Tomorrow, my youngest (Daniel) has a hockey tournament.  Like most tournaments, we’ll have two games in a day, but in this case, we have a game for my oldest (Jamie) in between Daniel’s two games, at a totally different rink. Oh, and somewhere in there, I get to run 14 miles. :/

But you know what…you’re not here to listen to me whine about my “awful” life. 🙂  You’re here because you somehow found this recipe I’m posting for an easy version of Chicken a La King.  I’ve never made Chicken a La King before, because it always sounded complicated.  But this recipe, which I found on Pinterest, not only didn’t sound complicated–it sounded yummy.  But it wasn’t yummy.  It went beyond yummy to DELICIOUSLY AWESOME. Truly.  It’s worth the all-caps.   It’s even worth me losing some much-needed sleep before tomorrow’s busy day to post it.

I won’t bore you with my discussions of making it, because it really is pretty cut and dried.  I will show you some pictures though.

 

 

Cooking the mushrooms,  onions, bell pepper, salt and pepper.  It smelled great!

 

 

Broiling the bread.  I am a freak about toasting bread–I don’t like it even a tiny bit burnt, so I leave the oven door open and stand there, watching it like a hawk, until it’s perfectly golden brown.

 

 

The finished product.  For some reason, mine came out more yellow than the one in the original picture, but I will admit to substituting 1/4 cup of fat-free milk for 1/4 cup of the heavy cream, so maybe that’s why.  Or maybe I’m just not a very good cook. 😉  But it didn’t look bad…just different.

 

 

 

The recipe calls for Madeira wine, but twice I’ve tried to find it and been unsuccessful.  The first time, I substituted chardonnay (my favorite wine), but the second time, I skipped the wine altogether and used chicken broth.  Ah…maybe that’s why it has a yellow tinge!

All in all, despite my slight changes, this turned out to be one of my new favorites.  It’s not overly rich, but it’s very tasty and not overly high in points.  The sauce is 6 points when you split the whole thing into 5 servings, and then you put it on top of a couple of slices (or three) of Italian bread for 4-6 points, and it is just filling and delightful.

If you give it a try, I’d love to know what you think!

 

 

Easy Chicken a La King

• 1/2 cup Heavy Cream
• 1/4 cup fat free milk
• 2 tablespoons Lemon Juice
• Salt
• 4 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts (cut into 1-inch pieces)
• 1 tsp Vegetable Oil
• 1 Onion (chopped fine)
• 8 Mushrooms (sliced thin)
• 1 Red Bell Pepper (seeded and chopped fine)
• 1/4 teaspoon Ground Pepper
• 3 tablespoons Flour
• 1/2 cup Madeira wine (I used chicken broth)
• 1 1/2 cups Chicken Broth
• 2 tablespoons Parsley
• 8 slices Italian Bread (buttered and toasted (see below))

 

1. Whisk ½ cup cream, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, and 1 teaspoon salt in bowl. Combine chicken and cream mixture in large zipper-lock bag; refrigerate 30 minutes.

2. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Cook onion until golden, about 3 minutes. Add mushrooms, bell pepper, ¼ teaspoon salt, and pepper and cook until vegetables have softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in flour and cook 1 minute. Add Madeira, scraping up any browned bits with wooden spoon, and cook until thickened, about 1 minute. Add broth and skim milk and cook until sauce is very thick and spatula leaves trail when dragged through sauce, about 5 minutes.

3. Stir in chicken mixture and reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer, stirring frequently, until chicken is no longer pink, about 10 minutes. Off heat, stir in remaining lemon juice and parsley. Serve with toasted bread.

TOASTED BREAD

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees (or just broil it like I do). Arrange eight 1-inch-thick slices of Italian bread on baking sheet. Brush 2 tablespoons of melted butter over both sides of bread slices. (I used Brummel & Brown butter, but I did not melt it.)

2. Toast bread until golden brown, about 5 minutes, flipping slices halfway through cooking. Spoon chicken à la king over toast and serve.

Serves:  5

Points:  6 PointsPlus, not including toast.  I used Italian bread, which was 2 points per slice (though 3 slices ended up being 7 points for me, wouldn’t you know; still worth it to this bread-loving girl).