Stuffed chicken breast, brussels sprouts, and roasted root vegetables

The Goods:

Chicken

1/2 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast

1 tsp clarified butter (or other high heat fat)

4 crimini mushrooms

1 small shallot

1 clove garlic

4 cups beef short rib braising liquid*

1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs

1 small handful fresh basil

1 small handful fresh parsley

1 tbsp crumbled gorgonzola cheese

Sprouts

2 stalks fresh brussels sprouts**

2 kg water

100 g kosher salt (5 wt% salt solution)

1 tsp butter

Root Veggies

1 lb fingerling potatoes

2 medium-size parsnips

3 cloves garlic

1 tsp red pepper flakes

1 tsp ground coriander

several spritz olive oil

Preheat the oven to 400. While the oven is preheating, wrap the chicken breast in wax paper or plastic wrap. Pound it down to thin it a bit. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, then dredge in some flour, patting off the excess. Add the clarified butter to a sautè pan and set the heat to medium high. Brown the chicken breast, about 2 minutes per side. Turn off the heat and set to the side.

Trim the parsnips by cutting away the skin and slicing into pieces roughly equal in size to the potatoes. Mince the three cloves of garlic. Spritz some olive oil in a pyrex baking dish. Add the potatoes, parsnips, and garlic. Season with salt, pepper, the red pepper, and the coriander. Add some more olive oil and mix. Add to the oven, it will bake for ~35 minutes, or until both vegetables are soft.

Re-heat the sautè pan (almost all of the clarified butter from cooking the chicken should still be there) on medium-high heat. Slice the mushrooms and shallot. Mince the garlic. Add the mushrooms first. Cook at this heat until the mushrooms have just begun to brown, then lower the heat and add the shallots. After a few more minutes add the garlic, then, just before the garlic burns, add 2 cups of the braising liquid. Reduce the braising liquid down to a viscous consistency.

Remove the sprouts from their stalk and give them a quick wash in cold water. Prepare the salt solution using your kitchen scale or volumetric equivalents, if you're not into the whole weight-as-a-cooking-measure meme. Bring this solution to a boil in a medium saucepan. Combine the mushroom/shallot/braising liquid mixture with the panko, basil, parsley, and gorgonzola in a bowl and mix. Depending on the size and shape of the chicken breast, the stuffing procedure may vary. In my case, I had the one piece as two smaller pieces look, so I made a crude chicken-stuffing sandwich. Place this in an oiled pyrex. Place on the top rack in the oven along with the vegetables for 15 minutes, or until the chicken has cooked through.

Once the water has boiled, add the sprouts. Prepare an ice bath using several ice cubes and a large boil full of cold water. Boil the sprouts for 4 minutes, then remove them using a wire strainer and blanch them in the cold water bath. Strain them from the bath and return them to the saucepan. Add the butter and cook on low until the butter has melted and coated all of the sprouts.

While the chicken and root vegetable are finishing in the oven, place the original sautè pan back over medium heat and add another 2 cups of braising liquid. Reduce this to the same viscous consistency as with the mushroom/shallot mixture. This will be the sauce for the chicken and root vegetables. With any luck, everything should finish around the same time. Depending on the size of the chicken breast, this is most likely a meal for two.

*Yeah, they don't sell this one in the supermarket, even Whole Foods. I had another go at beef short ribs last week and saved the braising liquid. More to come on this. I suppose one could combine red wine and beef stock (the braising liquid tastes like I imagine these two things taste like together) as a substitute here.

**I was floored to learn that they look like this fresh out of the ground. These came from a farmer's market, though I have seen them at WF.