Chicken à la King
Updated April 16, 2025
- Total Time
- 1 hour
- Prep Time
- 10 minutes
- Cook Time
- 50 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 1(14.5-ounce) can chicken broth or 1¾ cups homemade stock (see Tip)
- Salt and black pepper
- 2large boneless, skinless chicken breasts (1¼ pounds; see Tip)
- 4tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1cup sliced button or cremini mushrooms (2½ ounces)
- ¼cup chopped green bell pepper
- ¼cup all-purpose flour
- 1cup heavy cream
- 1cup frozen green peas
- 2tablespoons drained jarred sliced pimentos, finely chopped
- 1tablespoon finely chopped parsley, plus more for serving
- 2large egg yolks
- 3tablespoons dry sherry
- Toast triangles and Tabasco hot sauce, for serving (optional)
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 servings)
418 calories; 27 grams fat; 15 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 7 grams monounsaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 12 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams dietary fiber; 3 grams sugars; 30 grams protein; 691 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Poach the chicken: Add the stock to a medium saucepan and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil over medium-high, then turn the heat to its lowest setting. Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper and add to the saucepan. Cover and poach the chicken until the centers are barely opaque, 15 to 25 minutes, turning the chicken over halfway through cooking. Transfer the chicken to a cutting board and the stock to a measuring cup.
- Step 2
While the chicken cools, make the sauce: In the same saucepan, melt the butter over medium, then add the mushrooms. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Stir in the green bell pepper. Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and cook, stirring constantly, until the flour is incorporated, about 1 minute.
- Step 3
Whisk in 1½ cups reserved chicken stock. Boil, whisking constantly, until smooth and thickened, about 2 minutes. Whisk in the cream and bring to a simmer. Cook over low, whisking occasionally, until slightly thickened, about 8 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cover.
- Step 4
Cut the chicken breasts into ½-inch cubes and stir into the sauce, along with the peas, pimento and parsley. Raise the heat to medium and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally, then reduce the heat to low. Simmer until the chicken is just cooked through.
- Step 5
In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sherry to combine and stir into the sauce. Do not boil the sauce at this stage or it may curdle. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Turn off the heat when steaming hot and serve immediately with the toast triangles and Tabasco sauce, if using.
- To prepare an even richer, more flavorful dish, do as Mr. Claiborne does in his cookbook “Craig Claiborne’s Southern Cooking” (1987) and start by poaching a whole chicken. Add a whole chicken to a snug pot, fill the pot with just enough water to cover it. If desired, add aromatic ingredients, such as peppercorns, bay leaves, onion, allspice, carrot and celery. Season with salt. Bring to a boil and simmer, partially covered, until the chicken is tender, about 30 minutes. Strain and use the stock in Step 3. Transfer the chicken to a cutting board and let cool slightly before tearing off the meat and carving it into ½-inch cubes to use in Step 4. You should have about 3 cups of cubed boneless, skinless chicken.
Private Notes
Comments
We roast a 5lb chicken nearly every Sunday, eat the thighs and save the breasts for dishes such as this. But how anyone could get 6 servings out of this recipe as written is a mystery. For 3-4 servings I use 3 cups of Veloute, 1/2 lb mushrooms of any kind, 1 whole green bell pepper (sometimes a poblano for a little heat), a 4 oz. jar drained pimiento, dash of Worcestershire, 1/4 cup sherry and 1 cup frozen peas. Toast points become soggy; more fun to serve in Pepperidge Farm pastry shells.
Serve over baking powder biscuits like my mom did.
Poaching tip: Boil the water with aromatics first then cool to 180 degrees before adding chicken as optimal poaching temp is not a simmer, it's around 165 degrees. When you add the cold chicken to the 180 degree water it will cool the water to 165 then low heat for 20 minutes only.
After preparing a Piedmontese bollito misto this Saturday for a group of friends and family, I had some meat left over from the eight-pound capon that formed part of the parade of mixed meats. The Craig Claiborne imprimatur inspired me to commit to making this recipe. Perfectly edible, I would say. But, it provided further evidence to bolster my pet theory that the person known as "Eric Kim" is the transmigrated soul of a middle-school home economics teacher from 1950s Indiana.
This was an easy, fun throwback. Doubled the shrooms and had to sub marsala (very diff, I know), but it was a delightful weeknight blast from the past.
Can you freeze this dish?