Cajun Chicken under Chardonnay Mushroom Sauce with Pepper Medley

I was building another cabinet today so I didn't want a demanding meal.  I had a bag of peppers in the fridge that needed to be used up and I wanted chicken today. I breezed by the fish and considered Sole for half a  minute but quickly firmed up the choice of chicken. I picked up some salad fixings and I had mushrooms in the fridge.

First I turned the oven to 325F then prepped and chopped all the vegetables. Next I salted and seasoned both sides of the breasts with Cajun spice mix. I put the breasts tops down in a frying pan of hot olive oil and gave them a nice sear then turned them over and put the pan in the oven for 30 minutes total cooking time.

The vegetable medley was half an onion chopped large and sweated with a stick of celery.  A few drops of fish sauce in the pan and I got that dirty sock smell  which turns into an amazing flavour on the food.  An orange and yellow pepper diced up went in the pan and I kept it on high so it didn't get watery.  A few drops of sesame oil but I kept the soy sauce out of it.

The other half of the onion I caramelized in a sauce pan and then seared the mushrooms in it. I sprinkled a teaspoon of flour over all and stirred it in and cooked off some of the flour taste. I took the pan off the heat and stirred in 1/4 cup of milk and 1/4 cup white wine. Pan back on the heat and bring to a bubble then turn down and add more wine to thin the sauce. It should lose moisture while everything else finishes. The wine should be mixed in slowly so it doesn't curdle the milk.

All that was cooking away and I was standing with nothing to do. So I pulled the head of lettuce out and tore it up into a big bin. I had no cucumber so I diced two sticks of celery. I had one tomato that I also chopped up. Two teaspoons olive oil, one teaspoon canola oil, two teaspoons white wine vinegar, half a teaspoon of salt, black pepper and whisk it all together. Drop in the salad mix and tomatoes, toss and plate.

I served the chicken on basmati rice cooked with 1/2 tsp salt, 2 tsp olive oil and a few drops lemon juice. That little bit of acid really brings out the flavour. Don't use enough to taste the lemon.

Fern said it was all good. The Cajun chicken with white wine mushroom sauce was delicious and the pepper medley was also quite wonderful. Unfortunately they didn't make sense together. The plate actually looks like the two components don't belong together and the taste bears that out. The salad was good but really it's just to keep our middle age digestion moving along, if it tastes good too, that's a bonus.

If I had used broccoli it would have been a terrific meal but remember I had to use up the peppers. So I should have looked for a way to temper the sweetness of the peppers. Don't know what that might be at this point.