Chicken with Pecan Cream and Mushrooms

Sorry I'm late with posting for this month's Daring Cooks Challenge! Wedding is in 2 days (:-O) so you'll have to forgive if this is post a bit short. Still lots to do!

The July 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Margie of More Please and Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make their own nut butter from scratch, and use the nut butter in a recipe. Their sources include Better with Nut Butter by Cooking Light Magazine, Asian Noodles by Nina Simonds, and Food Network online.

The four challenge options were Chicken with Pecan Cream and Mushrooms, Asian Noodle Salad with Cashew Dressing, Chicken with Curried Tomato Almond Sauce, and Walnut White Bean Dip with Rosemary and Sage. The White Bean Dip sounded right up my alley. So of course I chose not to do that, as it wouldn't really be challenging my skills or taste buds. That one was just a bit too safe. The Asian Noodle Salad was out, as I mentioned before I'm really not into Asian cooking. I'll do it if a challenge ever requires it, but given the option, no Asian Noodle Salad for me. And curry is something I can't like no matter how much I try. And by "can't like" I mean I can't even be in the same room when it's cooking. So I was left with the Chicken with Pecan Cream and Mushrooms. I didn't feel this was too safe, as using nuts in savory dishes is completely new to me. I had an idea of what I thought it would taste like, but it ended up being completely (and pleasantly) different.

Source
Daring Cooks July 2010 Challenge

Yield
Serves 4 - Made lunch for 3 of us, plus enough left over for one more meal

Equipment
Baking sheet to toast pecans
Pot to cook pasta
Colander to drain pasta
Cutting boards
Knife
Skillet
Food processor
Spatula
Meat mallet
Small baking dish, for keeping chicken warm
Whisk for making the pan sauce

Ingredients
3/4 cup Coarsely chopped pecans, toasted
1 cup Water
3/4 tsp. Salt
1/2 lb. Egg noodles
4 six-oz. Chicken breast halves, boneless, skinless
2 tsp. Olive oil
To taste, Salt and pepper
1 tbsp. Deglazing liquid, water, white wine or chicken broth works, I used chicken broth
1/4 cup Shallots, finely chopped
1/2 lb. Mushrooms, sliced
1 tbsp. Thyme leaves

Directions

The recipe didn't give instructions on how to toast pecans, so here's how I did it:

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter

Pour over pecans in a bowl

Mix well

so that the pecans are completely covered in the butter.

Lay them out in a single layer on a baking sheet

and bake at 350 for about 10 minutes, turning over after 5.

They'll come out a bit darker, very soft and aromatic.

Chop roughly.

Put chopped pecans in the food processor

Grind for about 10 minutes until smooth.

You might need to scrape down the sides of the food processor from time to time to make sure the blades are getting all the pecans.

Add water

and salt

and process until smooth. At this point it looks like a pretty thin cream.

At this point start boiling water for the noodles. Cook the noodles, drain and keep warm while doing the remaining steps.

Pound chicken to even thickness, so it cooks evenly.

Add salt and pepper as desired.

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add half of the chicken and sautee 3-5 minutes on each side.

Remove and place in a baking dish, cover with aluminum foil and keep warm in the oven on the lowest temperature. Repeat with the remaining chicken.

Now's the fun part. Add the deglazing liquid to the pan

and whisk to scrape up all the tasty brown bits.

Add the mushrooms

And the shallots

Sautee over medium heat for about 4-6 minutes

until mushrooms are brown and soft.

Add in the thyme

and the pecan cream

and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer about 1 minute until slightly reduced.

Slice chicken into pieces or strips as desired. Divide noodles among four plates, scoop 1/4 of the sauce onto each plate, then top with chicken.

I expected this to be more like a peanut sauce with lots of nutty flavor. Usually I have strict rules about separating savory and sweet (no orange chicken or strawberries in my salad). This goes for nuts too, which I tend to associate with the sweet end of the spectrum. But this tasted very different than I expected. The pecan cream, that actually had no dairy, tasted like a cream sauce. In fact the dish tasted like beef stroganoff, if you subbed the chicken for beef. It was very surprising. I would definitely make this again, it made me see how nuts can be used in a whole new way. I'm going to think of another dish that typically uses heavy cream and sub with a nut butter-based cream pretty soon.

Stay tuned for a post soon (after the wedding) on the sweet snack inspired by this dish!

Bonus: pretty picture of aged gouda and cherries that we ate later the same day.