Sometimes, I don’t read too carefully when I pick recipes for the week. We may miss an ingredient while shopping, or, more often, I don’t pay attention to the cooking times and we end up with a bunch of meals that need long time to cook. That happened with this recipe for Chicken Crepes with Asparagus and Mushrooms. I completely ignored the cooking time, and when we started it, my wife looked and freaked out: 2 hours! It’s been a long time since we’ve cooked something with a 2 hours prep time…kids just don’t lend themselves well to that. But I also had a general idea of what I thought this recipe should involve, and it didn’t seem like 2 hours, so we pressed on. I had to do some quick re-figuring of the recipe, but the end result was delicious and finished in 47 minutes. So here’s the rapid version of the recipe–I think it was really good, so I’m not sure what the extra hour adds…
Chicken Crepes with Asparagus and Mushrooms
Cooking time: 45-60 minutes
For the filling:
- 6 Tbs unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup Flour
- 1 1/4 cups whole milk*
- 1 1/4 cups chicken broth
- 1/4 cup chopped shallot–we skipped this
- 1/2 cup chopped mushrooms–we used 8oz, probably closer to 1 1/2 cups
- 2 cups chicken breast cut into bite sized pieces
- 3 tablespoons medium-dry Sherry*
- 1 lb thin asparagus, trimmed and cut in ~2in long pieces
For the crêpes:
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
- 1 1/4 cups whole milk
- 1 whole large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 Tbs unsalted butter
Making the filling:
This part we kept from the original: Heat 5 tablespoons butter in a 2-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat until foam subsides. Whisk in flour and cook roux, whisking, until pale golden, about 2 minutes. Gradually add milk and broth, whisking, and bring to a boil, whisking. Reduce heat and simmer gently, whisking frequently, until velouté sauce is silky and thick, about 25 minutes.
Meanwhile cook the chicken over medium high heat in a pan with a little olive oil. I’d add the shallot here, but we didn’t have one…When almost done add the mushrooms. Cook until most of the juices have been released and cooked off. Add the sherry and asparagus and cook a few minutes longer until the asparagus is tender.
In one of the pans if they are big enough, or another bowl, mix the sauce (reserving ~1 cup) and the chicken, mushrooms and asparagus.
For the crepes:
Mix the flour, salt and nutmeg in bowl. In another bowl (or a 2c measuring cup) add the milk, egg, and egg yoke and lightly beat. Add the milk and egg mixture to the flour and whisk well.
Heat an 8in pan over medium heat. Melt a little butter and spread around. Add ~1/4 cup batter and spread. Cook crepe until golden brown on the bottom (~40-50 seconds). If you want, you can flip and cook the other side for ~10 seconds. Pile the crepes on a plate.
Assembling the crepes:
Put a crepe on a plate, add some filling, fold over and drizzle some of the reserved sauce on top. Enjoy!
*We accidentally used cream instead of milk…while I am sure that added to the deliciousness of the dish, I’d stick with the milk in future. We also forgot to add the sherry.
I was looking around the web for something like this and found a few similar recipes, but most used hotdogs and none had any veggies in them. So I came up with this…turned out quite well.
Preheat oven to 400F. In a large dutch oven, saute the sausage until cooked through (if not already fully cooked) and starting to brown. Add the zucchini and green pepper and cook a few minutes longer. Add the can of baked beans and about 1/2 the can of corn. Stir everything together.
