With Valentines Day Tuesday, I thought I would get a jump on the holiday and make a special dinner for Sunday night. I went to a different Wegmans yesterday on my way back from my chiropractor, (yes I’m lucky enough to have two, well actually three within driving distance) and at first when I entered their produce department I thought this is the Wegmanss that I should be shopping at, they had White Asparagus, I hadn’t seen that at my store since they opened! Well, let me tell you it was all down hill from there! It’s hard to imagine that a store like that can be so different at another location, they had opened a liquor store inside this Wegmans (mine has a free standing liquor store) and in the process of adding it into the store they seemed to have really screwed the store up…….hey guys, was it worth it? I mean, not to knock shop rite, but that’s what it felt like, only at premium prices…sigh
So I guess next time I go shopping I need to find the store manager and thank them for keeping our store in much better shape. You know I wonder about myself sometimes, I talk way too much about shopping for food, and the layout of supermarkets…..sigh The truth is I really enjoy shopping and not just for food, its the time spent browsing that seems to soothe me, its me time and I do enjoy it. But I did pick up some white asparagus , some Tuscan Kale and of course some Virginia Crab meat, which is almost the same as Maryland. A quick not about crabmeat, if you do buy pasteurized and this time of year that’s pretty much all your going to find, just be careful of where it comes from. Check the source, and quite frankly I won’t buy and crabmeat that’s from any other country, first of all its not the same crab and just doesn’t taste as good, and you have no idea how badly polluted the waters they came from were. I know I’ve mentioned the same thing about shrimp, you need to be careful of the source of origin.
I knew right away what I wanted to make, in the old days we did Veal Oscar, but veal has long gone out of fashion, we might be barbarians but we don’t eat baby animals. So Chicken Oscar it was! Lisa had just gotten back from her Doctor with a report to eat more veggies, I know I need them too, so I thought I would forgo the starch and serve to veggies. The white asparagus would be a treat, something different, and to add some colour to the plate I thought the Tuscan Kale would be a nice change from Broccoli Rabe. The Tuscan Kale was fairly tasty, definitely a stronger flavor, but not at all bitter, now the white asparagus didn’t fair so well, they really lacked any flavor and even with peeling them and cutting them down fairly short they were very tough and stringy….next time we stick with green asparagus! These were from Peru which could have been the problem, years ago we only got them from European countries and it was also very tender and had much better flavor. I guess that proves a point about the source of products!
I will say that the crabmeat made up for any lack of flavor in the asparagus it was really delicious, with a lot of great crab flavor. In the old days I would have made a hollandaise to top off this dish, but since I am making an effort to eat just a little more healthy I decided to do with out the hollandaise and use the calories all the butter and eggs would have added in my dessert instead…..but that’s a post for another day!
- 4 boneless skinless Chicken Breast (pounded thin)
- 8 oz Jumbo lump crabmeat
- 10 oz mushrooms-sliced
- 8 pcs asparagus white or green, peeled
- 1 cup chicken stock
- ½ cup flour
- ½ cup olive oil
- 4 tbsp butter
- splash of white wine (optional)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Trim off about 2 inches off the asparagus and using a peeler, clean off the outer layer of the fibrous skin.
- Cook asparagus in a saute pan with water on simmer until tender, then set aside
- Trim excess fat off of chicken breast and place them inside a gallon size ziplock bag and with the flat side of a meat hammer, pound them thin.
- coat chicken breasts with flour that has been seasoned with salt and pepper and then place into a hot saute pan with olive oil
- Saute on both sides about 3 minutes per side or until you have good color.
- Place cooked chicken breasts with a little stock in a baking dish in 325 degree oven to finish cooking for about 15 minutes, place the asparagus in the same dish to finish cooking.
- in another saute pan saute mushrooms in 2 tablespoons of butter until tender.
- add a splash of wine to de-glaze the pan, or just use the chicken stock.
- Add in chicken stock and get contents of pan hot, then add in crabmeat, stir gently and remove from heat.
- When your ready to put the dish together heat the crabmeat / mushroom combo and as it heats take the remaining two tablespoons of butter and coat them in flour, pushing the flour into the butter, add this to the heating crabmeat mixture and it will help thicken the sauce. (the butter flour mixture is called a Beurre Manie)
- Place the chicken breasts on plates and divide the crabmeat mixture, spooning it with some of the juices over top of the chicken breast.
- add two spears of asparagus and serve with sides of your choice.
I hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine’s Day, being in the middle of the week we can’t celebrate too much, but I’m sure we’ll have a nice dinner together, and I know I don’t tell Lisa enough, but she has truly made my life better, and I couldn’t think of any other Valentine’s Day present I would want than just to be able to spend the day with her! (Now I also get to see if she actually reads my entire post and honey if you got me the Porsche forget what I just said about the present!)
