“Mommy, I wish I could have more of that chicken sauce stuff.”
Huh?
Did my son just ask for seconds? Of real food? Of dinner? Of something that I cooked?
Why yes, yes he did.
I happily acquiesced by getting him a small soup bowl of the very thing he was so admiring from dinner. What was that? The main guts to Chicken And Leek Stroganoff, from Jamie’s Food Revolution. 
This Book.——————————->
This recipe is one of the first in the book- in the section of 20 minutes meals, and this one is indeed, twenty minutes from start to finish. It also happens to be incredibly delicious, as evidenced by my normal picky eater, asking for more. It was so easy to put together, but the first part was finding leeks at the store that didn’t look like they’d been put through a meat-grinder. So when I found some fresh looking leeks last week, I knew that this dish was fated to end up on our dinner table.
I began by cleaning and slicing my leeks, and then cleaning and slicing my mushrooms, followed by two chicken breasts as well. A little parsley had to be chopped too, and then it was a simple matter of tossing and assembly. I put a pot of plain white rice on to cook, and started up my stroganoff. Easy. As. Pie.
Butter and oil went into the pot, followed by the leeks, a bit of water, and some chicken broth. The recipe calls for white wine, but I opted to use broth instead. I salted and peppered, and then cooked for about five minutes or so. Then I slid in my chicken pieces, sliced mushrooms, parsley, more salt and pepper, and the glorious cream. A small taste just a few minutes later totally made me pause, because it was really, really good. As I looked at the pot, I really thought that at that point- and once the chicken was cooked through, this stroganoff could have easily become a pot of soup.
How was I to know that just a short while later, I was scooping out a small bowl of “soup” for my son?
The only picture I have of this dish is the one I took at “soup point”.
Beyond that, after the ten minute cook time, the liquid thickened up nicely, although I needed to add a touch more salt and pepper. It was luscious. It was creamy, so flavorful, and overall it just made everyone in the family very happy. It was great over rice, although I couldn’t stop thinking about the soup possibilities, and also thinking about what it might be like tossed with some homemade pasta…
The small bit of leftovers that remained went into the fridge with the last of the rice, and I have it in my mind to maybe add some more chicken broth to it and have a creamy chicken and rice soup for lunch one day this week.
Adaptable. This recipe is totally adaptable, but I have to say that the keeper parts of the recipe are the leeks and the cream. If you used salmon instead of chicken, that would be lovely as well, maybe asparagus slices instead of mushrooms, as well as a handful of spring peas for a nice springtime stroganoff. (Oh my gosh! That totally just came to me and would be wonderful with a bit of fresh thyme thrown in!)
The recipe as written serves 2. I doubled all the ingredients, except for the cream. That I used just the 1 1/2 cups called for originally. I don’t think it needed any more than that, but I also don’t think that I would substitute anything else. The lemon we squeezed onto individual plates, as I worried about it curdling the stroganoff. That capped off an already spectacular meal perfectly.
I would totally make this for company.
And have it prepared, start to finish, in just 20 minutes. You just can’t beat that!
Chicken And Leek Stroganoff
from Jamie’s Food Revolution
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper 1 cup long-grain or Basmatti Rice1 large leek big handful of mushrooms
2 chicken breasts olive oil a knob of butter a glass of good, tasty white wine (or chicken broth- about 1 cup)
a bunch of fresh parsley 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
Cook your rice according to the package instructions in salted boiling water.
Cut both ends off the leek, quarter length-ways and then slice across thinly, then wash well under running water. Slice the mushrooms. Slice the Chicken Breasts into finger size pieces.
Put a large frying pan on a high heat and add a good lug of olive oil and the knob of butter.
Add the leek to the pan with the white wine and a small glass of water and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Let it bubble away for 5 minutes loosely covered with a piece of foil.
Meanwhile, finely chop the parsley, stalks and all. Remove the foil and add the chicken strips, most of the parsley, the cream and the mushrooms.
Stir, and bring back to a boil then turn the heat down and simmer for 10 minutes.
Just before serving, cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice of one half into the stroganoff. Season to taste. Spoon rice onto each plate, and top with the stroganoff. Scatter with the remainder of the chopped parsley.