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Chicken breast with morel cream sauce and leeks.

Poultry & duck

Poulet aux Morilles et au Xérès

By Raymond Blanc

Earthy morels and a splash of dry sherry give tender chicken breasts a rich, fragrant cream sauce. The mushrooms bring their carefully strained soaking liquor with them, deepening every spoonful. Sweet, butter-cooked leeks sit beneath the chicken, catching the sauce as it runs across the plate. Raymond Blanc keeps the chicken lightly coloured and the cooking gentle, letting the morels, wine and cream carry the dish.

Prep
10 min
Cook
20 min
Total
Not stated
Serves4
Jump to recipe ↓Raymond Blanc ↗

Ingredients

Chicken and morel sauce

Leeks

Method

  1. Soak the morels in the soaking water for at least two hours. Drain, reserving the liquor; squeeze, rinse and dry. Cut larger morels. Strain the liquor through muslin; retain 100 ml.
  2. Season the chicken. Fry in the sauce butter over medium heat, three minutes per side. Remove. Soften both mushrooms for 1–2 minutes.
  3. Boil the sherry separately for 30 seconds; add to the mushrooms with reserved liquor, a pinch of salt and cream. Bring to the boil. Return chicken, covering with sauce; simmer gently for ten minutes, until just cooked.
  4. Meanwhile, boil the leeks, covered, in the boiling water with their salt and butter for 5–10 minutes until tender.
  5. Lift chicken into a warm dish; keep warm. Reduce sauce until it coats a spoon. Adjust seasoning; return chicken for two minutes.
  6. Drain leeks; plate with chicken and sauce.

Equipment

Large frying pan; Small saucepan; Saucepan with lid; Muslin-lined sieve; Slotted spoon; Warm serving dish

Notes

  • Morels: soak for at least two hours. Squeeze, rinse and drain thoroughly; their folds can hold sand and grit. Strain the soaking liquor through muslin and keep 100 ml for the sauce.
  • Wine: Jura wine is Blanc's first choice; a good dry sherry is his suggested alternative.
  • Chicken: the ten-minute gentle simmer depends on breast size. Remove the chicken while reducing the sauce, then return it briefly to reheat.
  • Making ahead: Blanc suggests preparing the chicken half an hour in advance and warming it through in the morel sauce to serve.
  • Serving: use warmed plates, with the leeks beneath the chicken. A chilled Jura wine is Blanc's suggested accompaniment.
  • Timing: the published ten-minute preparation and twenty-minute cooking times exclude the morel soak. Allow at least two hours for that beforehand; no fixed full elapsed time is given.

Photos

1 photo
Chicken breast with morel cream sauce and leeks.ServingChicken, morel sauce and leeks

Poulet aux Morilles et au Xérès

Recipe photos

About this dish

Chicken, morels, cream and Jura wine belong together in the cooking of Franche-Comté. Poultry from nearby Bresse appears in the region's poulet au vin jaune et aux morilles, bringing chicken, mushrooms and wine to the same table. This is the tradition behind Raymond Blanc's description of chicken with morels as a classic from his own region.

His Kitchen Secrets version uses chicken breasts and offers dry sherry when Jura wine is unavailable. He particularly values dried morels for their concentrated flavour. The soaking water is therefore part of the sauce, carefully strained to keep the flavour and leave the grit behind.

Light colouring and a gentle simmer suit the delicate breast meat. The chicken comes out while the sauce reduces, then returns briefly to warm through. It is a small distinction with a useful purpose: the sauce can become rich and spoon-coating without asking the chicken to keep cooking.

Recipe and cooking notes adapted from Raymond Blanc.