a.k.a. Supremes De Volaille Aux Champignons
I love Julia Child. She had such high enthusiasm with food and loved using fresh ingredients. I was beyond excited to receive my first Julia Child cookbooks at my bridal shower a few years ago from one of my friends. (Thank you Maureen!!)
This particular recipe is in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 1.
However, a bit of a WARNING before making this dish… You may be tempted to lick all the remaining sauce off of your plate. I may or may not have grabbed a bread roll to enjoy every last drop.
I’ve made chicken recipes in the past with mushrooms, but it does not even come close to how this dish turned out. The sauce is the star!
Your guests will think you spent hours in the kitchen!
If you haven’t seen the movie Julie & Julia – I highly recommend. The film is based on 2 true stories between the life of chef Julia Child in the early years of her culinary career and the life of a New York blogger Julie Powell, who aspired to cook all 524 recipes in Child’s cookbook in 365 days and featured it on her blog.
I could only hope to one day try all of her recipes from her cookbook.
Here is the movie preview teaser:
- 2 chicken breasts (boneless/skinless)
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
- pinch of white pepper
- 5 Tablespoons butter
- ¼ lb button white mushrooms, sliced
- 2 Tablespoons shallots or onions, diced
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- Sauce:
- ¼ cup chicken of beef stock
- ¼ cup dry vermouth
- 1 cup of whipping cream
- salt/pepper to taste
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
- Rub the chicken breasts with drops of lemon juice and season with salt and white pepper.
- Heat the butter in a heavy, oven-proof casserole (I used my Le Creuset dutch oven pot), until it is foaming.
- Stir in the minced shallots or onion and saute for a minute - do not wait to brown.
- Stir in the mushrooms and saute lightly for 1-2 minutes - do not wait to brown.
- Sprinkle with salt.
- Quickly flip the chicken breasts in the butter mixture. Cover and cook over medium high heat for 8-10 minutes.
- After that time, flip chicken breasts and cook on opposite side for another 8-10 minutes until chicken temperature reaches at least 165 degrees.
- Remove the chicken to a warm plate (leave mushrooms/onions in the pot) and cover while making the sauce.
- To make sauce, pour the chicken/beef stock and vermouth in with the cooking butter and mushrooms/onions.
- Over medium high heat, boil down quickly until liquid is syrupy.
- Stir in cream and boil down again over medium high heat until cream has thickened slightly. Off heat, taste for seasoning, and add drops of lemon juice to taste.
- Pour the sauce over the chicken, sprinkle with parsley and serve immediately.
I watched the movie Julie/Julia last night and was very interested in making the chicken with a mushroom cream sauce. In the movie she said she uses port, not vermouth as you mentioned. Could there be another recipe that I need to search for, or can I substitute port for the vermouth?
You can just substitute
Substitute with what? I only have a mild sweet red wine
If you are looking to substitute dry vermouth – chicken stock or veggie stock, or even white wine.
I substituded ginger ale instead of vermouth
What is the oven temp?
This recipe isn’t baked in oven and done on stove top
This is a great recipe, but I’m still working on reconciling the cooking times. Julia’s recipe calls for 6 min of cooking – this is fine for the mushrooms/onions but leaves the breasts raw. 18 minutes is more like it for the chicken, but the mushrooms are burnt by that time. Next time, I’ll make the the and sauce separately.
This recipe is so easy to make. Takes less than an hour. It’s awesome! My whole family loved it. Even my son who picks the mushrooms out of everything, ate the mushrooms. The chicken breasts were so tender and moist, could cut them with a fork. Will definitely add this to my dinner menu.
I had my techie daughter make me (and me alone, no one else sees it) a copy of the movie, cut in half. Nora Ephron did such an amazing job that the story of Julia Child alone flows as well as if she had made a movie only of her.
Reason one: I can’t stand Amy Adams.
Reason two: If Julia Child didn’t appreciate the original Julie’s blog exploiting her work, I don’t either.
I therefore have a wonderful little movie of Julia Child as played by Meryl Streep!
I also have a copy of Julia’s marvelous book ‘My Life in Paris.’
Can we omit the vermouth or replace it with something non alcoholic?
My friend & I watched Julie & Julia last night and we were so enthralled by this recipe we made it tonight! It is absolutely amazing. We tripled the recipe and shared with neighbors. Also, we used fresh thyme from the garden instead of parsley for garnish – we hope Julia would have been ok with this modification. It was awesome!!
