Peppered Chicken with Demi-Glace Sauce

Happy Turkey day everyone! (From Canada, that is!)


I just spent the week in Ottawa with my family, completely derailing my diet. I have just realized that my family's roots lie in white bread, potatoes, and pumpkin pie. The main food groups of my parent's house are russet potatoes, overcooked ground beef, kraft dinner and burgers from wendy's.

Sigh.

Back to the real world tomorrow! And back to basics, low-carb style.

Coming up this weekend is Chris' birthday. Christopher is my wonderful boyfriend whom I have been dating for almost 3 years. I am planning quite the 'do' for us both for next weekend, but if he is free on his real birthday and not doing anything, I think a little home cooked meal is in order from his woman.

I was looking through the weight watchers cookbook I bought (and never used), wondering if it had any low-carb recipes...and it turns out it does.

And so, for the birthday dinner, I think I will try a new recipe, Peppered Chicken with Demi-Glace sauce! (Doesn't that sound fancy?) This recipe is featured in Weight Watcher's "My Turnaround Program Cookbook".

Ingredients:

1 1/2 teaspoons whole tri-colour or black peppercorns
4 (1/4 pound) skinless boneless chicken breast halves
1/4 and 1/8 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup white wine
3/4 cup demi-glace
1 tablespoon dijon mustard

Method:

1. Place the peppercorns in a zip-close plastic bag. With a meat mallet or the bottom of a heavy skillet, crack the peppercorns.
2. Sprinkle the chicken with the 1/4 teaspoon salt. Press the cracked peppercorns onto both sides of each chicken breast half.
3. Melt 1 1/2 teaspoons of the unsalted butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic; cook, stirring occasionally until softened, about 1 minute. Add the wine and simmer until it is almost evaporated, about 2 minutes. Add the demi-glace and mustard; cook until the mixture begins to thicken slightly, about 3 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat and swirl in the remaining butter and the 1/8 teaspoon salt. Serve the chicken at once with the sauce.

WW Tip: Demi-Glace is an intensely flavoured brown sauce that takes a while to cook from scratch. Fortunately, you can find prepared demi-glace in gourmet stores and in the meat department of some large supermarkets.

The recipe makes 4 servings. 195 calories, 7g fat, 4g carbs, 1 g fibre, 26g protein. (And 4 WW points. heh.)

What I thought..

This recipe sounds delicious. Anyone following WW should purchase this book (I bought mine at my local WW centre, I'm not sure if you can get it from chapters but it's worth a look). It has many really delicious family friendly recipes, for every meal and occasion. It is a non-scary approach to cooking, it has neatly organized sections and the graphics are energizing and clean. It also has some great recipe photos, though not every recipe gets a photo. Check it out!