I love French food. My very first introduction to fine dining outside of my home was at a French Michelin starred restaurant that Cincinnati, Ohio was just randomly lucky to have. My parents took me there for some big celebrations and I had a few memorable dates and dinners at La Maisonette without my parents. It was very French—big velvet banquettes, gilded mirrors, formal service, classic French menu. I loved it.
Later I travelled to France where I ate as much as I could and nothing disappointed. Add to these experiences close friends who are native Parisiennes and accomplished cooks themselves and my love of all food Francoise endures. A friend who knew me well gave me a cookbook called the French Slow Cooker–combining my love of crock pot ease with French flavors. I made a recipe from Michele Sciolone’s book for the second time for Papa Ron’s 80th BD dinner. It was delicious so I am sharing.
Chicken with Tarragon, Mustard and Cream.
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 2 T red wine vinegar
- 3 T Dijon Mustard
- Salt & Pepper
- 1 onion chopped coarsely
- 2 leeks chopped coarsely
- 8-12 boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 2 T chopped garlic–jar ok
- 3 T fresh chopped parsley
- 1 T chopped fresh or dried tarragon
- 1/2-1 Cup heavy cream
Pour broth and vinegar into large slow cooker. Add the chopped onions and leeks. Stir mustard with salt and pepper–brush all over the chicken. Place chicken into slow cooker over vegetables. Sprinkle with the garlic, parsley, tarragon and salt and pepper. Pour in 1/2 cup of chicken broth and add 1/2 stick of butter on top–will melt slowly.
Cover and cook on low for 5 hours. Remove chicken with a slotted spoon to a platter. Strain the pan juices from the crock pot and add to a saucepan on the stove top and heat to medium. Slowly add 1/2 cup cream and salt and pepper. You can add more or less cream (and broth OK too) depending upon how much sauce you want. I added a T of flour to mine to thicken it a bit and allowed it to simmer for a couple minutes. Put the chicken back in the rinsed crock pot and add the sauce. Finish with more fresh chopped herbs and keep on low or warm until ready to serve.
I served mine with some boxed Zatarain’s Yellow Rice that I made with chicken stock instead of water to give it a deeper flavor. For our side dish, a bowl of broccoli steamed in the microwave. I poured some of the extra sauce from the chicken in a gravy boat for guests who might like to doctor their green vegetable. I am not naming names, but we have family members who are not big veggie fans I am still of the mind that trying all of the foods offered is part of having and using good manners so I require it at my table. I get a lot of flack for my “manners thing” but I am not capitulating. (TBH, we did keep the playoff game on the TV during dinner but I mean, come on, playoffs).
On this particular Sunday we were celebrating my Dad’s 80th BD–I am sure he would have preferred his favorite fried chicken but I was pretty confident my Birthday Cake would win him over and it did. Dad’s Mom (Mimi) made an outstanding chocolate cake with a chocolate fudge icing. I was not about to even attempt to match the sheer wonder of that cake so I took a basic box cake and doctored it up.
- Chocolate fudge Cake Mix (Betty’s of course)
- 1 cup of Hershey semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 can of cream cheese icing (also Betty)
- 1 jar of red crushed sugar for decoration
Prepare cake batter as directed and add chocolate chips. I like to make bundt cakes because I find them easy to bake, they are moist, slice easily and look nice on the table. When the bundt cake was finished baking I used a slim icing spatula to loosen the edges of the cake. I placed a piece of wax paper on a cake stand and inverted the cake pan over the stand. I got lucky and the cake came out clean–always good to use a liberal coating of butter spray on the baking pan before pouring your cake batter in.
While the cake was cooking I heated up the container of the cream cheese frosting in the microwave on 1/2 power until it was very thin. I then poured the glaze all over the warm cake allowing the glaze to pool around the base of the cake. You are going to transfer the cake to a clean cake stand when its fully decorated.
After glazing the cake I sprinkled the red sugar liberally all over the top and sides of the cake. We then added a red and gold balloon and 8 candles representing 80 years. We have an abundance of Grater’s ice cream due to my brother’s hometown flavor themed Christmas gift so we paired our chocolate fudge cake with a choice of butter pecan, strawberry and vanilla. Best of all, we surprised Papa Ron. Happy Birthday Dad–you make 80 look good.
The Casa Kitchen 