Daring Cooks July Challenge: Nut Butters

pictures to be added tonight

July’s Daring Cooks Challenge: Nut Butters

Blog-checking lines:

The July 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Margie of More Please and Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make their own nut butter from scratch, and use the nut butter in a recipe. Their sources include Better with Nut Butter by Cooking Light Magazine, Asian Noodles by Nina Simonds, and Food Network online.

For this month’s Daring Cooks Challenge I chose to make the Chicken with Pecan Cream & Mushrooms recipe.

Ingredients:

Pecan Cream:

3/4 cup (180 ml) coarsely chopped pecans*, toasted

1 cup (240 ml) water

¾ teaspoon (3 ml) salt, more as needed

½ pound (225 g) egg noodles or pasta

4 (6-ounce / 170 g) boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

1 teaspoon (5 ml) olive oil, more as needed

Salt & pepper to taste

Sauce:

1 tablespoon (15 ml) deglazing liquid (water, broth, wine; optional)

1 teaspoon (5 ml) olive oil, more as needed

1/4 cup (60 ml) finely chopped shallots

½ pound (225 g) mushrooms, sliced

1 Tablespoon (15 ml) fresh thyme leaves

Chopped pecans, (optional garnish)

Directions:

To begin I made the Pecan Cream. To do this, I ground the pecans in my mini food processor until smooth and added 1 cup of water and ¾ teaspoon of salt.

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I then pounded out the chicken to about ¼ inch. I sprinkled with salt and pepper and sautéed them until cooked through. I did have to cook the chicken in 2 batches so as not to crowd the pan. I then let it rest on the counter in order to let the juices re-distribute.

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While the chicken was cooking, I cooked the egg noodles in boiling salted water. I coated them with oil after I drained them in order to keep them from sticking.

Next, I added about ¼ cup chicken stock to deglaze the hot pan. I let that cook off a bit then added the red onion (I used that instead of shallots) and mushrooms. Once the mushrooms had browned and right before the mushrooms started to release liquid, I added dried thyme and the Pecan Cream. Once it came up to a boil, I reduced the heat and simmered it for about 5 minutes (in order to allow it to reduce down a bit).

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While the Pecan Cream sauce was reducing, I sliced the chicken into thin chunks.

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To serve the dish I placed some egg noodles in a shallow bowl, added some mushroom Pecan Sauce and placed chicken on top. We also shredded some parmesan cheese on top.

In addition to the Chicken with Pecan Cream & Mushrooms, I also made homemade breadsticks (I found a Pizza Hut recipe online!) and a side salad.

Final thoughts: I didn’t care for this recipe or the homemade Pecan Cream. I’m not much of a nuts in my food person (I prefer to snack on them) and I didn’t feel great after eating this (I think it was partially a mental thing). Considering this, I don’t think I would make it again but I would like to try and make homemade almond butter!