Peach Chicken

Ingredients

• 8 (4-ounce) boneless skinless chicken breasts (or 4 large breasts, butterflied)
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• Cooking spray or 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup Beurre Blanc, warm
• 1½ cups Peach Chutney, warm
• ½ cup sliced almonds, toasted
• 4 cups Garlic Mashed Potatoes

To serve

• 4 dinner rolls + butter

Instructions

1. Heat the grill (or grill pan) to medium-high. Pat chicken dry; season with salt and pepper.
2. Diamond-mark the chicken. Spray with cooking spray. Place chicken on the grill at a 45° angle. Cook 3 minutes; rotate 90° (without flipping) to make crosshatch marks. Cook 2 more minutes.
3. Flip and finish. Turn the chicken; cook 4 to 5 minutes on the second side, until 165°F internal. Rest 2 minutes.
4. Plate the sauce. On each warm 10-inch plate, pour a thin band of beurre blanc across the top half.
5. Position the chicken. Place 2 chicken breasts on the sauce, large sides down, angled at 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock.
6. Sprinkle almonds around the chicken, into the sauce.
7. Add mashed potatoes to the open half of the plate.
8. Drizzle the chutney. Spoon warm peach chutney over each chicken breast, letting it run into the beurre blanc.
9. Serve immediately with a dinner roll and butter.

Chef’s Tips

• Diamond marks need a hot grill. Lukewarm grates won’t sear deep — you’ll get pale lines that disappear as the chicken cooks. Get the grill ripping before the chicken touches it.
• Don’t flip too early. Once chicken hits the grill, leave it alone for 3 minutes. Moving it tears the marks.
• Beurre blanc is delicate. It’s a butter-and-wine emulsion that breaks above 180°F. Make it last; keep it warm in a thermos or in a bowl over warm (not hot) water.
• Toast the almonds. Untoasted slivers taste like cardboard. 5 minutes in a 350°F oven transforms them.
• Variations: sub mango chutney for peach; sub apricot preserves for chutney; use pork chops instead of chicken; use salmon (reduce cook time to 4 minutes per side).
• Pair with chardonnay, viognier, dry riesling, or sparkling rosé.
• Scaling note: halves cleanly to 2; doubles cleanly to 8 (cook chicken in batches).

Storage & Make-Ahead

• Peach chutney keeps 2 weeks fridge (better the next day).
• Beurre blanc is best made fresh — it breaks if reheated.
• Mashed potatoes can be made ahead and reheated.
• Chicken: best fresh.

From Ernie’s Kitchen

Silky Garlic Cream Sauce

A workhorse of a sauce: thick, rich, deeply garlicky, with a whisper of nutmeg. It’s the kind of thing you ladle over chicken, toss with fettuccine, spoon over roasted vegetables, or drizzle on a bowl of mashed potatoes when you really want to impress someone. The original kitchen leaned on roasted garlic for its mellow sweetness — make sure you do the same.

Ingredients

• ¼ cup roasted garlic puree (about 1 head of roasted garlic, mashed)
• 1 cup heavy cream
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ¼ teaspoon white pepper (or black if you don’t have white)
• Pinch of nutmeg
• ⅔ cup dry white wine (Chablis, Pinot Grigio, or Sauvignon Blanc)
• ⅔ cup chicken stock (or 1½ teaspoons chicken bouillon dissolved in ⅔ cup hot water)
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon cold water

Instructions

1. In a medium saucepan, combine the roasted garlic, heavy cream, salt, white pepper, nutmeg, white wine, and chicken stock. Whisk to combine.
2. Place over medium heat and bring to a gentle boil, whisking occasionally to prevent the cream from scorching on the bottom.
3. Once boiling, let it bubble steadily for 5 minutes to cook off the raw wine flavor and start to reduce.
4. In a small bowl, whisk the cornstarch and cold water together until smooth and lump-free. (This is called a slurry — make sure there are zero lumps.)
5. Whisk the slurry into the simmering sauce. Let it return to a boil and cook for 1 minute, whisking constantly. The sauce will thicken to a coating consistency — like a thinner version of paint.
6. Remove from the heat. Taste and adjust salt as needed.

Chef’s Tips

• Roasting garlic: Cut the top off a head of garlic, drizzle with olive oil, wrap in foil, and roast at 400°F for 40 minutes. Squeeze the soft cloves out of their skins and mash with a fork. Roast 2 or 3 heads at once and keep the extra in the fridge — it lasts a week and is good on everything.
• Use it on: chicken breasts, pasta, baked potatoes, steamed broccoli, roasted cauliflower, pan-seared salmon, gnocchi.
• Scaling note: Doubles cleanly. The original kitchen made a gallon at a time and held it in the walk-in.

Storage & Make-Ahead

• Keeps 4 days in the fridge.
• Reheat slowly over low heat, whisking often. If it’s too thick, thin with a splash of cream or stock. If it breaks (looks oily), whisk in a teaspoon of cold cream off the heat to bring it back together.
• Doesn’t freeze well — cream sauces tend to separate.

Quick Garlic Beurre Blanc

A speedy version of the French butter sauce, built right on top of the Garlic Cream Sauce. When you need a luxe drizzle for fish, scallops, or steamed asparagus and don’t want to babysit a wine-vinegar reduction for 20 minutes — this is the move.

Ingredients

• ½ cup Garlic Cream Sauce, warm
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into small cubes
• Pinch of salt to taste

Instructions

1. Warm the garlic cream sauce in a small saucepan over medium-low heat — gently, until just steaming.
2. Add the cold butter cubes one at a time, whisking constantly to emulsify each piece into the sauce before adding the next. The sauce should look glossy and slightly thicker.
3. Taste and adjust salt. Serve immediately.

