Creamy Chicken Crepe

This was a dish that took me almost a day to finish (well, I was about to make it for lunch but then ended up with dinner). If you cook continuously, probably you can complete it within 3 hours. My recipe below is for 4 crepe and I think it suits 4 people since 1 crepe is already enough for 1 person. This is a type of food that will bring something new, tender, gentle, rich, creamy, amazing and satisfying at one or two bites, but will become greasy enough when you ate just a medium amount. Apart from this, I have reordered some steps in the instruction of Hannah Miles in a way that we as ordinary cooks can manage it better.:) 

Step 1: prepare the chicken. Use a large saucepan. Put white wine (120ml), carrot (1/2), leek (1/2), onion (1/4), bay leaves (2), peppercorns (1/2 teaspoon), and add chicken (1/2, if thighs are big, maybe 1 thigh and 1 breast is enough). Poach the chicken on medium heat for 1 hour until cooked through. During this time, go do Step 2.

Step 2: prepare the batter for crepe. Mixing the following all together: flour (70g), egg (1), melted butter (1 tbsp), a pinch of salt and pepper. Then, gradually add milk (150 ml) and whisk until you have a smooth and runny batter. Cover and put this batter rest in fridge for 30 minutes.

Step 1 and Step 2 are assumed to be done within 1 hour.

Step 3: after Step 1 has finished, pass the liquid through a sieve over a bowl. We will have vegetables and chicken on top and a perfect stock in the bowl below. Store this stock. Discard the veggies and take chicken. Remove bones and skin, tear or chop the meat down to bite-sized pieces. 

Step 4: prepare the filling. On a medium hot saucepan, melt butter (25g), add onion (1/4) and stir cook until translucent and lightly golden brown. Add the chestnut mushroom (120g) to the pan and cook for 3-5 minutes until soft. Then, sprinkle cornflour (1 tbsp) over this mushroom and stir well. Next, add cream (150-200ml) and reserved chicken stock in Step 3 (100ml) in. Season with salt and peper and simmer till the sauce thickens (should be quick, 5-10 minutes). Add mustard and chilled chicken meat that was torn in Step 3 in and stir well to coat everything.

This step is very important and also most enjoying. I can never forget the nice smell from creamy chicken that's hovering my nose as it's being cooked. And the taste is just amazing. I think we should definitely reserve this hot rich creamy chicken for serve, so while doing this Step 4, you should do Step 5 in parallel, or even do Step 5 before Step 4.

Step 3 and Step 4 are supposed to be done within 30-45 minutes.

Step 5: prepare the crepe. Take out the batter in Step 2 out of the fridge. Use a saucepan and butter and fry your crepe. This batter can make 4 crepe as earlier said, but you should make sure that every crepe is thin, dry, and golden brown (my crepe below is not perfect yet. I think it should be thinner). Keep these crepes warm until serve. This step can be finished within 30 minutes.

If you have only 1 pan to do every step, I highly recommend that you do Step 5 before Step 4. And when doing Step 6 below, you can put crepe back to the hot pan for a few seconds for desired warmth. This is the way to keep your creamy chicken the most delicious!

Step 6: Put chicken cream in Step 4 on a half of each crepe in Step 5 and fold in half and then half again. Serve immediately with a simple green salad. The chicken will melt in your mouth when you bite it little by little. 

My crepe was very good, but I think I have a too high ratio of meat to cream. You should see running cream around chicken and mushroom when finished. Also, I used shitake mushroom instead of chestnut mushroom, so I didn't have exactly what Hannah Miles had. I guess chestnut mushroom will add more bursty flavour than shitake, but who knows? next time I will do better. :)

Enjoy!