I like my duxelles sauce thick like a condiment, you might like your’s a little looser, there isn’t a wrong way to make it.
You had a great mushroom hunting season, you crushed the chanterelles, boletes, and all the mushrooms you wanted to get. You made duxelles, and put some in the freezer for a rainy day in the off-season. Great, but now what do you do with the duxelles?
Hedgehogs make a great duxelles, if you can find enough of them. I occasionally find large fruits of them where I live in Minnesota, but not every year. Also, I could’ve cleaned those better in the field.
Any species of mushroom for duxelles will do.
Improvising duxelles with dried mushrooms
Rest that bird, then slice. Notice how in the pictures of the finished dish their isn’t any juice being wept onto the plate by the chicken, which will dilute your final sauce while you eat. Same goes for literally every type of meat sans fish and shellfish.
How to get the crispiest skin on a chicken breast
You want that rock hard skin that goes “tink-tink-tink” when you tap it. Everyone knows crispy skin is addictive as crack, and I love a good roast chicken, but lets be honest, you can’t do it everynight, and getting a whole bird to have crispy skin is a feat. A quick-trick weeknight fix is a bone-in, skin on breast that will cook in about 15 minutes. A quick vacation in the oven and that bird’s coming out singing. It’s the same way I cook them at restaurants, as do most chefs.
There’s a couple tricks to getting a rock-hard chicken skin though. You don’t have to use all the tips I outline, but following them will give a superior product. Don’t have time to dry brine the bird overnight? No prob. Dry the chicky boobs off really good with paper towels, season them and proceed à la Minute. Here’s what I suggest:
Dry Brine Overnight
This means season the chicken with salt and pepper the night before, then leave it out UNCOVERED, skin side up in the refrigerator, so that the skin dries out. Freaked out from memories of old steak you forgot about in the fridge? Don’t be, it’s going to be aweome.
Pan Roasting
Put the chicken skin-down into a hot pan, then into the oven, 375-400F is good. When the chicken is just done, remove the pan and inspect the skin by lifting up the breast. If the skin needs to be more golden brown (read as rock-hard and golden), put the pan back on the burner for a minute or two over medium heat to get a perfect golden brown.
Rest That Meat!
You need to to take the bird out of the pan to rest it SKIN SIDE UP before slicing, this could happen in an oven thats been turned off, or in even just on a cutting board as pictured here. The great part is that doing this all in one pan means that it kind of forces you to rest the bird, since you want to deglaze and harvest all the delicious chickenly bits in the pan.
Note how there is no juice exuded by the breast to dilute your sauce, this is because the meat was rested….It’ll be juicier that way.
Chicken Breast with Crispy Skin and Mushroom Duxelle Pan Sauce
Equipment
- Heavy pan, like cast iron
Ingredients
- 2 bone in chicken breasts with wing bone attached
- Kosher salt and pepper
- Cooking oil like lard or high heat oil
- 1/2 cup chicken stock preferably made from a carcass to include the feet
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Instructions
- The day beforehand, season the chicken with salt and allow to sit out overnight. When it's time to cook, heat a pan with a little oil, add a chicken skin side down for a minute on high, then put in the oven. Put the pan in the oven until the chicken is just done, about 155F. Take the chicken breasts out of the pan, and let rest in a warm place.
- There should be a bunch of nice drippings crusted in the pan. Deglaze the pan with a splash of wine, scrape up the bits, then add a good spoon of duxelles and a good 1/2 cup of nice chicken stock. Simmer the mixture until all the bits have been incorporated into the sauce, then whisk in a tablespoon or so of butter and stir until it melts. Taste the sauce for salt, adjust as needed (it may not need anything, and keep in mind it still needs to reduce.)
- When the butter has thickened the sauce and it tastes really good, you could finish the sauce with a little parsley or chives. To finish, slice the chicken, then put skin-side up on a plate.
- Spoon the sauce cascading off the bird, or on the side (to make sure the skin doesn’t become soft) and serve immediately, with a vegetable side, cooked wild greens would be great.
are you really saying leave chicken out of frig overnight? Or just uncovered in frig?????
Thanks for commenting. I adjusted the note so that it reads a little more clearly. No, I would never leave poultry out overnight and then eat it, the chicken needs to stay under refrigeration, the dessication of the refrigeratator helps to tighten up the skin and makes a big difference, I do it with all kinds of meat and fish, it’s also a technique heavily used for smoked fish.