C (320–340 °F) for 6–10 minutes, depending on thickness. Remove them with the center at 64–65 °C (147–149 °F) and rest 6–8 minutes: the center must stay at 64 °C (147 °F) or more for at least 5 minutes of that rest, checking with the thermometer. If you cannot monitor it, or for a more traditional cook, take them to 74 °C (165 °F). Do not overdo it, because the breast loses juiciness.
4. Slicing. After the rest, cut each breast into 3–5 medallions, on the diagonal. The interior should look juicy, even and slightly glossy; cutting it fresh from the oven makes it lose its juices.

Fondant potato

1. Browning and cooking. Peel the potatoes and cut cylinders 4–5 cm in diameter and height. Brown them in a pan over medium heat with the oil and butter 2–3 minutes on each flat side, to an intense gold. Move them to a small dish, add stock to half their height and bake at 180 °C (355 °F) for 25–35 minutes, until a knife goes in almost without resistance. Season and keep hot.

Sherry cream

1. Base. In the chicken pan, remove the excess fat without losing the caramelized bits. Cook the shallot over medium heat 2–3 minutes, without much color, and the garlic, if using, 30 seconds.
2. Reductions. Add the sherry, scrape the bottom and reduce 3–5 minutes, until it drops considerably. Add the stock and reduce by half, 5–8 minutes.
3. Cream. Add the cream and keep a gentle simmer 4–6 minutes, until it starts to coat the back of a spoon. Add the Dijon if using and adjust with salt, pepper and a few drops of sherry vinegar: the acidity keeps the sauce from feeling heavy. Strain it and keep it at 60–70 °C (140–158 °F), without boiling.
4. Texture options. For an aerated sauce, process it strained with the hand blender and take the foam with a spoon. With a siphon, strain it very well, charge it with an N₂O cartridge, keep the siphon in a water bath at 50–55 °C (122–131 °F) and shake it before serving.

Glazed mushrooms

1. Glazing. Heat a pan very hot with the oil and add the mushrooms in a single layer, in two batches if needed, without moving them 1–2 minutes. Once browned, add the butter, salt, pepper and honey, mixing quickly. Finish with a few drops of lemon or sherry and remove right away.

Finishing

1. At serving. Have at hand the thyme, microgreens, the sherry reduction if used and the pepper.

The dish

Use wide plates; dark ones contrast well with the pale sauce. Put a circular or slightly irregular base of sherry cream, without flooding the plate, and set on top the chicken medallions slightly overlapping, with the interior in view. Place a fondant potato to one side of the chicken, which gives height and structure, and distribute the mushrooms in two or three groups, not as loose pieces all over the plate. Finish with small thyme leaves, a few microgreens, a few drops of sherry reduction and freshly ground pepper. Final look: medallions of golden skin and juicy center on an ivory sauce, the golden potato standing tall and the glossy mushrooms in groups.

Key points

• Dry and salt the chicken ahead, and press it at the start so the skin browns evenly.
• Check doneness with a thermometer: 64–65 °C (147–149 °F) held during the rest, or 74 °C (165 °F).
• Cook the shallot without much color.
• Keep the sauce silky, not thick, and adjust it with sherry vinegar.
• Do not move the mushrooms at first, so they brown instead of releasing water.

Pairing

A dry Amontillado sherry, whose nutty notes go with the golden chicken, mushrooms, butter and cream. As alternatives, a Chardonnay with moderate aging, a Viognier or another dry white with structure.

Notes

• Variations: more intense, with Amontillado and a small reduction of dark stock; fresher, with Fino or Manzanilla and lemon zest, chives and parsley; simpler, without fondant potato, with mashed potatoes, rice, roast potatoes or sautéed vegetables, keeping the chicken and cream the same.
• Chicken doneness: the combination of 64 °C (147 °F) held at least 5 minutes follows the time and temperature tables for poultry of the USDA food safety service (United States), used as support because the general Argentine criterion sets 74 °C (165 °F). Without a thermometer, cook to 74 °C (165 °F).
• The original recipe was designed for 2 servings; this version doubles all the quantities.

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