This is the second-to-last of the many dishes that we enjoyed during our travels in Europe earlier this year and have since added to our repertoire. (Tafelspitz will be the last but that is a project for winter 2015.)

We both had a lovely main course of this traditional Burgundian dish on the second night that we dined at La Grilladine restaurant in Beaune. A couple of months after we returned home, we found a recipe online and used it once to prepare an acceptable dish.  However, we both felt that we could do better.

The dish that inspired us

Last week, we made it again, applying several changes we had decided to make to the original recipe. It is now ready to share. We are still using the jars of mustard we bought at Edmond Fallot moutarderie in Beaune. These mustards are stronger than the Dijon mustard we buy at supermarkets for general domestic use.  For this dish, we used the one that contains some honey, to accentuate the sweet notes of the sauce.

Ingredients

20g butter
2 shallots, finely chopped
3 tsp strong Dijon mustard or 1 tbsp (20ml) regular
80ml dry white wine
150ml chicken stock
100ml cooking cream
olive oil, for frying
3-4 chicken breast fillets, trimmed

Method

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat. Add the chopped shallots and sauté for about 10 minutes.
2. Add the mustard and wine, bring to the boil and simmer for 3 minutes. Add the stock, return to the boil and simmer for about 8 minutes.
3. Strain the sauce to remove the pieces of shallot, pressing down with the back of a spoon to extract as much sauce as possible.
4. Heat some olive oil in a non-stick pan over medium-high heat. Fry chicken 4-6 minutes on each side, depending on thickness, or until browned and cooked through.
5. While the chicken is cooking, add the cream to the sauce and gently simmer it for 3 to 5 minutes to thicken the sauce.
6. Slice pieces of chicken, transfer to each dinner plate and drizzle sauce over the meat.
7. We serve the chicken with gently boiled kipfler potatoes and a green vegetable, eg wilted spinach, beans or, in season, asparagus.

Our interpretation

PS. Of the 106 posts that are now on my blog, this is the 100th written in 2014. Happy anniversary to me, or something like that.