Bouchées à la reine

Bouchées à la reine

These were one of my favourites as a kid. My mum used to make then with chicken and bechamel sauce. Once you make a dent in the crust the creamy filling oozes out it's delicious!
So for this recepie i chose to swap the bechamel for a tarragon and mustard sauce, it's a bit less heavy than the bechamel sauce and packs a lot of flavour.
If you're vegetarian you can still follow the recepie and swap the chicken for vegatables. Just add them at the same time as the musrhooms. I guess you can use any veg you like but if you use something such as courgettes or aubergines that have a high water content, you might need to adjust the simmering time or the amount of chicken stock as it will make you sauce more watery.

I usually serve the bouchées with a bit of rice or salad.

To make 8 you will need:

1 puff pastry block

3 medium shallots
1 tbs olive oil
2 tbs mustard seeds
2 chicken breasts
100 g button mushrooms
100 g chestnut mushrooms
150 mL chicken stock
Zest of ½ lemon
3 ts mustard
3 tbs crème fraîche
3 ts chopped tarragon (fresh if possible but if you can’t find any dry will work too)
               
Preparation (1h):

1.       Preheat the oven to 200 C fan.

2.       For the pastry cases, flatten the block into a square of about 1 cm thickness. Using a cookie cutter (mine has a diameter of 6.5 cm) make 8 pieces of pastry. You can make the cases the size you want. Bear in mind that the wider the case the thicker you’ll need your pastry to be as the size weights it down when puffing up in the oven. So if you want to make bite size bouchées à la reine ,just roll the pastry a little thinner. Equally if you want them to be bigger, roll your pastry thicker. Then with a smaller cookie cutter make a dent in the centre of the pastry circles you previously cut. Cut about half way through the thickness. Then brush the top lightly with an egg yolk (at this stage you can decorate the top of your pastry with seeds or salt and pepper). Be careful not to put any egg yolk on the side of the pastry or it will make the layers of the pastry stick together and it will not rise in the oven. Bake for 10 min until lightly golden. Take out of the oven and remove the pre-cut lid in the middle. Empty the cases of its raw centre ,taking care of not making any holes in the outer shell and put back to firm up in the oven for 2 min. Your puff pastry cases are ready! You can make them the day before if you want and just keep them in an airtight container in the fridge.

3.       For the filling, chop the shallots in small cubes and cook them in a saucepan with 1 tbs of olive oil, a pinch of salt and pepper and the mustard seeds on a gentle heat for 5 min or until soft.

4.       Meanwhile, chop the mushrooms. When the shallots are ready, add the mushrooms into the pan and cook on a medium heat for a further 3 min. Add the chicken stock and simmer for 10 min.

5.       While your sauce is reducing, cook the chicken breasts (whole so they retain moisture) in a frying pan. Once cooked all the way through, cut them into cubes. Add to the saucepan with the chopped tarragon and the lemon zest and simmer for a further 10 min.

6.       Finally, on a low heat, add the mustard and crème fraîche. You should end up with a rich thick sauce that coats your chicken and mushrooms. If the sauce looks a little thin, leave to simmer until you are happy with the consistency.

7.       Now you are ready to spoon your warm filling into the cases. Place in a hot oven (120 C) for 3 min and your bouchées à la reine will be ready to serve!