Taste & Create: Chicken Breasts in Lemon and Sage Sauce

My partner for this month's Taste & Create is Corina of Searching for Spice. She has some amazing recipes, but it didn't take me long to choose this one. It just took me a long time to get it made!

Taste & Create is a monthly food blog event, created by my friend Nicole of For the Love of Food. Participants are randomly paired, and must choose and create a recipe from their partner's blog. It is FUN. If you'd like to sign up, check out How it Works or email me at cowgirlmin07[at]gmail[dot]com by the 8th of every month!

Now back to the recipe. It sounds delicious, and it is! I doubled it to feed my family of 4, other than that I didn't change anything. Oh, except that I minced the garlic instead of crushing it. Corina says the fennel seeds are optional, but I disagree, put them in!

This dish is savory and tangy and wonderful. The egg yolks at the end are an interesting and colorful addition, and they really thicken up the sauce. There are some techniques in here that are different, but not too difficult. I loved this chicken! I would like to try it again with some fresh sage leaves.

Chicken Breasts in Lemon and Sage Sauce
Serves 4

4 chicken breasts
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons flour
2 cloves garlic, crushed (I minced)
Olive oil
1 teaspoon fennel (anise) seeds
3/4 cup chicken stock
2 teaspoons sage leaves
Salt
Black pepper
2 egg yolks
1 - 2 teaspoons lemon juice


1. Make a paste with the flour, garlic and lemon juice. Coat the chicken with the paste and leave for half an hour.

2. Put a little olive oil in a sauce pan. Scrape the paste off the chicken and keep for the next step. Add the chicken and the fennel seeds to the pan and fry the chicken on each side.

3. If the paste is quite thick, thin it with a little water or stock then add it to the pan and stir with a wooden spoon. Then add the rest of the stock, sage, salt and pepper. Bring to the boil then lower to a very gentle simmer for about 20 minutes. Or, put in the oven at about 180C for half an hour.

4. Mix the egg yolk with a little lemon juice. Remove the chicken from the pan. Stir in the lemon juice. Keep stirring as it thickens but don’t let it boil.

5. Serve the sauce poured over the chicken with rice or potatoes and vegetables.

Taste & Create Partner List

It's that time again! Here is the T&C partner list. Please remember to submit your creations to Nicole's Taste & Create website by July 24th, 2011!

If you have any questions or problems, check out the How it Works page, or please feel free to email me at cowgirlmin07 [at] gmail [dot] com.

Don't know what Taste & Create is? It's a monthly food blog event in which participants are randomly paired off, and must choose and create a recipe from their partner's blog. It is great fun! A picture of everyone's creation and a brief "review" gets posted on the Taste & Create website, linking back to your own blog post. If you'd would like to sign up for NEXT month, please email me by the 8th of the month. You'll be randomly paired with another food blogger, and the fun will begin!

Happy Tasting & Creating!

Searching for Spice & The Bad Girl's Kitchen

Always Eat on the Good China & Study Food

Bizzy B. Bakes & Mom's Sunday Café

No Reason Needed & Foodness Gracious

Taste & Create: Stuffed French Toast

My partner for this month's Taste & Create was Chaya. Chaya has a few different blogs, including Comfy Cook's Kosher Kitchen, and has even contributed some recipes here at The Bad Girl's Kitchen! I spent some time searching her archive of recipes, mainly for something for which I had all the ingredients, because I realized the deadline was fast approaching and I wasn't going to make it to the store beforehand.

*Taste & Create is an amazing monthly food blog event, created by my friend Nicole of For the Love of Food. Participants are paired up randomly, and each create a recipe from their partner's blog! It is so fun! Please join us.

I love love love the Pain Perdue (stuffed French toast with cream cheese and orange marmalade) at Mimi's Cafe. Although it's completely different from Mimi's, when I discovered Chaya's Stuffed French Toast recipe, I had to make it. It sounds delightfully simple, filled with cinnamon cream cheese. And delicious too!

*since I started planning to make this, Chaya has consolidated her blogs, so the original recipe can be found on Bizzy B. Bakes, link below!*


I didn't have whipped cream cheese, so I brought about 4 ounces of regular cream cheese to room temperature and whipped it myself. I wanted to make this breakfast for my family of 4, but the original recipe calls for a whole cup of cream cheese to serve just 2 people! Although I love cream cheese, the thought of eating 1/2 cup of it didn't sit well with me, so I didn't double the cream cheese mixture. I just divided it between 4 sets bread and doubled the amount of eggs. I also halved the amount of brown sugar, and didn't increase the cinnamon or vanilla in the egg mixture.

It's important to whisk the egg mixture in between soaking the toast so the cinnamon doesn't separate too much.

I think the amount of cinnamon I used in the recipe is about right, I certainly wouldn't increase it. The amount of filling I used was just right for us too. Number One and H-Bomb and I liked the French toast; Sawed Off didn't want any.

This is a sweet treat for breakfast, and I look forward to experimenting with more variations!

My measurements, to serve 4, are below. Follow the link for Chaya's original recipe to serve 2, if you want more filling and more cinnamon.



Stuffed French Toast
Serves 4

8 pieces of bread

Egg mixture:
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
4 eggs, beaten well

Filling:
4 ounces cream cheese
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract


1 tablespoon butter

Put butter in large skillet or griddle. Heat slowly.

Combine cinnamon, vanilla, milk and eggs in a shallow bowl. Mix well and set aside egg mixture.

Combine the filling mixture, whipping until smooth.

Make sandwiches. Spread cream cheese mixture on one slice of bread, top with another slice of bread. Soak both sides of the "sandwich" in egg mixture.

Heat griddle to medium and put sandwiches on griddle. Cook for two minutes on each side, being careful not to burn. They should be golden brown.

Remove from heat and enjoy.