Chicken with Creamy Mushroom Sauce

Chicken with Creamy Mushroom Sauce
Serves 4

Keeping food simple, healthy and delicious has been my manta for the pasted 20 years, ever since Matthew, my middle son, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. The commitment to healthy eating increased even more when my late wife Alison was diagnosed with stage four cancer in 2008. My philosophy about food is to use fresh ingredients and encourage cooking at home. This way you have a good idea about what you are putting into your body to maximize your health. I’m not into today’s supper foods, fad diets, or latest celebrity eating routines. Using one ingredient foods such as fruits, vegetables, pulses, nuts, seeds, unprocessed grains, and lean proteins gives you the best nutrition for your body. So, follow along and make this easy, creamy chicken dish tonight for your family and friends and see how “real food” can be amazingly tasty and simple to make.

Shopping Tips for chicken
We all eat a lot of chicken, but are you getting the best quality? Here’s how to make sure:

1. Look at the fat. It should be white to deep yellow, never gray or pale. Make sure the package is well wrapped and leak-free.

2. Check the label carefully to avoid poultry that has been enhanced with an added sodium solution. The word “natural” on the label does not guarantee a non-enhanced product. To determine if poultry is enhanced, scan the ingredients on the label for any added solution that is not plain water.

3. Refrigerate or freeze poultry as soon as possible after purchase. Cook or freeze it by the “use by” date on the package. If you’re freezing poultry for longer than two weeks, make sure it is wrapped tightly, either in a vacuum-sealed package, heavy-duty foil, freezer paper, or in a freezer bag. Frozen poultry should be defrosted in the refrigerator, never at room temperature, to prevent bacterial growth.

Deciphering Package Labels on Chicken

Chicken comes with a lot of labels. According to Eatingwell.com, here’s what they mean:

Free-Range: While it might seem to imply more, this USDA-regulated term means only that the birds are granted access to the outdoors.

Certified Organic: This USDA-regulated term means that all feed must be certified organic without synthetic fertilizers or pesticides, animal by-products or other additives. Certified organic poultry must also meet “free-range” criteria.

Raised Without Antibiotics: This term indicates that the birds were raised without antibiotics for health maintenance, disease prevention or treatment of disease. Medications not classified as antibiotics may still be used.

No Hormones: The USDA prohibits the use of hormones in poultry. While the label hormone-free is accurate, it doesn’t set one poultry product apart from another.

Natural: One of the most widely used labels, the term means that no additives or preservatives were introduced after the poultry was processed. Certain sodium-based broths can be added. Make sure to read the ingredients on the package label if this is a concern. Natural has absolutely nothing to do with standards of care, type and quality of feed or administration of medications.

Vegetarian-Fed or All-Vegetable Diet: The birds were fed a diet containing no animal products. This is a controversial practice because chickens and turkeys are not naturally vegetarian, and poultry feed usually includes some meat and poultry by-products. Also, the birds naturally like to forage for insects when they are able.

Percent Retained Water: To control pathogens like Salmonella, producers must quickly lower the temperature of meat during processing. Most do this by immersing the slaughtered birds in a cold bath, which causes them to absorb water. The USDA requires producers to list the maximum amount of water that may be retained.

Air Chilled: Some producers lower the temperature of meat during processing using an extremely cold blast of air. This process does not result in any retained water.

Certified Humane Raised and Handled: Overseen by the nonprofit group Humane Farm Animal Care (certifiedhumane.org), this label ensures the birds received certain basic standards of care and were encouraged to engage in natural behaviors, such as perching, pecking, scratching, and foraging for food in their bedding. If also labeled Free-Range or “asture-Raised, the birds must have been raised to these standards as well.

Farm-Raised: This is not a regulated label, so it can technically be used on almost any poultry products.

Pasture-Raised: This is not a regulated label, but Humane Farm Animal Care has created a standard for the term that it guarantees. Birds must be outdoors year-round with access to housing where they can go inside to protect themselves from predators or extreme weather.

Ingredients:
4 6oz certified organic chicken breasts
Sea salt and pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
2 cups chestnut mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 cup low sodium chicken stock
1 7oz tub crème fraîche
2 tablespoons freshly chopped parsley

How to make:
Preheat oven to 380◦F. Place a large frying pan over a medium to high heat on the stove. Season the chicken breast with salt and pepper. Add the oil to the hot pan, followed by the chicken breasts and fry for about five minutes or until well browned. Flip over and continue to cook for a further five minutes. Remove each breast from the pan and place onto a roasting tray. Pop in the oven for 10 minutes.

In the same pan, add a little more oil if needed to fry the onions for two to three minutes or until translucent. Add the garlic and fry for another one minute. Add the mushrooms and fry until golden-brown.

Stir in the stock. Bring to the boil and cook for five minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the crème fraîche and parsley.

Check that the chicken is thoroughly cooked. Remove from the oven and serve with the mushroom sauce, roasted carrots, and steamed asparagus.