Chicken is a popular choice of meat for dinner, but many people lose interest in cooking a meal from scratch when deciding what to serve it with.
The simple ingredient has endless cooking possibilities, from roasting to frying, poaching and grilling. It pairs perfectly with almost all grains, carbohydrates, and vegetables.
Those looking for dinner inspiration can look to Mary Berry, a British cooking icon who suggests serving chicken breast with her staple creamy sauce and herby greens.
Sharing the recipe from her cookbook ‘Mary Berry’s Absolute Favourites’, the chef branded the dish “easy to prepare” with just three main components.
This dish calls for a combination of lemon, thyme, and parsley to flavour the ingredients, but it’s easy to customise if you want a hint of chilli or substitute the green herbs.
Creamy chicken recipe
Ingredients
50g butter
Two tbsp oil
Six small chicken breasts, boned, skinned
Siz banana shallots, quartered lengthways
30g plain flour
400ml chicken stock
1.5 tbsp chopped lemon thyme leaves
12 asparagus spears, woody ends snapped off
One large lemon, juice only
200ml/7fl oz full-fat crème fraîche
Two tbsp chopped parsley
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Then, place a large, deep ovenproof frying pan on the hob. Add half the butter and half the oil, and turn the heat low to cook until the butter melts.
Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper and fry them in the butter and oil. You may need to do this in batches.
Cook the breasts for two minutes on each side until golden brown. Remove them from the pan and set aside. Add the remaining butter and oil to the pan, tip in the shallots and fry over high heat for five to 10 minutes or until lightly golden brown.
Put the flour in a bowl, whisk in eight tablespoons of the stock, and mix until smooth. Add the mixture to the pan and boil, then pour in the remaining stock.
Seasoning is worth adding now, so throw in the lemon thyme before returning the chicken to the pan. Cover the pan with a lid and cook in the oven for about 20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked.
Trim the tip from each asparagus spear before serving and slice the stems into short, even lengths. Cook the tips and sliced stems in boiling salted water for two to three minutes, then drain. You can keep the tips as a garnish if you wish.
Finally, stir the lemon juice, crème fraîche and parsley into the pan with the chicken to complete the sauce. Add the sliced asparagus stems and bring to a boil.
Remove the chicken, slice each breast into three chunks and arrange them neatly on a plate. Spoon over the sauce and arrange two asparagus tips in a cross over the top.
Plate up the remaining ingredients and serve the chicken piping hot.
