TASTE
Sauce makes chicken pastries delightful
By Elaine Magee
Q. I like to have Sunday brunches at my house during the summer. I'm looking for a light but elegant main dish, and I thought of you. Any ideas?
A. I do, in fact, have a nice brunch recipe up my sleeve - individual chicken pastries with chardonnay sauce. I invented these one day when I had a few food items in my refrigerator that I wanted to use up. I actually thought about submitting it to the Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest, because it uses their reduced-fat biscuit dough. But, alas, I develop recipes for a living, and professionals aren't allowed to enter the competition. So I'm hoping you all feel like Pillsbury's loss is your gain.
A light chardonnay sauce is made with just 1 tablespoon of browned butter (this brings out amazing flavors) and some sauteed sweet onion, low-fat milk, chardonnay and an assortment of seasonings. To make the pastry filling, roasted chicken breast is added to the chardonnay sauce along with bell pepper, reduced-fat sharp cheddar and parsley. The individual pastry bowl is made with reduced-fat buttermilk biscuit dough. This is a really tasty brunch or dinner entree. You can even have it made ahead of time and then just warm up to serve.
INDIVIDUAL CHICKEN PASTRIES WITH CHARDONNAY SAUCE
Heat oven to 375-degrees. Coat a jumbo muffin or cupcake pan with canola cooking spray.
Place butter in a small nonstick frying pan and brown, stirring constantly, over medium-high heat (it will melt, get foamy and then turn a golden brown). Add chopped onion and saute for about 2 minutes.
Meanwhile, place Wondra flour in a 1-cup measure and stir in 2 tablespoons of the low-fat milk to make a paste. Whisk in 6 more tablespoons of the milk. When onion has sauteed for a couple of minutes, reduce heat to medium and pour milk mixture into pan; It will thicken quickly; almost immediately stir in the chardonnay and seasonings (poultry seasoning, white pepper, salt if desired, and cayenne pepper) and let simmer for a minute.
Remove chardonnay sauce from stove and let it cool for a few minutes. Pour it into a medium bowl with the chicken breast, bell pepper, parsley and cheese. Stir mixture to blend.
Press 1 biscuit dough ball into each muffin cup, shaping and thinning it to make a nice bowl. Repeat with remaining 5 biscuits. Fill each biscuit bowl with equal portions of the chicken mixture and garnish with extra shredded cheese if desired. Add a sprinkle of fresh parsley over the cheese before or after baking, if desired.
Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until filling is bubbly and biscuit shell is golden brown.
Serve warm or cold!
Makes 6 servings.
