Chicken sorta Wellington

Some 30+ years ago, Wife Unit #1 asked me to prepare an over the top dinner for her mom and the doctor she worked for.  On that occasion, I made Beef Wellington from scratch.

Some years later WU#1 invited a teen, who had problems with her parents, to move in with us.  Teen was semi-vegetarian; the only meat protein she would eat was chicken breast.  That led me to develop following recipe, which I just made again for Easter, after some 25 years.

For 8 servings:

Duxelles:

• 1 lb mushrooms
• 2 Tsp butter
• 1 TJ Truffle Mousse (chicken/mushroom pate)

8 very small chicken breasts, or 4 large cut in half lengthwise.

2 packs of frozen puff pastry (make from scratch if you are ambitious).  Defrost for 3-4 hours in the fridge.

In the morning, clean the mushrooms.  Shred in food processor.  Melt butter in large frying pan, and cook mushrooms till all water has evaporated.  Let Duxelles cool completely.  At the same time, take the Truffle Mousse out of fridge to bring to room temperature.

Trim chicken breasts.  Dust with seasonng (I use the milder of my two blackening spice mixes).  Sear on all sides in a little olive oil.  Let cool completely.

Mash the mousse into the mushroom duxelles, and divide into 8 portions.

Cut a sheet of puff pastry in half, diagonally.  Spread 1/8 of the Duxelles/pate mixture over the center.  Place a piece of chicken in the center, and fold the edges over to seal. Place on lightly buttered cookie sheet.  Brush with egg wash, and bake 35 min in 350 deg F preheated oven.

Serve with your choice of potato & vegetable.  Yesterday I chose scalloped potatoes and steamed broccoli with Hollandaise sauce - both made from scratch.  For an easy 3 min Hollandaise sauce:

• 4 egg yolks
• 4 Tsp heavy cream
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• several dashes of Cayenne pepper
• 8 Tsp of butter, diced.

Combine first 4 ingrediens in a heavy bottomed small sauce pan.  Heat over medium high flame, while stirring continuously with whisk.  When mix starts to thicken (like custard), remove from heat, toss in cubed butter and stir till butter is absorbed.  Sauce is done.

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