I would like to mention that I will be doing some Ask Chef Dennis sessions as my classes on ChefHangout.com, so if you have a chance check out the days and times (once I post them) and come hang out with me on Google+ and I’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have. Unfortunately we are not set up to make the classes free, but I will be offering these classes at $1.00 for the next few weeks, it also give me time to work the bugs out of the system, I’ve never used a web cam before and this is all new to me. It certainly would be nice to have some friendly faces in the first few classes!
Have a great week and please make sure you stop by for my Ask Chef Dennis post, because I have a surprise!
Cheers!
Chef,
What a wonderful Valentine present for Lisa, just spending the day with each other, and having this wonderful Chicken Oscar. We already had seared scallops tonight, but we’ll be making this Chicken Oscar soon.
Country of origin is very important to me in buying food, especially produce. I try to buy only produce from the USA, which limits my choices. Usually the produce from other countries, just doesn’t taste right, anyway.
Chef Dennis…Wishing you and Lisa Happy Valentine’s Day and may you both have a wonderful one too. This meal is definitely a Valentine’s treat
Those crabmeat to die for. We dont have such Jumbo crabmeat over here except to buy the live ones- mud crab are a plenty 
Thanks for sharing such a delicious Chicken Oscar with us. I have the privilege to drool for the time being 
Have a wonderful Valentine’s Day !
Regards,
Elin
Oh my goodness, I just burst out laughing when I read your post title in my blogroll! No joke, just last night, I asked our waiter about the Chicken Oscar on the menu. I had never heard of it before then. This looks absolutely divine! I truly enjoy the peeks into your restaurant kitchen. Thank you for the explanation and I’m wishing you a wonderful week!
“oscar-izing” used to be one of my favorite things to do with chicken, salmon, even portobellos! yours looks and sounds lovely, happy Valentines day to you!
Happy Valentine’s to you and Lisa !!!! Hope you’ll have a great time and eat more VEGGIES hahaha Regarding the dish , it’s really Oscar-worthy dish ;D
I share your feelings about food shopping being soothing. Living in Manhattan, we’re fortunate enough to have nearly every possible thing within walking distance including several well stocked gourmet markets. When we go there together we tend to linger and get inspired…and end up spending way too much
But we do like to eat much like this recipe – a protein, lots of veggies, some crusty bread but otherwise skip the starch and maybe share a little dessert. Happy Valentine’s Day to your and your Lisa.
Good looking dish Dennis, it’s nice to know even the pro’s have the occasional mis-hit. I grow my own green asparagus and can attest that freshly cut is so much better than store bought, even in season, I can imagine what it’s like shipped from Peru.
Yes, I too have noticed a difference between grocers with the same name but a different location. So much for expecting the same from one to another. Thanks for the advice on the seafood-I rarely buy any since i am so inland, but this is good to know when I make the special effort to get some!
This dish does have a great blend of ingredients-definitely one worth trying. Have a wonderful Valentine’s day with Lisa!
I remember this dish… lovely thing it was and so fancy! I have always used turkey breast for veal which I stopped eating 25 years ago when I saw how it was raised…. had my first veal again last year when i knew how it was raised. Still, the turkey idea wasn’t mine.. read a NYT piece about a famous German restaurant that was caught using turkey in the their famous schnitzel… they had been using it for years with no one the wiser!!!
I had only had white asparagus from a can until last year (bleh) and loved the fresh stuff… what a difference it made.
Great recipe and great advice about the seafood… unlicensed pesticides and antibiotics in my fish is not my idea of tasty.
WHITE ASPARAGUS? OK, live w/ the screwed-up store, I can’t get my hands on that stuff here to save my life. Once they had a delivery of it at a local grocery store, and all the Germans literally transmitted that amongst themselves w/in 30 minutes. One woman bought about FOUR CASES of it… LOL
Hi Dennis: Don’t give up on the white asparagus.
You have to remember that it is out of season. Spring is the prime time for any asparagus.
I would also think that it does matter where it comes from.
The baby is the best and the sweetest.
The chicken looks great!
Charlie
So happy to see you including more veggies in your diet, Chef. I love kale, glad you added it to the meal although the broccoli rabe is delicious. Happy Valentine’s Day to you and Lisa.
Chicken Oscar what a wonderful idea. I have to check out your classes on chefhangout.com.
In a nutshell, let me just say that I LOVE every aspect of this recipe, Chef! Veal Oscar has long been one of my top faves, and you’ve added that same touch of elegance to chicken. Your presentation definitely makes me want to dig in – right now! It would be nothing short of a miracle if I could get my hands on white asparagus, but I’ll just do the best I can.
