triticale - the wheat / rye guy

Chicken À La The King

The cookbook's title is Are You Hungry Tonight? As I figured when I saw it on the library pickup list, it is a collection of recipes with links to Elvis Presley. Chicken à la king was a popular dish even in my neck of the woods around the time Elvis was playing Vegas, but I haven't seen in it on a restaurant menu in ages. Back then, comfort was a higher menu priority, and I offer this up as comfort food.

1 TBSP butter
1-1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1" pieces
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1-1/2 cups sour cream
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp paprika
2 TBSP white wine
1 5 oz package frozen mixed peas, pearl onions and mushrooms
4 TBSP Parmesan cheese, freshly grated

Warm a large non-stick frying pan, and melt the butter in it. Saute the chicken pieces over a medium flame, 4 minutes on each side. Sprinkle on the salt and pepper, then stir in the sour cream, soy sauce and paprika. Turn the flame down to low, and cook until the sauce is hot but not boiling. Add the wine and cook for another minute. Add the mixed vegetables, which were supposed to have been cooking per package directions while the rest of this was going on. Remove from the flame, and spoon/pour into a 1-1/2 quart flat baking dish. Top with the Parmesan, and stick under the broiler for about 4 minutes so it gets a hint of a crust.

The Elvis cookbook says to garnish with toast points, 6 slices of white bread toast cut into 4 triangles each, but that's a little too retro for me so I just serve over flat noodles. Altho our standard 2 TBSP of sriracha would be overkill, a couple teaspoonsfull in the place of the paprika warms things up without totally changing the character of the dish.