Chicken Pontchartrain Recipes

CHICKEN PONTCHARTRAIN

Steps:

• Preheat large skillet with olive oil on Medium heat.
• Crack 2 eggs into a bowl and beat slightly.
• On a plate, mix breadcrumbs, flour and seasoning.
• Take each chicken breast and dip both sides in the egg, and then dredge both sides in flour mixture, making sure they're evenly coated.
• Cook until no longer pink inside and outside is a golden brown, flipping once.
• Set aside.
• Meanwhile, put olives, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, articoke hearts, parsley, and salt & pepper in a food processor or blender and blend until it's all minced. Add diced tomatoes to mixture.
• Set aside.
• Then, in a medium saucepan saute mushrooms in 1 tablespoons butter until tender.
• Add the remaining 2 tablespoons butter and slowly mix in whipping cream. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
• Simmer over very low heat until thick.
• Just before serving stir in wine and dressing mixture.
• To plate: Spread 1 serving of Zatarain's Dirty Rice on the bottom of the plate. Put chicken in the center of the plate and top with cream sauce. Enjoy!

CAJUN PONCHARTRAIN SAUCE

Steps:

• In a medium saucepan, saute mushrooms in 1 teaspoon butter until tender. Stir in shrimp, and cook until pink. Transfer to a bowl.
• In the same saucepan, melt the remaining 2 teaspoons butter. Slowly mix in cream. Stir in the shrimp and mushroom mixture, and season to taste with garlic powder and black pepper. Simmer over very low heat until thick. Just before serving, stir in wine.

LANDRY'S PONTCHARTRAIN SAUCE

Steps:

• Cook the Chardonnay and the onion together over a low fire until the wine is reduced and the onion is very soft and transparent.
• Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in another heavy saucepan over medium heat.
• Add the flour and whisk until blended.
• Add the stock a little at a time, whisking constantly until blended and thickened.
• Add the mushrooms, green pepper and garlic. Cover and simmer down until the vegetables are soft.
• Remove from heat and add 1/2 cup of butter pieces until melted.
• Add to the Chardonnay (which should now be reduced to a glaze) mixture.
• Blend well over very low heat.
• Season to taste with salt (may not be needed), black pepper, cayenne, and tarragon.

SHRIMP PONTCHARTRAIN

Steps:

• Heat a large saute pan over medium-high heat; add the butter, onion and garlic and saute until translucent. Deglaze the pan by adding the Chardonnay and making sure to scrape all the delicious bits that may have started to stick from the bottom. Juice the lemon through your fingers into the saute pan, tossing any seeds, then throw the lemon rinds in the pan as well. Simmer this mixture until reduced by half, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in thyme, paprika and cayenne, followed by the chicken stock, then bring everything to a rolling boil. Add the heavy cream and bring back to a boil. Upon reaching a second boil, immediately reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
• Carefully remove and toss the lemons. Season your creamy base with salt and pepper. To thicken the base into Pontchartrain sauce, you will need to combine 1 tablespoon cornstarch and 2 tablespoons water into a thin paste, or slurry, in a bowl, and slowly whisk into your simmering base. Continue to make and add slurry at the same 1-to-2 ratio as needed and add a little at a time until sauce starts to show gentle trails behind the whisk, much like a thin gravy. Once adequately thickened, add the crawfish tail meat to the sauce and simmer for another couple minutes to cook out the raw cornstarch flavor and heat the crawfish through.
• And now you have Pontchartrain sauce! At this point it can be refrigerated for up to 3 days before serving.
• To prepare for serving, add the Pontchartrain sauce to a saute pan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Add the raw shrimp to the sauce and simmer until the shrimp have become opaque and begun to curl, 5 to 7 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
• Place a pile of rice on each of four plates, then top each with 4 cooked shrimp and spoon the Pontchartrain sauce over everything.

EGGPLANT PONTCHARTRAIN

Steps:

• Make the eggplant according to the instructions for my Eggplant Parmesan (recipe here).
• While the eggplant is baking, make the sauce. In a medium frying pan over medium heat, melt the butter, then add the onion and garlic and saute until the onion is soft and translucent. Add in the peppers and mushrooms. Cover and cook for a few minutes, then remove the cover and stir in the wine, a bit at a time. Cook for a while until the mushrooms are tender, then add the seasoning and then the cream cheese a bit at a time and stir until the cream cheese is nicely melted and incorporated into the sauce. Stir in the crab meat and shrimp and cook just until hot (or until the shrimp turns pink).
• To serve: place several eggplant rounds on each plate and top with sauce. Garnish with fresh parsley or oregano leaves. Enjoy!

POMPANO PONTCHARTRAIN

Steps:

• Season the fish with salt and white pepper. Heat oil in a large skillet or grill pan over medium-high heat. Add fish, skin side up, and cook for about 3 minutes or until browned. (You may have to cook fish in 2 batches, add more oil as necessary.) Flip fish and cook for an additional 3 minutes or until cooked through. Keep warm.
• While the fish is cooking, heat the crabmeat and melted butter in another large skillet over medium heat. Season with salt and pepper. Cook just until crabmeat is hot.
• To serve, place a pompano fillet in the center of each plate, and top with 3 ounces of crabmeat. Garnish with chopped parsley, parsley sprigs, and a lemon half.

LANDRY'S PONTCHARTRAIN SAUCE

Steps:

• Cook the Chardonnay and the onion together over a low fire until the wine reduces and the onion is very soft and transparent. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in another heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour and whisk until blended. Add the stock a little at a time, whisking constantly until blened and thickened. Add the mushrooms, green pepper, and garlic. Smother down until the vegetables are soft. Remove from heat and add 1/2 cup of butter in pieces until melted. Add to the Chardonnay (which should now be like a glaze) mixture. Blend well over very low heat. Season to taste with salt (may not be needed), black pepper, cayenne, and tarragon.

PONTCHARTRAIN BLACKENED CATFISH

Steps:

• FISH: Preheat oven 175. Combine the salt, red/black pepper, paprika and sugar in a small bowl. Completely coat both sides of fillets (better to have fillets dry, pat with paper towels) and place on rimmed baking sheet. Let rest for 15 minutes.
• Heat oil in large cast iron skillet to cover the bottom, but not too deep. Heat to high and the oil almost is smoking.
• Cook 2 fillets at a time until golden brown and starting to turn black, 3-5 minutes depending on thickness of fish. Flip and cook another 3-5 minutes.
• Remove to a clean baking sheet and place in oven to keep warm. Add more oil if needed to finish cooking fish.
• In a large skillet melt 2 T. butter. Cut remaining butter into small pieces and refrigerate.
• Add the Creole seasoning, red pepper flakes, garlic, celery, onions and bell peppers to the skillet and cook until soft.
• Add the mushrooms and cook until it releases its liquid.
• Add mustard to coat.
• Pour in wine and cook until almost completely absorbed.
• Sprinkle with flour and cook, stirring for about 1 minute.
• Whisk in 1 c. water and add shrimp and crabmeat. Simmer until shrimp are pink, 4-6 minutes.
• Whisk in cold butter pieces, one piece at a time. Whisk until each piece melts before adding another.
• Stir in half of chopped parsley and lemon juice before serving.
• Ladle the shrimp sauce into a shallow dish, top with catfish fillets, sprinkle with remaining parsley and garnish with lemon wedges.