Thanks!
Love this recipe – so simple and so flavorful. I appreciate the lack of baby animals as well!!!
Yum! I love veal, but chicken definitely makes this more affordable. I don’t eat crab often, but when I do, I try to make it Dungeness crab, even if it means I have to clean it myself.
I have a big bag of Kale in my refrig.. beautiful dark green. I have never cooked it before , How is the best way to cook this up!!
Great recipe… I have a big bag of Kale in my refrig.. beautiful dark green. I have never cooked it before , How is the best way to cook this up!!
the best way is just to chop it and saute it in olive oil with fresh garlic, if its still a little tough you may have to add a little stock or water and allow it to simmer until tender. Season to taste with sea salt and pepper and your ready to enjoy your kale!
What a beautiful dish, Dennis! It looks so flavorful and elegant – Perfect for Valentine’s Day. Thanks for sharing! I hope you’ve had a nice start to 2012.
lovely looking dishes and flavour
I know what you mean – I love to shop as well. A trip to Whole Foods is like a hot date to me! And don’t get me started on spice stores… Hope you have a great holiday tomorrow!
That looks amazing…and I can’t believe you found white asparagus–that truly makes it a special meal.
Love post, and a lovely meal for your Lisa
I love that there’s both chicken and crab meat in this! Delicious… and that white asparagus is so pretty! Too bad it didn’t taste great! Lovely post, Chef Dennis!
What a wonderful chicken dinner for an early Valentine’s Day. I don’t often buy crab, but I had no idea what to look for – Thanks! Hubby would love this, so would my 6 year old; they are fools for crab!
I don’t think it’s strange to talk a lot about shopping for food. I do all the time, I mean I could devote a years worth of blog posts just talking about food shopping (especially as an expat here in the Middle East!) Your chicken looks really great, my husband would love it. And I know what you mean about crab meat (and shrimp) from other countries. I love that we can get really fresh seafood here, but I worry about the toxins in it from the dumping I see. But I can always find cool stuff like a whole shark or sting ray at the store (there I go talking about food shopping!) Hope you and your wife have a Happy Valentine’s day!
This looks like a gorgeous dish, though I have never heard of its name.
Lovely insights! Thank you so much for sharing, and happy Valentine’s Day!
What a meal! Very well done chef. Congratulations on Top 9 and enjoy this special day.
Congrats on the Top 9 today!
White asparagus?! Wow! This dish looks delicious. Congrats on making Top 9 today!
Chef, I am completely with you on supermarkets. I LOVE food shopping and wandering idly through the aisles. If I say I’m going to the market, expect me to be gone for about 2 hours. As always this recipe looks delicious and do beautiful. Looking forward to making my first chicken Oscar.
Beautiful prepared dish with all the fantastic veggies on the plate. Happy Valentine’s Day!
If I hadn’t already planned on scallops tonight! Lovely white asparagus and the kale, too. (Me, I’m tickled if my local store even has broccoli rabe.!)
Congrats on top9 — again!
Okay dude you are killing me. I never get meals like this. I seem to survive on popcorn and ice cream these days. I need to move closer and drop by a lot. Drive you and Lisa to drink with my “oh is it dinnertime, I hadn’t noticed cuz I am so weak with hunger” shenanigans. That’s cool right!
Congrats on top 9!
Outstanding, as usual. I would love to bum a ride from Kim Bee for the ‘oh is it dinnertime’ ruse. It’d be totally worth it.
Recipe looks so good. I love white asparagus and can get it pretty easily these days. I love it when Shop Rite has it for the same price as regular green asparagus.
Funny, I have found that most Wegman’s look exactly the same – all of our NJ ones are exact or very similar – everything is in the same place as the other. Quality seems to be the same too. I love Wegman’s, altho’ I don’t get there very often. Our local store is Shop Rite. If I go about 45 minutes in another direction I can get to a Wegman’s. On the way to my MIL there is one too. I try and stop once a month to get certain things that i can only find there such as Scharfen Berger Chocolate. I also love their International Aisles. So much better than anywhere else.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
I am sorry to hear your produce was lackluster – that can ruin a great meal – but wow! look at that crabmeat. I haven’t seen anything so beautiful in months. (Actually I froze some earlier in preparation to use it soon). I love shopping at the market to and have actually banned a few just because of how upset they can make me – and will drive a few extra miles for the few I do like (my local shop rite being one of the best).
I hope you and Lisa enjoyed your Valentine’s Day together and that you are both recovered from your recent sickness.
Made the Chicken Oscar last evening.. awesome dish..everyone loved it. Had to use green asparagus but was able to find some terrific Maryland lump crabmeat!