As you may know, most of my sauces are made with wine, beit white or red, and usually fall within the lines of being a Chardonnay or Cab, (classic base wines). I try to keep it simple in regards to a wine sauce, so my experience with sherry is not that vast. Yes, I’ve used it here and there, but the bottle usually just sits on the shelf of my pantry with the rest of my liquid ingredients. Although lately, my mind has been scrambling, scouring proteins, vegetables and fruits that could be enhanced by a good dry sherry, something I havent done yet. I wasn’t quite sure it would work, pairing a sherry sauce with chicken and figs, then serving it alongside saffron scented parsnip puré, regardless of the fact that I had been wanting to make chicken and figs for several months. I just couldn’t get that funky tasting idea out of my head. Chicken and sherry and saffron and parsnips….hmmm. The figs and sherry, no problem. Sherry has such sweet undertones it would be no problem, but paired with the chicken and saffron and parsnips. Blah! I finally decided to do some research. I was sitting in my car at work, pondering this idea with extreme diligence. Figs, I thought. Figs are an aphrodisiac, they have deep roots in both Greek and Middle Eastern cuisine, as well as saffron. So, that took care of that. Then the chicken. Although both of those regions traditionally serve lamb as a first choice protein, chicken is a good alternative in both regions and works well with fruits like figs. Then, we have the sherry. Although sherry is not a common staple in Greece or the Middle East, it plays a huge roll in many Spanish dishes. Still…I was a bit apprehensive about this particular wine. It just has such a unique flavor, I wasn’t sure it would mesh well. I am so used to writing menus purely by ideas. I’ve written winning menus with recipes I had never even tested. They were successes because I thought, this would be good with that and that would be good with this. But again, the sherry was not hitting me right. Then I remembered the first time I learned how to make a beurre blanc. I was a line cook at Hotel Icon and had to jump on sauté for the sauté cook while he took off to take care of personal business. That butter sauce was absolutely amazing. My tastebuds melted under the creamy texture of the white wine reduction. It was so silky with a hint of tartness from the lemon and mild anise flavor of the tarragon. Thats when it hit me, a sherry based beurre blanc. Thankfully there is nothing like this that was found during any searches, (I have a gnawing feeling that I’m going to see this beurre blanc recipe in a lot of places after I post this) so it was going to be a definite as far as the chicken and figs and sherry and maybe even the saffron, but still, the saffron scented parsnip puré. Ok, so let me explain something, almost 100% of the time, when you go to a restaurant and see descriptions like this, it’s a simple play on words to make something sound more enticing, more appealing, cooler. So,we all know I can’t really scent the parsnips, so what I do with this dish is add just enough saffron to get the slightest hint within my puré. The parsnip puré recipe is actually one I made up several years ago that got me a job as an executive sous chef cooking for very VERY high profile people. Of course I never met any of them or saw them, I just made their food and it got hauled to the airport and put on private jets. It was pretty cool, but nothing like the restaurants I was used to working in. In all of the other restaurants, I was able to watch the plates come back and head for the dish pit. If the plate was empty, they loved my food, which was the whole reason I was working in the hospitality industry and slaving the way I did for meager pay. I remember one line cook asking me, “Why do you always watch the plates when they come down?” He meant into the belly of the basement where the restaurant kitchen was. I raised my brow to him. ” Because I want to know if they liked my food.” His response was,”Hmh. I never thought about that before..” Honesty, what’s the point, then? If youre not going to bring it in the kitchen and create culinary masterpieces like priceless works of art that can make a persons tastebuds sing, why even be there? But anyways, I had 1 hour to make 3 complete dishes for this stage or “stahj” (essentially, the cooking interview for someone who will be cooking within a business kitchen; ie: line cook, any type of station chef, sous chef, executive sous and executive chef). I remember one of the dishes I decided to make was pan seared duck breast, another was lobster medallions and the saffron scented parsnip puré was in there somewhere along with the other main and two other sides. Anyway, all of the shareholders, managers, owner and chef loved it and offered me the position so rock on, it was good and interesting. So, I chose the parsnips for this particular dish because the sherry offers that nutty sweetness and parsnips also carry a slight sweetness, why not put them together instead of the traditional mash that so many other people use for chicken and figs? Then we have the combination of chicken and beef broth. This is something I personally like to do. In my opinion, it creates a slight pork flavor which is exactly what I want in this dish. I think it will compliment the sherry and figs well. Lastly, we have the 2 method cooking process. Being that I’m cooking bone in chicken with skin, there will be a lot of fat. Most people feel that an excessive amount of fat in a dish is disgusting. This method helps eliminate that problem. Roast the thighs off in a roasting pan, transfer to a braiser. Cook for 45 minutes and add figs, cook additional 30 minutes, no excessive fat. You can’t really dry out thighs (you have to try really hard to do that) and you make the beurre blanc separately. Everything came out unexpectedly amazing and the sauces rocked while the combinations intertwined so relentlessly creating a silky adornment to the chicken, figs and puré. I had to pat myself on the back for this one. So, thats my story on this recipe. I hope you love it!
4 lg chicken thighs
1 tbs olive oil
Kosher salt and pepper
1 tbs olive oil
¼ c yellow onion, minced
1 tsp garlic, minced
2 c chicken broth
1 c beef broth
Salt and pepper , optional
10 – 13 small to medium frozen figs, halved
8 medium parsnips, peeled and diced with ends removed
½ tbs sweet cream butter
½ c heavy cream
½ c milk
Kosher salt to taste
⅛ tsp saffron threads
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
10 – 13 small to medium frozen figs, halved
The Sauce:
1 medium shallot, peeled and minced
⅓ c medium dry sherry
2 tbs lemon juice
½ tsp dried tarragon
1 tbs heavy cream
1½ sticks cold unsalted butter, sliced into pats
Preheat oven to 425°
Start off by rubbing down chicken thighs with oil. Season with salt and pepper and arrange on rack insert that is already positioned in roasting pan. Roast for 25 minutes uncovered. Remove from oven and set aside. Reduce oven to 400°. Place your braiser on the stove and heat over a medium flame. Add 1 tbs oil and onions. Cook until translucent. Add galic. Cook for an additional minute or so. Add broth, if low sodium you can season with salt and pepper to your liking. Add the chicken to your braiser, skin side up, and bring to a hard simmer. Spoon some of the broth over the thighs, cover and place braiser in oven. Braise for 45 minutes. Remove from oven and add figs. Cover and return to oven. Continue braising for an additional 30 minutes. During this time, boil the parsnips and make your sherry beurre blanc. Add parsnips to boiling water and continue boiling until very fork tender, but not mooshy. Drain and add milk, cream, salt, saffron and thyme. Mash up with a wire whisk. Then you can puré it however you want via emerson blender or food processor. Cover and set aside. To start your beurre blanc, add sherry, lemon juice, shallots and tarragon to a pot. Bring to a hard simmer. Continue simmeruntil the sauce reduces and caramelizes. Add the 1 tbs cream. Whisk hard. Now whisk in your cold butter, 3 pats at a time until completely incorporated. Heat for a few minutes over a low flame. Cover and set aside. To plate, spoon a dollop of the puré onto a plate, positioning it sort of askew on the plate. Press down in center and pull some of the parsnips across the plate creating a crescent moon. Place a thigh just off the main dollop and spoon some of the broth, figs, onions and garlic over the chicken and puré. Top with the sherry beurre blanc and there you have an amazing and super simple dinner. I actually served this with some roasted asparagus as well.
Girl-Chef Tastes 