For each of my childhood birthdays my mom would prepare a special meal and dessert for me; it could be anything I wanted. Without fail, I would request the same dinner every single year – a super rich chicken in cream sauce recipe. Having it for my birthday was our family tradition up until I moved to California six years ago.
With a monumental birthday coming up (the big 3-0) I found myself homesick and longing for my mom’s chicken and cream sauce. I had never previously attempted to make it but figured that I had enough cooking experience under my belt to give it a try. My mom still had the recipe handy and sent it to me but there was one problem…I have cut lactose and gluten out of my diet and the original recipe was heavy on cream and flour. Hmm.
Substituting almond flour for regular flour seemed straight forward enough, but what to do about the cream… Fortunately for me, Google exists and was able to provide a plethora of alternatives. I threw caution to the wind and went with the most basic option I could find – substituting 2/6 cup of soy milk and 1/6 cup of oil for 1/2 cup of heavy cream. The consistency seemed okay. Not perfect, but okay. And flour behaves like flour so the recipe should work, right? Wrong.
Now, this was in no way a complete disaster. It just didn’t taste exactly like my mom’s and that turned me into an emotional mess. Neither the meal or the pictures came out quite how I wanted them to and I considered not posting this entrée at all. It was my mom who encouraged me to go ahead with it as planned because it’s a recipe that means a lot to me, it still tasted amazing and, as she pointed out, maybe somebody out there has a suggestion for how to improve it next time. So without further explanation or ado, I give you…
I sent my mom the above photo of the end result ahead of time and she responded by saying, “Grandma always used to lecture me about how you have to plan your meals to have color appeal on the plate.” Grandma, you were most definitely right…this ended up looking much more bland than it tasted. If only she had drilled that message into my head too I might have plopped some fresh parsley on top of the chicken to dress it up. I certainly learned my lesson and will definitely give this another shot down the road. It wasn’t perfect but it was a good first step towards figuring out how I can have a little taste of home from thousands of miles away.
I have included my modified lactose and gluten free recipe below along with notes on how to create the original. I HIGHLY suggest giving the original a try if you’re able to consume cream and regular flour. It really is an absolutely amazing meal. If any of you have ideas for how I can better replicate the original recipe’s flavor I would much appreciate them!
- 6 chicken breasts
- 1 - 2 cups flour seasoned with salt and pepper to taste for dredging original recipe called for all-purpose, I used almond
- 3 tbsp butter I used Earth Balance olive oil spread
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 cup whipping cream alternative original recipe called for heavy whipping cream, I substituted 2/6 cup soy milk and 1/6 cup olive oil
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 tbsp fresh minced parsley
- 1 lemon sliced for garnish
- 1 tbsp capers rinsed and drained for garnish
- Place chicken between sheets of plastic wrap and with a heavy mallet pound gently and evenly until chicken is about 1/4" thick.
- Unwrap chicken and dredge in seasoned flour.
- In a large skillet, heat 1 1/2 tbsp each of butter and olive oil.
- Add as many pieces of chicken that will fit without crowding to pan and cook quickly, just until meat loses it's pinkness (about 1 1/2 minutes per side).
- Remove and place on hot platter to keep warm. (Chicken may be placed in 200 degree F oven while sauce is prepared)
- Cook remaining pieces of chicken, adding more butter and oil as needed. Add to platter to keep warm.
- Add wine and lemon juice to skillet and simmer over moderately high heat, stirring to blend in browned particles. Boil, reducing to about half.
- Add cream or cream alternative, thyme and parsley and boil until sauce thickens slightly.
- Pour any meat juice from warming platter into the sauce.
- Adjust sauce for seasoning to taste. Pour over meat and garnish with parsley, lemon slices and capers.
My mom always served this over linguine and I did the same. You can drizzle the leftover sauce over the pasta.