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Poached Chicken with Spinach, Girolles, and Broad Beans in a Creamy Cider Brandy Sauce

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Cider and apple brandy share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 10 recipes mention both. Both carry hexanol, which smells green, fruity. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 2
Prep30 min
Cook1 hr

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Melt half the clarified butter in a pan over medium-low heat. Finely chop the shallots and garlic, then soften them gently for 5 minutes without browning.

  2. Add the cider apple brandy, raise the heat, and simmer until reduced by about half, roughly 3 minutes.

  3. Pour in the chicken stock, add the thyme sprigs and bay leaf, and bring to a gentle simmer. Season the chicken breasts and lower them into the liquid.

  4. Poach the chicken over low heat, barely simmering, for 15 to 18 minutes, until the thickest part reaches 165°F (74°C). Remove the chicken, rest it 5 minutes, and keep warm.

  5. Meanwhile, blanch the broad beans in a pan of boiling water for 2 minutes, then drain, refresh in cold water, and slip off the outer skins.

  6. Strain 150ml of the poaching liquid into a clean pan, simmer until reduced by half, then stir in the double cream and simmer 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

  7. Heat the remaining clarified butter in a frying pan over medium heat. Cook the girolles for 4 to 5 minutes until golden, then season.

  8. Wilt the baby spinach in a dry pan or with a splash of water for 1 to 2 minutes, then drain well. Warm the broad beans through in the sauce.

  9. Slice the chicken, arrange on warm plates with the spinach, girolles and broad beans, and spoon the cider brandy sauce over to serve.

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Cider + apple brandytop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together10 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  2. Garlic + spinachtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,433 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanol (resin, flower).

  3. Beans + spinachtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together365 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Shallot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Garlic + chickentop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together10,839 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, garlic, thyme, cider, apple brandy, chicken, cream):

  1. Potatobetter flavor fit
  2. Onionbetter flavor fit
  3. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  4. Shallotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, garlic, thyme, cider, apple brandy, chicken, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).