Chicken with Breadcrumbs and Cream Sauce

Cook’s Illustrated calls this Chicken Imperial. It’s great comfort food but still elegant enough to feel special. The fresh breadcrumbs on the chicken have lots of flavor and texture because they’re mixed with parmesan, butter, parsley and garlic. The sauce, made of heavy cream, white wine, chicken broth, shallots, and dijon mustard, is rich and satisfying but still somehow light, and it tastes great not just with the chicken but with whatever else is on the plate.

Best of all, it can be made (well, prepped) ahead of time. Once I even froze the breaded chicken and the sauce separately, then thawed and put them in the dish and it turned out great.

Rice, risotto, or roasted potatoes are all good with this.

Ingredients
4 (6- to 8-ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed so they’re all the same size
4 ounces French baguette (or any other bread, or 1 C. panko crumbs)
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, plus 2 tablespoons melted and cooled
3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme
1 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup chicken broth
1/3 cup dry white wine
1 shallot, minced
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

Instructions

1. Place chicken in a 9×13 baking dish, making sure pieces don’t touch each other. Sprinkle lightly with salt.
2. Pulse bread in food processor until coarsely ground, about 20 seconds. Add Parmesan, 3 Tbsp. softened butter, 2 tablespoons parsley, 2 cloves garlic, 2 tsp. thyme, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and process to combine, about 15 seconds, scraping down bowl as needed.
3. Pat chicken dry with paper towels and season with pepper. Brush chicken with melted butter. Top each breast with equal amount (generous 1/2 cup) crumb mixture, pressing firmly to adhere.
4. In a medium bowl, whisk together 1 C. cream, 3/4 C. broth, 1/3 C. wine, 1 minced shallot, and 2 tsp. mustard. Carefully pour most of the sauce around chicken breasts, taking care not to wet crumbs on top of chicken and making sure liquid surrounds each piece of chicken. Add the rest of the liquid to a saucepan for later.
5. When ready to cook, adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Transfer chicken to oven and bake until crumbs are deep golden brown and chicken registers 160 degrees, 22 to 35 minutes depending on thickness of chicken.
6. Transfer chicken to platter and tent loosely with aluminum foil. Pour sauce from dish into skillet with reserved sauce and bring to boil over medium-high heat. Cook until thickened and reduced to 1 cup, about 5 minutes. (If it’s not thickening, add 1 tsp. cornstarch to 1 tsp. cold water and whisk into sauce.) Stir in remaining 1 tablespoon parsley. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve, passing sauce with chicken.

Prepped, ready for the oven

Photo from Cook’s Illustrated because as usual, I forgot to take a picture myself when it was done. This is what it looks like after you pull it out of the sauce but before you plate it with sauce & sides.