Chicken A La King

Joanne's post yesterday had me thinking about comfort food.  As the last few weeks of cold weather are blowing through, I thought back to a childhood comforting meal.  It was usually a weeknight meal made with leftover chicken breast from the night before, but it didn't make it any less delicious.  My mom would crack open the can of cream of mushroom soup, heat it on the stove, mix in the cubed leftover chicken, serve over toast, and WA LA chicken a la king.  I loved this meal.  I've been trying to come up with a reason to cook it in our house, but we never have too many leftovers or any cream of mushroom soup.  So I was browsing around and found a great recipe for chicken a la king, made completely from scratch.  While I will still gladly welcome the childhood version anytime, this looks like it will be quite an adventure.  Serve over toast, biscuits, or even buttered noodles and you will definitely have a family favorite.

There are three recipes below: one for the poached chicken, one for the a la king preparation and one for my favorite recipe for biscuits.

Poached Chicken
recipe from food network kitchens
ingredients

10 sprigs parsley
20 sprigs fresh thyme
1 small onion, roughly chopped
2 carrots, roughly chopped
1 stalk celery, roughly chopped
3 pounds bone in chicken breasts
6 cups chicken broth
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients into a medium saucepan.  Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to lowest setting.  Poach chicken for 20 minutes.  Remove pan from heat, uncover and allow chicken to cool in liquid for 30 minutes.  Remove chicken from bone and cube chicken

A La King!
recipe from food network kitchens
Ingredients

1 stick plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 large shallots, minced
6 tablespoons, all purpose flour
1/4 cup dry sherry
3 3/4 cups chicken broth (can use liquid from poaching process)
6 sprigs, plus 1 table spoon of minced parsley
1 sprig fresh thyme
1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon of grated nutmeg
1/2 pound shitake mushrooms, trimmed and cut into 1/2 inch slices
1/2 cup creme fraiche or heavy cream
4 cups of cubed poached chicken
1 tablespoon of fresh snipped chives

In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt stick of butter and saute the shallots until softened.  Sprinkle in the flour and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon for 2 minutes.  Whisk in the sherry and broth and bring to a boil while stirring.  Add parsley and thyme sprigs, lower the heat to maintain a gentle simmer.  Cook for 30 minutes, stirring frequently.  

Meanwhile, heat the remaining butter in a large skillet over medium high heat, saute the mushrooms until brown.  Season with salt and pepper.  Strain the sauce into the mushrooms and season with salt, pepper, cayenne, and nutmeg.  Whisk in creme fraiche or cream.  

Add minced parsley  chicken , and chives to the sauce and bring to a simmer.  Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper and serve over your choosing   

My serving suggestion... Biscuits!  These are herb biscuits.  I think it provides a nice salty bite to the A La King!

Herb Biscuits
Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar 
1 table spoon baking powder
1 tablespoon chopped mixed fresh herbs, such as rosemary and thyme
7 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, cut into 1/4 inch pieces
3/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 425F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and herbs.  Whisk until mixed. Add butter to flour mixer either using your fingers or a pastry cutter, cut butter into dough until it is the size of peas.  Add milk to bowl and stiry just until dough forms.  Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface.  Roll dough out to 3/4 inch thick.  Use 3 inch biscuit cutter to cut out biscuits.  Transfer to prepared baking sheet.    Bake until golden brown, about 17 minutes.  Serve while warm.