Recipe#8594

Title: Poulet Fleuri(Flowering Chicken)

From:NURPPL@NURSE.EMORY.EDU
Date: Fri, 7 Jun 1996 11:05:48 EST5EDT 

   4                    boned and skinned chicken breast halves
   1      large         carrot -- peeled and julienned
   1      large         celery stalk -- julienned
   8                    snow peas
   8                    scallions
   2      cups          chicken broth
   1      cup           whipping cream
   1      ounce         dried porcini mushrooms
                        salt and white pepper -- to taste
                        paprika
Cook carrots and celery, separately, in salted water until crisp/tender. Blanch 
snow peas for 1 minute in boiling water.  Plunge vegetables in cold water 
immediately to stop the cooking.
Julienne the snow peas.  Clean scallions; cut off and save the green tops (save 
the whites for another recipe).  Cut all vegetables to the same length, about 3 
inches.
Pound each chicken breast lightly with a flat-bottomed, stout glass until breast 
is uniform thickness, about 1/2 inch.  Lay one or two pieces of each vegetable, 
lengthwise, in the middle of each flattened breast.  Fold the point opposite the 
long edge of the breast over the vegetables.  Then fold in the two ends.  Finish 
by rolling from the long edge over the vegetables.  The goal is to have a nice, 
uniform-thickness roll with the vegetables completely enclosed.
Bring the chicken stock to a boil.  Place each breast roll on a sheet of plastic 
wrap 3 times its length.  Roll up the meat tightly in the wrap; twist the ends of 
the wrap tightly and fold them under the roll.  Each roll should now look like a 
giant piece of tightly wrapped taffy.
Poach the rolls in the simmering stock.  If the liquid covers the rolls, poach 
for about 6 minutes.  Otherwise, poach for 4 minutes, turn, and poach another 4 
minutes. While the rolls are poaching, soak dried mushrooms in very hot water 
until soft.
Hold still-wrapped rolls in a warm oven while you make the sauce.
Drain the mushroom soaking liquid through a paper towel or coffee filter to 
remove grit, and add the liquid to the chicken stock. Boil the chicken stock 
mixture, uncovered, over high heat until reduced by half.  Add cream to stock 
mixture and reduce by half again.  Be careful during this step as the cream tends 
to foam up.  Slice mushrooms if very large, removing any tough stems, and add to 
sauce.  Taste sauce and add salt and pepper as desired.
To serve:  Unwrap chicken breasts.  Slice each roll on the diagonal into about 5 
equal pieces.  Arrange in a star pattern, one breast per plate, with the most 
attractive sides up.  Carefully spoon hot sauce around - not - over the chicken 
breasts.  Try to include 3 - 4 mushroom pieces on each plate.  Dust the sauce 
areas with A LITTLE paprika and serve to raves.