Recipe: Mustard Dregs Chicken Breasts

Not a day goes by where there isn’t at least one team member diving into a sandwich come lunchtime. Cold, grilled, in a wrap- we aren’t picky but taste always reigns supreme. Because of our long standing sammy-obsession, our latest #SKCookbookClub pick had to be A Super Upsetting Cookbook About Sandwiches by Tyler Kord.

Well folks, Joel Gamoran is here to save the day, creating a luscious sauce for chicken out of the dregs in the jar. This incredible mustard hack, as well as many other food waste fighting recipes, is the reason our team had to select his book ‘Cooking Scrappy’ as the latest installment in #SKCookbookClub.

Former National Chef of Sur La Table, Gamoran is passionate about utilizing food that is typically tossed in the trash and turning the scraps into mind-blowingly delicious recipes. He inspires eaters to rethink what waste is by teaching them how to be more resourceful and creative in the kitchen. It’s time we take a look in our fridge and have our leftovers and scraps be put to some seriously tasty use!

Adapted from recipe on page 178 / Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 skin-on boneless chicken breast
Coarse sea salt and fresh ground black pepper
1 cup white wine, any type
Mustard dregs clinging to a jar of Sir Kensington’s Spicy Brown Mustard (about 1 tbsp)
2 tbsp capers
½ cup chicken stock
2 tbsp unsalted butter
Fresh herbs, for garnish (tarragon and parsley)

Instructions:

Turn the oven to 400 degrees F.
Put a medium cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat for a minute or two until it’s pretty hot. Add the oil, it should shimmer right away.
Season the chicken on both sides with salt and pepper. Put the chicken in the hot oil, skin-side down. Put a piece of foil over the chicken and a heavy weight on top. The weight makes the skin side of the chicken get super crispy and it equals out the thick and thin ends of the breasts, allowing them to cook evenly.
Cook on medium to medium-high heat until the skin side is crispy, about 5 minutes. If you smell burning, turn the heat down a little.
When the oven is up to temp, take the weight and foil off, flip the chicken over, and put the skillet in the oven to finish cooking, about 8 minutes.
Pour the wine into the mustard jar, twist on the lid, and shake so that all of the dregs come off the jar and get disbursed in the wine.
Take the chicken out of the skillet and put it on a cutting board to rest.
Put the skillet back over a high burner and throw the capers into the fat in the pan. Cook until they swell and pop, about 1 minute.
Pour the mustardy wine into the skillet. Add chicken stock to the mustard jar, reseal, and shake again; pour into the skillet and boil until the liquid is almost all gone. What’s left will be syrupy. Stir with a whisk to scrape up any browned bits clinging to the bottom of the skillet and shake the skillet, especially near the end, to keep it from scorching. Take the skillet off the heat and whisk in the butter to make a sauce.
Pour the sauce on a serving plate. Slice the chicken breast, plate it, and pour on more sauce. Garnish with fresh tarragon and parsley or herbs of your choice.