Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 4 chicken filets

• salt to taste

• food grade cling-wrap

• Water

• 2 shallots

• 1⁄2 to 3⁄4 liter (2 to 3 cups) red wine

• 1 liter of stock

• 1 garlic clove

• few thyme and rosemary sprigs

• 1 bay leaf

• 2 to 3 mushrooms to taste

• 6 pepper corns (optional)

• Corn Starch: 1 heaped tbsp per 1⁄4 liter of wine used. 

• Butter: about 25% in volume in relation to the cut shallots – that is what the shallots will be able to absorb as they are sweated.

Steps

1. Flatten the chicken fillets so that they are about even and pare them so they are about a rectangular shape. These steps are important to ensure even cooking later. 

2. Season to taste on one side, and put seasoned face down on the cling film, about 1 cm away from the end of the cling film toward you. If you want to use, spread the filling on top of the chicken now. Or add a couple of thyme leaves per fillet, cut in pieces on that side. 

3. Fold the fillet in half and then roll the fillet like a sausage into the cling film and close at both ends. Rotate to close the cling film and make a knot. 

4. Put the chicken sausages in water just below the boil for 7 minutes (the exact time depends on how thick your pieces are; if uncertain use a thermometer to measure the temperature at the center of the chicken “sausage” and cook until 50°C, remove and monitor temperature until it reaches 53°C. 

5. Remove from the water after 7 minutes and reserve until serving – you will re-heat those in the Sauce Marchand de Vin.

6. Sauté the mushrooms to give them colour and flavour. Then reduce the heat and sweat the shallots in butter. Add the herbs (thyme, bay leaf, garlic clove, rosemary). Let them cook for a couple of minutes – until the shallots are soft - and add the wine. Reduce to a sticky glaze. Add peppercorns if wanted (not critical) and stock and cook together for about 5 minutes to mix well. Pass through a sieve.

7. Dilute about 1 tablespoon of corn starch in just enough water to make it fluid for each 1⁄4 liter of sauce. Bring the sauce to a simmer – and you can add a bit of sauce to the corn starch to temper it - then pour in the sauce off a fire while whisking.

8. Put the pan containing the sauce back on a fire and cook at medium heat while whisking continuously. After about 2 minutes the sauce will change color (from milky it will turn deep in the colour of the sauce) and thicken; stop when you achieve the desired consistency. If too thin, start again with a bit more corn starch. If too thick, add a bit more of the reserved and un-thickened sauce.

9. Do this just before pouring over the chicken and serving, as the sauce will continue to thicken as it cools down.

From Le Foodist, in Paris, France