My Comfort Food: Chicken Fricasse

Today is my virtual Friday, my favorite night of the week. I’m finally off work tomorrow and no one else in Team Thomas is. I’m just filled with all the mom hopes and dreams that go into thinking about such a glorious day- the kids in school and a husband at work. The reality is, the wishing/hoping/dreaming turns out to be the most exciting part. The day to myself never really pans out to be as thrilling as it is in my head. But, the few hours of quiet is wonderful, nonetheless – and the comfort food to accompany it.

(Edit: ‘Distance’ learning is really putting a damper on getting the house to myself. What ‘distance’, we are within 5 feet of each other at any given moment!)

A celebratory night like this calls for classic comfort food and reading a book by the fireplace. One of my long-time favorite dishes is Chicken Fricasse. It’s a chicken and rice dish, only made extra perfect with the cold weather coming in tonight. It’s pretty versatile as well, and you can really fancy it up by adding extras as you see fit! Mine is a little less fancy, a lot more comfy.

Chicken Fricasse

Ingredients

• 2 lbs chicken breast
• 4 c. chicken broth
• 1 large sweet onion, diced
• 1/4 c. butter
• 3/4 c. flour
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 lb. asparagus
• Optional: quartered mushrooms, carrots

Directions

1. Add chicken breasts, onions and bay leaves to the broth. Cook on low heat in a covered pot, until chicken is cooked through. Add your optional veggies if you’re using them.
2. Remove chicken from pot and shred. Return chicken back to the broth and continue to simmer.

3. In a side pan melt and brown butter. Add the flour and whisk to a roux.
4. Add the roux mixture to the broth and stir slowly for several minutes until the broth has a gravy-like consistency. Make sure there are no flour clumps left!

5. Next, add asparagus to the pot and allow it to simmer (covered) for approximately 15 minutes.
6. Salt and pepper to taste.

PS: I think most people eat this over eggs noodles but I love to eat this over rice and really soak up all that yummy sauce.

PPS: I did a little more internet-ing research and discovered that there are multiple types of Fricasse. Google led me mostly to the classic French style. Note, this particular recipe tends to lean more to the German style. I guess it makes sense seeing that I have German background and most comfort food comes from family recipes!

If your interested, Chris’s comfort food is Southern Food – Mac and Cheese, Collard Greens and Black-Eyed Peas.