We watched Julia and Julia during the week last week…and we ended up making this dish a few days later for my mom’s birthday dinner. We even ordered a Dutch oven so we could make this meals (and many more). This was soooo easy and OMG AMAZING! I added extra mushrooms and onions…I had to use a small bit of cornstarch to get it to thicken. But it was super easy…and quick. I was able to go to work on Friday and come to to prepare this meal without slaving away. I served it with basil mashed potatoes and asparagus.
Thanks for taking the time to comment! Glad you enjoyed as well!!
I cooked this tonight and I have to say…I could have DRANK the sauce, it was so yummy!! I didn’t modify anything. Oh, wait I did add some olive oil to the butter but only because I was low on butter and I had just bought some amazing wild mushroom and sage infused olive oil I had just purchased today at an olive oil and vinegar specialty store. I believe it’s the lemon that makes the dish. It was pretty quick and simple too especially having sliced the chicken breast thinner. This will be added to my meal rotation. :P
Can you share your thoughts on trying this recipe be used with pastry sheets to create a Chicken Friand with the chicken inside and the sauce poured over the pastry?
I absolutely think you could do that. I’ve never made it that way before, but I would use thin cut chicken breasts to cook evenly in the same amount of time the puff pastry would cook. Let me know if you make it and how it turns out.
I made this last night for dinner and it was delicious! Instead of vermouth, I used white wine vinegar, and instead of fresh lemon, I used real lemon in a bottle. I did add a little extra lemon juice to the sauce once it was off the burner. I loved the bit of tang the lemon gave the sauce. I will certainly make this again. It was a hit at our house!
Thanks so much for sharing and so glad you and your family enjoyed!!
My mushrooms always end up burning before the chicken gets done. Should I cook the chicken first before the sauce?
Were your chicken breasts potentially on the thicker side? If so, try pounding breasts out prior to cooking or you can get the thinly sliced breasts in the store. Plus, you could always add an additional Tbsp or two of butter. When cooking chicken breasts and lid is on, I would also turn down heat so it’s on medium or medium low depending how hot your stovetop is. Hope that helps! Did it still turn out delicious?
I substituded ginger ale instead of vermouth
Great tip!
This is great, one of my fave recipes! I actually have her cookbook but just moved and haven’t unpacked yet so I had to look it up and found you. Thanks for sharing it. As a side, when I don’t have wine or vermouth I substitute with apple juice, works great too!
Thanks for sharing the recommendation and for checking out my page! Check me out on Instagram or Facebook as well!
This was delicious! I was afraid of the fennel…but it gave the sauce the best flavor! I didn’t have fresh oregano…I’m sure it would have been even better! Thanks so much..it’s a keeper!
I made this recipe tonight and it came out perfectly! I have Julia’s cookbooks and am going to try more recipes in 2021.
Thank you so much for sharing! I want to make more out of her cookbook too! That’s on my list for this year!
How thick should the chicken breast be? Use regular that you get when you buy skinless, boneless breast. Or the thin you get when you purchase the Perdue breast in a resealable bag?
Thank you
What is your opinion about using Port instead of white vermouth?
I made this meal tonight for my mom and myself while also making a different chicken dinner for my kid and spouse as they do not like mushrooms or cream sauce. It turned out beautifully, such wonderful flavor! I made sure to prep absolutely everything ahead of time, which I usually don’t do, as I knew parts were very quick and I needed to be able to multi task both dinners, not cutting shallots and measuring as well. I used 1/2 cup homemade bone broth and added probably 2 Tbsp total of white balsamic vinegar in place of vermouth. It gave it that little zing and burst of flavor, probably what I’ll do in the future instead of buying vermouth just for this. I will be saving all the leftover chicken I couldn’t finish and the sauce and will be living the plate clean! I should have cooked the chicken a little less, they were @ 180° when I checked and a little too dry. I used store bought breasts that I had cut in half, could have cut them even thinner but then would def have to reduce cooking time. Oh, and as I am trying to eat lots of fat, I did add another half stick of butter to the mushrooms before I added the chicken.
I used this recipe almost 2 yrs ago, and it was such a hit! Absolutely delicious! I want to make it again but would like to make it for the whole family this time, and my daughter has a dairy allergy. Any thoughts on substituting the butter for ghee butter, and the whipping cream for vegan whipping cream? Not sure if anyone has tried that before and what the outcome was… Thanks in advance!
I haven’t tried it but I’m sure it would work
Great! Thanks! :)
This is by far the best recipe for this dish. I’ve scoured the internet trying different recipes and in the end I always come back to this one. I do however use chicken thighs rather than breasts. They cook up just a little bit faster and don’t dry out as quick as the breasts. Thank you so much for giving me a recipe that I come back to constantly. 👌