Sous Vide Chicken with Comté Cheese Gnocchi | Recipe by sousvidetools.com

Sous Vide Chicken with Comté Cheese Gnocchi, Girolle Mushrooms and Sauce Vin Jaune

COOK TIME: 2 hours
PREP TIME: 1 hour
DIFFICULTY: Difficult
SERVES: 2

Ingredients

Chicken

1 chicken, free range, approx. 1.2kg
100g of unsalted butter
20g of fresh tarragon
1 bulb of garlic, halved
salt

Gnocchi

500g of baking potatoes
80g of 00 flour
30g of egg
50g of Comté cheese, grated
salt
plain flour, for dusting
10g of Chives, chopped – to serve

Sauce Vin Jaune

1 carrot, finely diced
50g of button mushrooms, finely diced
10g of unsalted butter
250ml of vin jaune
200ml of chicken stock
600ml of double cream
salt
pepper

Girolle Mushrooms

50g of unsalted butter
200g of girolles mushrooms

Equipment

EQUIPMENT

Method

Recipe courtesy of Martin Wishart from www.greatbritishchefs.com

METHOD

Preheat the water bath to a temperature of 65⁰C. Also preheat the oven to a temperature of 180⁰C/gas mark 4.
Strip off the legs and wings of the chicken so that you are left with only the crown. The legs and wings are not required for this recipe but may be frozen for use at another time. Carefully take out the wishbone and place the butter, the tarragon, the garlic and a pinch of salt inside the cavity of the chicken.
Seal the crown inside a large vacuum bag and leave to cook in the water bath for 1 hour 10 minutes.
While the chicken is cooking, prepare the gnocchi. First, place the potatoes in the oven and bake until very soft. This should take approximately 1 hour.
Halve the cooked potatoes. Scrape out the soft flesh and discard the skins. Leave the flesh to rest for 2 minutes, then press through a fine sieve to make a smooth mash.
Place the mashed flesh in a large bowl and add the 00 flour, the egg, the Comté cheese and a little salt to season. Remember to sift the flour before you add it to remove any clumps. Combine the ingredients to form a soft dough. You should mix with a fork at first then gently knead with your hands until smooth.
Lightly flour the work surface. Place the dough on the surface and split it into four even pieces. Gentle roll each piece with floured hands until it forms a long cylinder with a diameter between 1 and 1.5cm. Cut each cylinder of dough into pieces 3cm in length.
Create a ridged impression on one side of each gnocchi by pressing down gently with the back of a fork.
Carefully curl the gnocchi into crescent shapes. Cover and chill in the fridge until needed.
Heat some salted water in a large saucepan. When the water begins to boil, gently add the gnocchi and simmer until they float. Drain off the water and spread the gnoochi out on a plate. Leave to steam dry.
For the vin jaune sauce, place the butter, carrot and mushroom in a large saucepan and fry over a very gentle heat for five minutes. Do not let the vegetables brown. Pour in the vin jaune and stir to deglaze the pan. Mix in the chicken stock and add salt to taste. Bring to boil and cook until the sauce reduces to a glaze-like consistency.
Mix in the double cream, stirring thoroughly to combine. Return the sauce to the boil and reduce by half. The sauce is ready when it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Pass through a fine sieve to strain, then keep warm until needed. Just before serving, whip into a foam with a hand mixer.
To prepare the girolles, heat the butter in a large sauté pan until foaming. Mix in the girolles and fry over a medium heat until tender. When all the water from the mushrooms has evaporated, tip the gnocchi into the pan and cook until golden brown and puffy.
To plate, peel the skin off the cooked chicken and remove the breasts from the crown. Place one breast on each plate and spoon over the foamed vin jaune sauce. Top with the girolles and gnocchi and finish with a sprinkling of chopped chives. Serve straight away.

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Post by Chris Holland

Our Chef Director Chris Holland worked as Head Chef at the prestigious Alderley Edge hotel before joining us. He has a passion for using the best produce and never compromises on quality. Author of our best selling book Sous Vide The Art of Precision Cooking, Chris is a expert on the sous vide technique.During the later part of my school days at Wardle High School Rochdale I always wanted to be a chef . I knew from the very start that my path to work was never going to be academic it was always going to be something practical and hands on.

As a young boy growing up I was inspired to cook with my Grandma who was and still is an inspiration to me . I have memories of helping make the cakes that she always had made for visitors and family alike . She made the most amazing cakes and I loved nothing more than eating the sweet raw cake batter straight from the bowl . We used to fight over who got to lick the bowl/spoon after the cakes were made. My grandma’s philosophy for cooking even on a shoe string budget was always to use fresh and seasonal ingredients either home grown or bought from the market.

School was somewhat of a drag for me as I was itching to learn to become a chef.

I started at Hopwood Hall college as a chef and instantly fell in love with it .To me it was the only real time I excelled in something and this inspired me to really get my head down and put in the hard work. College was the first time I really excelled in something and gave me the opportunity to laugh at the teachers who said I would never make something of my life!!!!

During the three years at college I also took on a part time position in a local hotel working the bar and restaurant first and then the kitchen. These were great days and gave me the opportunity to see how the industry ticks. I learnt a lot from those days both good and bad !! But I have to say I was itching to work only in the kitchen but it was a good insight into the catering world .

After completing college I moved away from Rochdale for a full time roll at one of Cheshire’s most talked about Hotel restaurants The Stanneylands Hotel. This was the school of hard knocks for me as I quickly realised that although excelling at college meant nothing in “The Real World”.

I loved every minute of the 18 hour days 6 days a week on minimum wage . Although difficult I feel that without this grounding I wouldn’t have achieved what I have today. After 18 months of hard graft I left Stanneylands and went with the Head chef to open a fine dining restaurant at Mere Golf and Country Club. The opportunity to work alongside Matthew Barrett was too good to turn down. I learnt so much from the ex-Ritz chef and working in a much slower paced role helped me develop a much better understanding of how to organise and run a kitchen. We were a very small team and teamwork was and still is the only way to go for me.

After 2 years at Mere I got the opportunity to go into The Alderley Edge Hotel as Junior Souschef. The Early days at the Edge were all about learning new styles of cuising which is invaluable in any role as a chef. I got the opportunity to grow and learn all aspects of every section which was inspiring . I was offered the opportunity at the age of 29 (2004) to take the role of head chef. For me this was when I really started to develop my own style of food.

After 9 years at the top winning Cheshire restaurant of the year , Chef of the Year and appearing on GBM amongst many highlights including cooking for many celebrities and famous people I decided to move on into development with Sousvidetools.

The main inspiration for this was to train and educate people . I always had a great passion for education but could never really see myself at a college . The job is super rewarding and I am proud to say we have become the leading light in sous-vide education in the UK . This is something I am very proud of . Food is my biggest passion and this is what keeps me interested the most . I love to travel and try out other countries cuisines. I am constantly inspired by ingredients and the pursuit of getting the best out of them without destroying their natural flavour .It is super important to me to continue to try and be at the forefront of the food scene this is what inspire me and the team to keep driving forward .

Technology is now widely used in the industry and I am super proud to say we have been a big part of spreading that message.

I am very lucky to be in the position I am and the drive to constantly improve our training and links to the next generation of young budding hospitality chefs.

TI feel that my experience over the last 25 years really enables me to get close and educate the “next generation” of chefs .

The industry which I love is really struggling to bring through new recruits and if I can help that process I will be immensely proud.

The food seen in the Uk has improved dramatically over the last ten years and I feel this will continue with the correct education. What happens next only fate will tell us...

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