Chicken à la King

By anonsouthernbell

For Chicken à la King that wasn’t bland or dry, we marinated the chicken in cream, lemon juice, and a little salt before adding it to the pan—the salt acted as a brine and kept the breast meat moist.

Tasters preferred the lighter, cleaner versions of Chicken à la King made without traditional (but finicky) egg yolks. We replaced some of the cream with chicken broth and rounded out the sauce’s flavors with Madeira wine, a little parsley, and lemon juice. Slightly overreducing the sauce before adding the chicken marinade mixture ensured the finished sauce had the proper consistency.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• Salt
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1 1/2 pounds), cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 onion, chopped fine
• 8 ounces white mushroom, sliced thin
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped fine
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup Madeira wine*
• An equal amount of brandy or dry Marsala can be substituted for the Madeira.
• 1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 8 slices Italian bread, buttered and toasted (see related Step by Step)

Preparation

Step 1

1. Whisk ½ cup cream, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, and 1 teaspoon salt in bowl. Combine chicken and cream mixture in large zipper-lock bag; refrigerate 30 minutes.

2. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Cook onion until golden, about 3 minutes. Add mushrooms, bell pepper, ¼ teaspoon salt, and pepper and cook until vegetables have softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in flour and cook 1 minute. Add Madeira, scraping up any browned bits with wooden spoon, and cook until thickened, about 1 minute. Add broth and remaining cream and cook until sauce is very thick and spatula leaves trail when dragged through sauce, about 5 minutes.

3. Stir in chicken mixture and reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer, stirring frequently, until chicken is no longer pink, about 10 minutes. Off heat, stir in remaining lemon juice and parsley. Serve with toasted bread.

Bread:

Chicken à la king is typically served over toast. But what type of bread is best? After trying baguettes (too tough), sandwich bread (too mushy), and even puff pastry (too delicate), we found the perfect match with supermarket Italian bread, whose soft texture toasted up into a crunchy, but still fork-friendly, slice. Here’s how to do it:

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Arrange eight 1-inch-thick slices of Italian bread on baking sheet. Brush 2 tablespoons of melted butter over both sides of bread slices.

2. Toast bread until golden brown, about 10 minutes, flipping slices halfway through cooking. Spoon chicken à la king over toast and serve.