poulet a la moutarde

I warned you about this, you know. Now that we have a home for My Paris Kitchen and enough actual kitchen space to actually cook, you're going to get inundated with recipes.

All I can say right now is that I hope you like chicken.

Because one Sunday night we needed a main course, we landed on chicken with mustard. This recipe is deceptively easy and incredibly impressive. It would make a great dinner party meal, because who doesn't like chicken? You can serve it with just about anything, really. Lebovitz suggests serving it over homemade herbed pasta, but we're so not up to the level of making homemade pasta. However, I'm sure regular pasta would be great, or rice, or your starch of choice.

We paired it with some roasted okra, which was very tasty, but we decided you definitely want something to sop up the sauce with. Even a big piece of French bread would do, really. This was a big win for us and will stay in our rotation. I can't say we ever ate this in France, but I'm definitely glad we're eating it now.

xoxo,
E & B

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chicken with mustard (poulet a la moutarde)

ingredients:
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon sweet or smoked paprika (we used smoked)
Freshly ground black pepper
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
4 chicken thighs and 4 legs (we just used two giant breasts)
1 tablespoon bacon grease
1 small onion, peeled and finely diced
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves or 1/2 teaspoon dried
1 cup white wine
1 tablespoon whole mustard seeds or grainy mustard (we used grainy mustard)
2-3 tablespoons creme fraiche or heavy cream (we used cream because it's all we could find)

directions:
Mix 1/2 cup of of the Dijon mustard in a bowl with the paprika, some freshly ground black pepper, and the salt.
Toss the chicken pieces in the mustard mixture (we poured the mixture into a bag with the chicken)
Heat a large skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat and add the bacon grease.
Add the onion and cook for about 5 minutes, until soft and translucent.
Stir in the thyme and let the onion cook another few minutes, then scrape into a bowl to the side.
Add a little olive oil to the pan, if necessary, and place chicken pieces in the pan in a single layer.
Cook over medium-high heat, browning them well on one side, then the other.
It's important to get the chicken nicely coloring, because the brown bits will give the finished sauce its flavor.
Remove chicken pieces and add to bowl with the onions.
Add wine to the hot pan, scraping the darkened bits off the bottom.
Return the chicken and onions to the pan.
Cover and cook over medium to low heat for 15 minutes, or until the chicken is done, turning the chicken in the sauce a few times.
Once the chicken is done, remove the pot from the heat and stir in the extra 3 tablespoons of Dijon mustard, 2-3 tablespoons of creme fraiche, and 1 tablespoon grainy mustard.
Serve over pasta or rice to soak up the sauce.
Bon appetit!

nutrition:
We used a lot less chicken than the recipe called for - only two six-ounce breasts, which made a total of four meals. Given those calculations, each serving is roughly 233 calories. But if you're super into calorie counting, I suggest you do your own calculations since we made so many adjustments.