Chicken with Mustard and Wine Sauce

Ingredients

1 whole frying chicken
2 Tbsp peanut oil
2 large garlic cloves, peeled and sliced thin
2 Tbsp chopped shallots (may subst. red onion)
1/2 c (or more) dry white wine
1 c leeks, sliced into 2-inch sections, washed and drained
salt and pepper to taste
3 tbsp Dijon mustard
1/4 c whipping cream

Method

Hack the chicken, i.e. cut it into serving pieces. Use a cleaver an have the pieces no larger than 2 inches square. Sauté the chicken pieces in oil over high heat, stirring, until browned.
Remove and drain oil.
Sauté garlic and shallots or red onion 1 minute. Add white wine and chicken. Cover and simmer until chicken is tender, about 15 minutes.
Increase heat to high, add leeks. Toss and cook for a moment. Add salt and pepper, cover, and cook over medium heat for 3 minutes.
Add mustard and cream. Toss and serve. (Add more wine if sauce too thick). Makes 2-3 servings.

Source

Adapted from a recipe card promoting The Frugal Gourmet Cooks with Wine by Jeff Smith.

Comments

Looks tasty! Once again, it’s obvious to me  why I thought this recipe worth saving. But there’s no way I’m making this one verbatim. Hacking a frying chicken (what is a frying chicken, anyway?) into 2-inch bits with a cleaver is so not me. If I do this one, I will buy chicken pieces and get the chicken guy to cut them up for me. I guess it’s not quite as frugal that way.
The recipe style is a bit quirky. Some observations and questions: 1) Why peanut oil? 2) Does someone capable of recognizing a frying chicken and hacking it to nice 2-inch bits need to be told to peel the garlic cloves before slicing them? Ditto washing and draining the leeks? 3) I didn’t include the parenthetical comment on the Dijon mustard “(Grey Poupon is fine)” but it does have me puzzled.  Why might the reader doubt that her or his Grey Poupon is adequate to the task, and need reassurance? The brand was bought by Kraft in 1999, but when the cookbook was published 13 years earlier, it had just become an RJR Nabisco acquisition. 4) Cook the chicken “until tender”? Rather, cook it until it’s done, I would say. 5) Add the cream and mustard and “toss”? Why not stir them in? 6) Is a whole chicken not too much for 2 to 3 people? (Maybe frying chickens are tiny.) I would rather have seen a weight given for the amount of chicken required.