Chicken Cordon Swisse

The hottest day so far, 25ºC. For Powell River, that's a hot day. I had asparagus in the fridge so I wanted something that would go with it. I went to Mitchell's and decided on their store made Chicken Cordon Swisse, I picked up two and headed home.  I popped the chicken in the oven for 30 minutes at 350ºF and got potatoes going for mashed. I snapped the ends off the asparagus and put it in the steamer basket. That was the prep work, what an easy meal!

Hollandaise Sauce

1 egg yolk

1/4 cup melted butter

2 tsp lemon juice

2 tsp water

salt

The important thing is to emulsify the butter without cooking the egg. Melt the butter but don't get it hot. If it's hot, put the container in cold water to cool it down.  Drizzle half a teaspoon butter into the yolk and whisk till incorporated. Add more butter, a tiny bit at a time, until it's all taken up in the yolk. The yolk should get stiffer as more butter is added. Adding too much butter at once will break the sauce and it will separate. Slowly emulsify broken sauce into another egg yolk to rescue it.

Once all the butter is taken up, add the lemon, water and salt.  Taste to make sure it's balanced. To cook, put in microwave on high for 15-20 seconds. Whisk. Microwave 10 seconds, whisk. Continue cooking ten seconds at a time till it's desired consistency. Add more water if it gets too thick. Plate the sauce over the chicken and asparagus. 

The chicken was a little dry so we both would have liked a bit more sauce. Otherwise, it was just as good as it looks. I think I'll make my own chicken next time, unless I'm pressed for time.