When you think about this recipe, you’ll probably think that the key ingredient to this dish is the boneless skinless chicken breasts. Ohh no. The star ingredient is… BUTTER. Now I will repeat this several times, do not be afraid of the butter, do not be afraid of the butter, and do not be afraid of the butter. I feel so much better now, don’t you?

This recipe is from the one and only Julia Child. I love her so much; I even watch her cooking shows every now and then when I come across them. My birthday was in January and my parents bought me three of her cookbooks, including both volumes of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. But this recipe is from the book, The French Chef Cookbook. Oh how I love Julia Child, I would keep talking about her and this recipe, but I am pretty sure ya’ll want to get to the recipe.

Ingredients:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (I only had three, but they were huge)

6 tbsp butter, plus more, you’ll see why

Salt

Pepper

Lemon pepper

Garlic pepper (did I mention that I like pepper?)

For the rice:

1 cup of white rice

2 cups of water

2 tbsp butter

For the sauce:

1/4 cup or half a can of beef broth

2-3 tbsp of butter

1 cup of heavy cream

Salt

Pepper

Lemon juice

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Starting with the rice, find a small pot and pour the rice water and butter in the pot. Now bring it to a boil and when it is boiling, turn it down to simmer and cover. Simmer for 15 minutes. When it’s done, take a fork and move it around.

For the chicken: put the butter and a tiny bit of canola oil in a large skillet and put it on medium heat. The oil will make sure not to burn the butter; we do not want to burn butter. When the butter is creating bubbles, it means to put the chicken in. Poach the chicken for 10 minutes, five minutes on each side.

Now line a 9×13 baking dish with foil. Place the chicken in the foil and spread all of the butter grease on top of the chicken breasts. Cover with more foil but make sure to press the foil to the top of the chicken breasts. Put them in the oven for 10-13 minutes. Take them out at 10 minutes and check to see if they are done. They should be completely white, there should be no pink.

Finally we get to the sauce. In the same skillet you used to poach the chicken, put another two to three tbsp of butter in it on medium-high heat. Melt it and when the butter is frothy, add the beef broth. Now this is important, you have to let it reduce down. It will seem like a lot of liquid, but at a medium-high heat it should take no more than two to four minutes to reduce. Once it has, stir in the heavy cream and keep stirring, on medium-high heat.

It will thicken just a little bit, when it has, turn the heat down to low. For the lemon juice, I wasn’t very precise so what I did was cut the lemon in half and with one half, put half of the juice of half of a lemon. That is confusing, but you do not want anymore or it will become to acidic. Then add a little bit of salt and pepper. The sauce is finished and it is good!

Time for assembly. On plates, place a good amount of rice, then a chicken, and then a lot of yummy sauce.

I just want to say thank you to Julia Child for this delicious recipe and as she says at the end of every recipe, Bon Appétit.

That’s what’s cookin’ ya’ll. Come back next week for an all new recipe.