I had declared a moratorium on the purchase of new cookbooks due to the looming scarcity of allotted shelf space in my kitchen. And.. long days of work have been running together into a blur of busy and I’ve had to take a reprieve.. a “breather from blogging” in order  to keep life from spinning out of control. I stopped mid-pirouette, however, when I received the most delightful of messages from one of my absolute favorite food bloggers, Sally of Bewitching Kitchen. I love Sally’s blog and you will too! I’m amazed that she can be a biochemist (yes!!) and have a top-notch food blog. I don’t know a single blogger except Sally that has a tab at the top of her home page that says “Science”, do you? Her team has just been published, so Sally has some of her own celebrating to do!!

This was her message:

“Hello dear! You just won my giveaway over at the Bewitching… just a heads up in case you don’t see the notification..”

What a fortuitous moment, I don’t think I’ve won anything in years.. and this was just the nudge I needed to tie on my apron strings again! A mere days later the door bell rang and I was in the kitchen holding a copy of My Paris Kitchen by David Lebovitz! Sally, my family would love to thank you in person. You see, after days, of hearing “You’ll have to get your own supper, I’m working tonight!” they finally found me in the kitchen again with a plethora of ingredients strewn everywhere and an amazing scent simmering from a cast iron pan.

David Lebovitz packed up and moved to Paris ten years ago and has been blogging and writing ever since. I began flipping through the book and selected my first recipe to try: Chicken with Mustard or Poulet a la Moutarde. Little did I know it is the recipe from his cover photo. So.. I did my best, the recipe turned out as wonderful as expected and I tried to do it justice with my photographs. Now if I just had his copper pan.. it would have been perfect;)

Thank you so much, Sally!

♥

I’ve adapted this recipe only slightly with the addition of shitake mushrooms. To read the full recipe and other optional ingredients plus all of the lovely stories that accompany this book.. you can purchase it here!

Chicken with Mustard

Poulet a la Moutarde

Chicken with Mustard

 

Print

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup plus 3 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1/4 tsp smoked paprika
• 3/4 tsp kosher salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 4 chicken thighs and 4 legs (8 pieces total)
• 1 cup diced, smoked, thick-cut bacon
• 1 small onion, peeled and diced finely
• handful of shitake mushrooms, sliced
• 1 tsp fresh thyme or 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1 cup white wine
• 1 tbsp grainy mustard
• 2 to 3 tbsp heavy cream
• fresh thyme for garnish

Instructions

1. Mix the 1/2 cup Dijon mustard, smoked paprika, salt and pepper together in a large bowl or plastic bag. Add the washed and dried chicken pieces to the mustard mixture and set aside.
2. Heat a cast iron skillet over medium high heat and cook the diced bacon until cooked through and lightly browned. Scoop out and set aside, leaving one tablespoon of bacon fat in the pan. Add the onion and cook, stirring for about five minutes or until the onion has softened and become translucent. Add the thyme and cook, stirring for about two more minutes then put in a bowl and set aside. Add the sliced shitake mushrooms and cook over medium high heat until they brown and soften. Set aside with the onion mixture.
3. Add a touch of olive oil if necessary and brown both sides of the chicken pieces over medium-high heat. Make sure to get them nicely browned on both sides. Then remove the chicken and set aside.
4. Add the white wine to the hot pan and simmer, scraping up the small bits from the bottom of the pan. I used a wooden spoon. Add the chicken, bacon, onions and mushrooms back to the pan then cover and cook on medium heat until the chicken is cooked through, about 15 minutes. Test the internal temperature of cooked chicken with a thermometer, it should be 165F to be safely eaten.
5. Remove from heat and stir in the extra 3 tbsp Dijon mustard, the tablespoon of grainy mustard and the heavy cream. Heat through and serve.

Wordpress Recipe Plugin by EasyRecipe

3.5.3251

I served these with roasted fingerling potatoes from the market and a salad. You’ll note the photos look dark, we’ve had incredible winds and sudden thunder storms with heavy rain these past few days.