Chicken and Mushroom Sauce II

I'm just going to state for the record: I miss snow days. After spending my entire schooling in snow-scared Pennsylvania and Maryland, and then working in Baltimore for five years (where the schools shut down if there are flurries) I'm still not used to this whole suck-it-up-and-take-the-subway-to-work-despite-the-blizzard mentality in NYC. (Okay, 2 inches of snow hardly equals a blizzard, but today would have been an amazing day for hot chocolate, or grilled cheese and tomato soup.....)

But I digress.

This past Shabbos, I had some people over for Friday night dinner and I knew exactly what I wanted to make: chicken with mushroom sauce. Can't tell ya why - I just really craved it. But, as delicious as it is, you do need a good hour to make it - to pound out the chicken and cut it up and dredge it and pan fry it and make the sauce. And last week was not exactly conducive to having excess time on my hands - especially with Shabbos starting at, like, noon or something. But I still wanted those flavors, so I whipped up something new (nothing like experimenting on my guests!) and, if I may say so myself, I think we have a hit on our hands. The gravy was almost like a southern country gravy - thick and hearty, and with the addition of potatoes on the bottom and mushrooms on top, all you really need is a salad on the side and you've got yourself a full meal. (Not that I'd ever only serve a salad on the side here!)

A few notes: In my recipe, I included instructions on how to garnish this - which I completely forgot to do when I served it! I even had the lemon all sliced up and pretty, and the parsley all chopped and ready to go. Oh well, it still tasted great. Also, I could also see myself adding a thinly sliced onion to the bottom of the pan with the potatoes the next time I make this - I'll do that and report back!

Additionally, this sauce is thick - it's supposed to be. If you like a thinner sauce, just dilute it with additional chicken stock, or don't use all the flour in the sauce part of the recipe.

Chicken with Hearty Mushroom Sauce and Potatoes
Serves 8-10

12 pieces of chicken (whatever configuration you like - I used a combination of breasts, thighs, and legs) on the bone, skin removed*

1 cup of flour

3-4 potatoes

2 1/2 cups chicken stock, plus additional 

1/2 cup soy milk

1 tbsp. crushed garlic

3 tbsp. mustard (Dijon is recommended, but all I had was yellow)

2 tbsp. lemon juice

16 oz. mushrooms, sliced

Salt and pepper

3 tbsp. margarine

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Slice the potatoes very thin and shingle them in a roasting pan.

3. Dredge the chicken lightly in flour. Lay it out in one layer over the potatoes.

4. Take the remaining flour (about 1/2-2/3 cup) and transfer it to a bowl. Whisk in 1 cup of chicken stock until it's a smooth paste. Add mustard and garlic and combine. Incorporate remaining chicken stock, soy milk, and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper.

5. Scatter the mushrooms over the chicken. Pour the sauce evenly over the chicken. Take the margarine and break off little pieces to scatter over the chicken, as well. Bake, uncovered, for 1 hour, adding an additional 1 cup of chicken stock around the edge of the pan after 30 minutes. (At that point, baste the chicken in the sauce.)

6. Turn the oven to broil and broil chicken for 10-15 minutes, until browned.*

7. To serve, place chicken pieces on a large serving tray, and top with mushrooms, potatoes, and sauce. Squeeze one lemon over the dish and top with fresh chopped parsley (optional).

*I removed the skin from the chicken and, as a result, it did not brown up as nicely as I wanted it to in the oven - which is why I ended up broiling it at the end to crisp up the top a bit. (I didn't want to keep cooking the chicken for too long and dry it out.) If you like skin on your chicken, don't remove it and it should get brown in the oven on its own.