Braised Chicken with Mushrooms

This is a quick throw back post from before wedding planning blog days. Our plates will always give us away. This month you will be seeing some random holiday dishes, hopefully we're all through with the Red / Yellow / Teal Target dishes from Patrick's bachelor apartment, and then we'll back to the Denby stoneware and white bone china dishes. Read more about our current dinnerware here and holiday pattern here.

I insisted on blogging this post because it was a really good recipe! It's from our favorite series of cookbooks: Food Made Fast from Williams-Sonoma. We had a few friends over when we made this so it's great for entertaining and slightly more impressive than just a baked chicken breast.

Braised Chicken with Mushrooms from From Williams-Sonoma Food Made Fast Series, Simple Suppers

Serves 4.
Ingredients
4 chicken breast halves, 1 1/2 lb. total
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
3 Tbs. unsalted butter
1 small yellow onion, chopped
1 lb. wild and/or cultivated mushrooms, sliced (we used cremini)
1/4 cup Madeira or dry sherry
1 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbs. chopped fresh tarragon

Directions
   Season the chicken generously with salt and pepper. In a large fry pan over medium-high heat, melt 2 Tbs. of the butter. Add the chicken and cook, turning once or twice, until golden brown on both sides, about 8 minutes total. Transfer the chicken to a plate.
   Melt the remaining 1 Tbs. butter in the pan over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until barely softened, about 3 minutes. Add the mushrooms and sauté until their juices are released, about 5 minutes. Stir in the Madeira and Worcestershire sauce.
   Return the chicken and any juices from the plate to the pan and spoon the mushrooms over the chicken. Cover, reduce the heat to medium-low and braise the chicken until opaque throughout, 20 to 25 minutes. Stir in the tarragon and season with salt and pepper.
   Divide the chicken among dinner plates, spoon the mushrooms over the chicken and serve immediately.

We served this atop egg noodles and with steamed cabbage.