Poulet au Porto (that's French for chicken)

One of my favorite movies is "Julie & Julia" about Julia Child and Julie Powell who blogged her way through "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". I loved the movie so much that I immediately ordered the book from the library (We pretty much check everything out at the library first to read it. Then if it is something that we really love and want to keep - we will order it. We have saved a ton of money by doing it this way not to mention space for shelving all those books).

Well take my word for it and do not read this book. It is so offensive, littered with the F word and so many gross analogies to sex. How in the world someone could take french cooking recipes and relate them to sex so many times and in so many different ways is beyond me. I didn't read the entire book and rather skimmed it looking to see if it would get better, it didn't. I don't have high regard for Julie Powell but I do love the movie and I was so thankful that lovely Nora Ephron saw through all that trash and produced a wonderful movie.

So here is my point. Remember the scene where Julie cooks chicken in cream sauce with mushrooms? Were you salivating like me? I've been thinking about that dish ever since I first saw the movie and since I own it, well I've salivated multiple times now. So for my birthday, my Mom made this meal for me and I helped out some in the preparation. I was too scared to attempt it by myself the first time because you have to light the dish on fire. Sophisticated people call that flambe.  :)

Here is a link to the best chicken dish I have ever had. http://angelninascottage.com/2009/11/18/julia-childs-poulet-au-porto-roast-chicken-steeped-with-port-wine-cream-and-mushrooms/ And here's another link with how to roast the chicken: http://kitchenbliss.blogspot.com/2009/02/poulet-au-porto.html. I will go ahead and suggest that you just buy a little brandy instead of the cognac which is the same thing but only cheaper. If you can find an inexpensive medium-dry port wine let me know. Ours cost $15 but it's an integral part of the dish. You can't substitute red wine or Merlot or you will completely change the dish. Port wine is a dessert wine and is very sweet.

We served the chicken with sliced potatoes sauteed in butter.  A word to the wise: don't overcook them too much or the starches will break down and make them incredibly sweet. We also served simple roasted asparagus which we found at Whole Foods because it looked terrible at Publix. It was about $4/ lb which was a little pricey so we only bought a pound. Julia Child suggests serving peas with it and I agree because the dish was rich between the chicken and the potatoes that the asparagus was almost a little heavy. I wish I had taken a picture of it to show you because it looked heavenly. I will say this recipe calls for a ton of pans. So be prepared to wash up a lot of dishes. But in the end it was totally worth it. If you haven't ever made this dish, you must conquer it. It is life changing.