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Friday, January 28, 2011

FFwD Chicken B'stilla



The recipe for this week's French Fridays with Dorie was Chicken B'stilla. I have to say, I felt like I was making this dish all day. I started it after lunch on Sunday, we were having a friend over and cleaning up the house while I worked on the dish. There were tons of steps, and it seemed to me like each step took an hour.

I'm pretty sure I made a mistake towards the end. We were supposed to have the chicken broth reduce to 1 cup, and I may not have left it reduce long enough. Mr. Hobby and I were standing over the pot, holding a liquid measuring cup in one hand, and trying to decide if we thought it was down to 1 cup or not. When we were satisfied and I reduced the heat, it was still pretty hot since I was using my dutch oven. When I whisked in the egg and honey mixture, I started to get some strands of cooked egg, even though I never stopped whisking. I think I should have either let the pot cool more before mixing the eggs in, or tempered the eggs by putting a little of the chicken broth into the eggs, and then mixing that in with the larger portion of chicken broth. But, I'm a new cook, so I only think of these things after my mistakes have been made. Anyway, my sauce wasn't setting up the way Dorie described it in the book. So, after whisking for a long time, and still not getting a thick texture I decided to put another egg in. We buy free range eggs, and I'd noticed an egg that didn't come close to meeting the standards for American Large eggs in my 12 pack, so I cracked the little guy in there. It helped some, but I never got the sauce consistency I needed. You can see what it looked like in the picture of the mixture in the pot.






But, the final dish was very pretty. And the best part was that Mr. Hobby was willing to eat the leftovers all week!

12 comments:

  1. Glad you all enjoyed this one! I love your platter!

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  2. Yours looks like it turned out well, too. I also had some problems getting the sauce to reduce enough. It took a lot longer than I thought it would, but I think it ended up okay in the end. Also I'm a native St. Louisan! I miss it tons and tons.

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  3. Mine didn't reduce very quickly either but we loved the results!

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  4. Too bad the sauce didn't thicken though the end result still look good!

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  5. It obviously wasn't that big of a deal that the sauce didn't thicken because it looks lovely! I also loved it as leftovers. :)

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  6. Great platter - glad it worked out for you. I know "The Dude" in my house took this for lunch a few days as well (BONUS).

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  7. It took awhile for my sauce to thicken, but it all came together nicely at the end. Your photo is great and I love your platter.

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  8. Yours looks great! My sauce took a while to thicken but it actually helped me to refrigerate it for 24 hrs before putting it in the pie.

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  9. I ended up spooning the mixture into the dish, and whatever sauce was left in the dutch oven I reserved for use with rice later in the week. It was great with the rice, and you're right wanderlust, it did thicken in the fridge.

    Thanks, I love the platter too! It was a wedding gift from my mother-in-law.

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  10. this is such a good recipe. i love b'stilla and this recipe is hands down, fabulous!

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  11. Looks really nice and crispy! I had some probs with the sauce as well, couldn't get it to thicken!
    Despite any issues we had, it doesn't sound like the taste was compromised!

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  12. Mine was pretty soupy too, but oh so delicious. Great idea to put the broth on rice...I just slurped it out of the pan!!

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