Chef’s Tips

• Cold butter is non-negotiable. Warm butter melts instead of emulsifying.
• What to use it on: pan-seared scallops, grilled salmon, halibut, lobster tails, steamed asparagus, roasted broccoli.
• Scaling note: Doubles cleanly. The original kitchen made it in larger batches during dinner rush — but if you do, hold it warm and use within 30 minutes.

Storage & Make-Ahead

This sauce wants to be made and used right away. If you must hold it briefly (during a busy dinner), keep the saucepan in a warm water bath off the heat — the original kitchen used a double boiler in the window for exactly this reason. Don’t refrigerate; it’ll break.

Peach Chutney

A thick, syrupy chutney with chunks of peach, garlic, and ginger, finished with toasted almonds and cilantro. Sweet-and-sour with a faint cayenne kick — pairs with grilled pork, chicken, salmon, or a cheese board.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon garlic puree (or 3 cloves garlic, minced)
• 1 tablespoon ginger puree (or 1-inch piece fresh ginger, grated)
• 1 cup red wine vinegar
• 6 cans (about 90 ounces total) sliced peaches in syrup, drained — OR 4 pounds fresh peaches, peeled and sliced
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• ⅔ teaspoon kosher salt
• ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1½ tablespoons sliced almonds, toasted
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro

Instructions

1. Combine the base. In a heavy-bottomed stock pot, combine garlic, ginger, red wine vinegar, peaches, sugar, salt, and cayenne. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring.
2. Simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer 1 hour 30 minutes, stirring often. Reduce the heat further as the sauce thickens — toward the end it scorches easily.
3. Check consistency. The sauce is done when it’s thick, syrupy, and binds together when stirred. The peaches should be partly broken down with some chunks remaining.
4. Finish. Off the heat, stir in toasted almonds and chopped cilantro.
5. Cool. Transfer to a bowl set in an ice bath. Stir occasionally until cool. Cover and refrigerate.

Chef’s Tips

• Toasting almonds. Spread sliced almonds on a sheet pan; toast at 350°F for 5 to 7 minutes, stirring once, until golden and fragrant. Or toast in a dry pan over medium heat 3 to 4 minutes.
• Canned vs. fresh peaches. Canned in syrup is the original — quick, consistent, sweet. Fresh peaches in summer are better but you may need an extra ¼ cup sugar to compensate for the missing syrup.
• Don’t rush the simmer. A full 90 minutes thickens it properly. If you stop early, the chutney will be soupy.
• Cilantro at the end. Cooked cilantro turns black and tastes soapy — stir it in off the heat for color and freshness.
• Variations: sub mango or apricot for peach; add 1 tablespoon Dijon; sub pecans for almonds; add ½ cup raisins; add 1 tablespoon curry powder for a more Indian-leaning chutney.
• Use for grilled pork chops, Peach Chicken, grilled salmon, ham, cheese boards (with brie or aged cheddar), turkey sandwiches.
• Pair with dry riesling, gewürztraminer, or sparkling rosé.
• Scaling note: halves cleanly to 2 cups; doubles cleanly to 8 cups. The simmer time stays roughly the same — the bigger pot just needs slightly longer.

Storage & Make-Ahead

• Keeps 2 weeks in the fridge in an airtight container.
• Freezes well for 3 months.
• Serve at room temperature or gently warmed.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Creamy russets mashed with butter, cream, and a head’s worth of garlic mellowed into sweetness. The original kitchen used these as the bed for Mushroom Chicken Mushroom, but they pair with anything — short ribs, pan-seared chicken, holiday roasts.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
• 1 head garlic, all cloves peeled (about 10 to 12 cloves)
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt (for the cooking water)
• ½ cup heavy cream
• 4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• ¼ cup whole milk, warm (to adjust texture)

Instructions

1. Cook the potatoes and garlic together. Place potatoes and peeled garlic cloves in a large pot. Cover with cold water by 1 inch. Add the 1 tablespoon kosher salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cook 18 to 22 minutes until potatoes are very tender (a knife slides in with no resistance).
2. Warm the cream and butter. While potatoes cook, gently heat the cream and butter together in a small saucepan until the butter melts. Don’t boil.
3. Drain the potatoes and garlic very well — let them steam in the colander 2 to 3 minutes to evaporate excess water.
4. Mash. Return potatoes and garlic to the pot. Mash with a potato masher (or pass through a ricer for super-smooth). Add the cream-butter mixture, salt, and pepper. Stir gently until combined.
5. Adjust texture with warm milk if needed — a tablespoon at a time until you have a fluffy, creamy mash.
6. Taste and season. Add more salt to taste.

Chef’s Tips

• Russets are the choice. They’re starchy and fluff up beautifully. Yukon golds give a creamier, denser mash (also great).
• Don’t over-mash. Too much working = gluey. Stop when you see a few small lumps and creamy texture; they smooth out as you add liquid.
• Cream the garlic with the potatoes (not separately) so it disperses fully. Boiled garlic is sweet and silky — no harshness.
• Variations: add ¼ cup grated parmesan, or 2 tablespoons sour cream + 2 tablespoons buttermilk for tang, or a few sprigs of fresh thyme.
• Pair with Brined Roast Airline Chicken, Spencer Steak, or holiday roasts.
• Scaling note: doubles or triples cleanly. For a crowd, hold in a slow-cooker on warm with extra cream.

Storage & Make-Ahead

• Keeps 3 days in the fridge.
• Reheat with a splash of milk and a pat of butter in a saucepan over low heat, stirring often.
• Can also be reheated in a 350°F oven, covered, with a splash of cream — about 20 minutes.