Meat & Potatoes

For Monday night's dinner, the main course was Chicken Fricassée with a side of Sautéed Potatoes. Each group was responsible for a portion of the entrée and within those groups, two were responsible for the potatoes while the other two made the chicken! We worked throughout the day on the final meal while also preparing such items as bread, creamy leeks, and crème brûlée.

Ashley and I worked together to prepare the potatoes; she seemed to get a little too into chopping them into tiny little pieces with the sharp and shiny knife. While we worked on those, Laura and Natalie worked together to create the Chicken Fricassée. They combined the basic ingredients, such as white pepper and butter, with the more flavorful and prominent ingredients, mushrooms and onions, to create the delectable meal.

They carefully worked to sauté the chicken in a creamy and heavy whipping cream along with lemon juice, sugar and white wine. Ashley and I had a little more difficult time with the potatoes. The pan that we used didn't have a nonstick surface so instead of browning the potatoes, we scrapped them out of the pan. The olive oil bubbled and shot out of the skillet and burned our skin every time we went to stir the potatoes. Not all of the groups had a rough time though, many of the other potatoes burned to a rich golden brown and were then garnished with rosemary.

The main course that night was savory and delicious. The chicken was very tender while the cream was thick and flavorful. The potatoes were the perfect compliment to the chicken even though some of them were mashed potatoes versus whole potatoes. The rosemary garnish added an herbal hint to the otherwise plain potatoes.

With our final meal ready, the while group was ready for our flight to France so that we could experience the authentic cuisine we had worked so hard to replicate.