Baked Chicken with Shiitake Mushroom Sauce

Plan Z Phase: This is a Z3 (ZReboot) recipe.  If we had  a gourmet comfort food category this recipe would be the first one. Its easy to make, very satisfying, and tastes delicious. A great meal for a rainy day.

Ingredients:

For Chicken:

• 4 split chicken breasts with bones
• 1 Tbl garlic powder
• olive oil spray

For the Sauce:

• 1 cup beef broth
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 6 pieces of bacon
• 1 cup shiitake mushroom pieces (stems removed)
• 1 and a half cups of button mushroom slices
• 1 cup whipping cream
• salt and pepper

Instructions:

Spray the oven-proof dish and the chicken with olive oil spray to coat. Sprinkle garlic powder on top of chicken. Roast at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until juices run clear.

Meanwhile work on the sauce:

Boil the beef broth, chicken broth, and wine together until reduced by half. This will probably take about 12 to 15 minutes depending on how high your burner heats. While the broth is reducing, slice the bacon vertically into little strips and fry it in a standard sauté pan. When crispy, remove the bacon and set it aside. Pour out most of the grease.

Now sauté the mushrooms in the leftover bacon grease. Don’t worry. It’ll taste great. When the mushrooms are all soft (about 3 minutes), add the whipping cream and your reduction. Keep the sauce on a medium boil so it can thicken up. Stir regularly. Watch for the bubbles to get larger and thicker. You can also see if it coats the back of a spoon. The longer you boil the sauce, the thicker it will get. You want it to be a medium thickness. At the end, add the crispy bacon pieces back into the sauce.

The chicken will look great sitting on top of the sauce rather than pouring the sauce over the top. The garlic powder turns a beautiful golden yellow.

Enjoy!

Cheers,