Tags
Around My French Table, creamy speculoo, Dorie Greenspan, French Fridays with Dorie, speculoo chicken
I have been seeing lots of buzz on Facebook over on the French Fridays with Dorie page about how amazing this chicken is, and since I recently discovered my new love for creme fraiche and sat, eating speculoos while skimming over this recipe, my eyes grew large, blood vessels popping out in excitement!
Crushed up speculoos in the creme fraiche
Imagine my surprise at my first forkful when I realized just how sour this chicken was! …. ugh. I can’t say that I would add this to my meal rotation, but there are parts of this that I really liked!
Mei loves to look sideways lately...
I baked the speculoos just before making the chicken, so I would have them, nice, warm and fresh and spice-y, melting in my mouth. These were so distracting that I had to read the recipe like five times before I really read what I needed to do.
the chicken's close-up!
I smashed up a few of the speculoos so there would be speculoo dust in the creme fraiche, along with the crumbs and the bits. I can honestly say that I didn’t like the bits in the creme fraiche. If I make this again, I am going to use the Magic Bullet to pulverize the speculoos and make a dust of them, enough to make a difference in the creme fraiche. I enjoyed the flavor but not the bits. The creme fraiche was a bit too sour for me, no amount of salt and pepper really countered that but I decided to serve this speculoo creme fraiche chicken with some basmati wild rice and that was a great call!
the stove...
That combination made the dish for me, along with my lemony green beans which were fresh and crispy and a lovely shade of bright green! Overall, it was a pleasant dinner, but I think I might make a few changes before I would make this meal again although it was a very quick meal to put together!
UPDATE:
I had this meal again for breakfast and the creme fraiche has mellowed a bit and the speculoos had permeated the creme and it tastes a whole lot different now! I think I would make this again, but make the sauce the day before and let it sit and stew a bit before I make the dish, I liked it much better this way.
dinner is up!
To see how the other Doristas fared with the recipe, click here. If you would like to join in the fun! Just find yourself a copy of Around My French Table and get cookin’ ! The group has plenty of fun and the food alone is reason enough to join! Bon Apetit!
That’s disappointing. : ( Maybe the speculoos would be good in a recipe like this: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/city-ham-recipe/index.html
It’s Alton Brown’s grandma’s secret ham recipe. : )
Or maybe crusting chicken pieces with a speculoo ‘breading’ and then making a creme fraiche sauce for it (maybe with dijon?) would work.
actually I have an update to post to this one…
Mine was less saucy and full of speculoo bits, I think as a result of adding more than the stipulated 2 cookies in the recipe. I liked the chicken the day after too, it seemed less sour somehow. Love your idea of having this with rice and beans!
YES! i wasnt the only one! Thank goodness! I don’t know how it was less sour either, but I did like it a whole lot better the second day. I put in like five cookies… lol I got a little carried away smashing them up…
Interesting…mine wasn’t sour at all. I wonder if the brand of creme fraiche makes a difference…mine tasted like a thick, rich heavy cream. Glad it was better the second day!
hmmm… maybe, I am going to try a different brand of the creme fraiche…. yours sounds really good!
I like your idea of fully pulverizing the cookies to make a difference with the creme fraiche. Some people have mentioned that the sauce has an almost Asian feel to it, so basmati rice must have been delicious!
I think the basmati was a good choice because it soaked up some of the sauce and offset the sour flavor of the creme fraiche and balanced everything out a bit!
I didn’t have time to make creme fraiche so mine wasn’t sour at all and I didn’t have much sauce after it cooked a bit, but the cream gave it a nice flavor along with the cookies.
I didn’t make the creme fraiche, I bought it. It is readily available here
I wouldn’t have made my own speculoos and creme fraiche to make this recipe! Although it isn’t time consuming in the least! … 
I think the powdered cookies gave a better flavor than the bits, myself.
Aww. I know my cookies melted into the sauce by the time I stirred it in, so there were no crunchy bits. I t hink that makes a difference.
I didn’t like the crunchy bits in mine… I would rather just have crumbs to put in the sauce next time.
My creme fraiche wasn’t sour either, definitely tangy, yes, but not sour. It found it interesting but not compelling. Worth a try though. You never know for sure how it will turn out just by reading the recipe.
Yes, I agree Betsy – interesting but not compelling. I might make it again, although it’s not my new favorite dish…
I did not taste any “sour”…just sweet and spicy, but I added extra cinnamon and couldn’t find the correct cookies so used gingersnaps and the ginger flavor was a good fit…but that would have nothing to do with your sour. I wonder if your creme fraiche was a different kind of culture? Sorry. No one at my house even knew that creme fraiche was an ingredient and no one thought this dish was sour…several mentioned that it was sweet. And mine was not so saucy, although I like saucy and would probably make more of the sauce part next time.
I liked having the extra sauce around, especially the next day when I warmed it up, there was plenty of extra sauce and I even dipped my green beans in it. I liked the dish a whole lot more the second day. I think the time overnight in the fridge allowed the creme fraiche to mellow…
Hmmm, I didn’t taste any sour, either – it soulds like it probably was due to a different creme fraiche. I’ve made this dish 4 or 5 times because we love the sauce so much. And our speculoos always melt right in to the sauce, so there aren’t any ‘crunchy bits’, but I do like to crush them into pretty tiny shards before mixing with the creme fraiche.
yay! I think if I do make this again, I’m going to just make speculoo dust … A LOT of it so that I can really get the flavor in there since I didn’t get any crunch anyways, and use a different creme fraiche!
I used cream instead of creme fraiche, so no sourness on my end. However, not a ton of flavor either. Love your stove top shot11
Thanks! I wonder if you had added more spices, if that would have made the difference for the flavor?
I totally agree, this was better the next day!
yay!!
I love your stovetop photo – it’s making me hungry! I didn’t manage to make this week’s recipe – no gluten-eaters were available, so I just improvised.
thanks Teresa! I didnt realize you were on a gluten-free diet! …did you try making the sauce by just putting in the spices that are required for the cookies?
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