Make Ahead

Chicken with Creamy Dijon Mustard Cognac Sauce

October 16, 2009
4
8 Ratings
  • Serves 6
Author Notes

Living in rural Tuscany has its advantages - home fed chicken! So many of our dinners consist of chicken but to tell you the truth I had never thought of using mustard with it. So thanks to food52 I came up with a new recipe. I had guests for dinner and wanted to make a more elaborate dish so I chose to use only chicken thighs with a very velvety mustard sauce. I chose to cook the sauce in a French style using the classic method of using chicken stock and a little roux to give the sauce more smoothness. The sage and garlic gave it a really nice taste and I served it with mashed potatoes (by today I have a fridge full of all sorts of mashed vegetables from my recipe trials!!) —Maria Teresa Jorge

Test Kitchen Notes

You will sop up every last bit of sauce with bread because it is so delicious. Maria Teresa Jorge took this classic dish and amplified its flavor by adding not a few sage leaves and garlic cloves but 10 and 12 respectively. We liked the touch of Cognac in addition to the wine, and the flour and cream slurry that goes in the end and smooths the sauce. A few cooking notes: we poured off the fat after browning the chicken, and our little chicken pieces cooked in half the time. Keep an eye on those little buggers. And if you want to skip the flour you can -- the sauce may not get as emulsified but it'll still taste great. - A&M —The Editors

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Ingredients
  • 8 chicken thighs
  • 12 garlic cloves with skin on
  • 10 sage leaves
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 3 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • 2 tablespoons Dijon Classic Mustard
  • 1/2 cup White wine
  • 1/3 cup Cognac
  • 1 cup Chicken stock or water if you don't have stock
  • 1/2 cup cream
  • 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
  • salt
  • black and white pepper
Directions
  1. In a large enough pan, add the butter and the olive oil, the sage leaves and the garlics with the skin on them. When the butter starts to sizzle add the chicken thighs skin side down and let them get golden brown over medium low heat. Turn them with a spatula without damaging the chicken and brown the other side. They will be cooking later so you just want to get the nice gold brown colour now.
  2. Heat the chicken stock.
  3. Remove the chicken from the pan, add the white wine and the cognac and deglaze the pan, scraping any pieces of meet stuck on the bottom. Let the alcohol evaporate completely, then add the mustard and dissolve in the sauce with a whisk.
  4. Add the chicken thighs to the pan, add the hot chicken stock to 2/3 of the hight of the chicken thighs. Season with salt and freshly ground white and black pepper and let simmer over low heat, covered, for 20 minutes.
  5. Remove the cooked chicken thighs and keep warm. Let the sauce simmer over low heat to reduce to as much as you will need for the 8 thighs. Squeeze the garlics and sage in the pan with the back of a wooden spoon or spatula to release more flavour, then discard them.
  6. Sift the flour and dissolve it in 3 tablespoons of cream using a whisk. Add the remaining cream and whisk. Now add a bit of hot sauce, whisk together very well and slowly pour in the pan, whisking well with all the sauce, over very low heat. Keep whisking so the sauce doesn't stick to the bottom.
  7. Let the sauce reduce again to the amount you need, always stirring. You will need about a cup of sauce to serve with the 8 chicken thighs.
  8. Pour the hot sauce over the chicken thighs and serve immediately with some potato mash.

See what other Food52ers are saying.

48 Reviews

Linda D. October 7, 2021
I just looked at the photo again and realized the cook used bone in chicken thighs. I did not, and still thought the dish was absolutely delicious!
Linda D. October 7, 2021
Absolutely delicious! Used cream sherry as Wisdm wrote in that review as I did not have cognac. Served over spinach with basmati rice on the side. Thank you, Maria.
Suzanne S. August 6, 2021
The mustard sauce was delicious!
Caylee March 15, 2020
My family loved this chicken! Super simple to make. The sauce alone could be used on countless meats and vegies. I served it with asparagus. Will make it again.
KitchVega April 6, 2018
Damn this chicken was good!!!! Even my almost five year old is eating it. It’s very rare when everyone is in complete silence and just focused on this meal. I did let the chicken warm under low broiler as another member suggested while I finished the sauce. I also added a tad bit more Dijon because why not?! As a mother of an almost 5 year old my intention was to make some nice asparagus but I was really focused on getting the sauce perfect so I served it with Uncle Bens butter and parmesean rice instead. Don’t judge but mixed with the sauce it was divine. This recipe is a keeper. Will try this sauce on some pork chops next! Well done!
Beth R. December 6, 2017
I used whole grain Dijon, subbed creme fraiche (which I had) for the heavy cream, and threw in a couple small sliced zucchini for the last 10 minutes. I had large chicken thighs so they did need a few extra minutes cooking and then returned them to warm in the sauce at the end. We enjoyed the dish with rice to soak up the tasty sauce. It was a lovely dish which I will make again! Thank you MJT!
Maria T. December 7, 2017
Beth,
So happy to hear a new twist on the recipe and that you enjoyed it.
Happy holidays!
Laura November 8, 2016
Ahhhh!!! So good!! I went out and bought a little bottle of cognac and am glad I did. This sauce is SO GOOD. (and the chicken is, too). Broiled the chicken while the sauce reduced as per others suggestions. I also strained the sauce through a fine-mesh strainer and pressed out all the garlic goo through it before adding the cream/flour mix which seemed to work well. Thanks for such a great recipe! We'll be using this for weekends and for dinners with friends for years to come!
Risottogirl July 1, 2016
Spellcheck!
keg72 January 12, 2015
I doubled the mustard and had to add a bit more flour to get the consistency I wanted for the sauce, but this was delicious!
LizCo77 October 26, 2014
Great recipe! I substituted thyme for the sage, because I had a desperate pile of fading
thyme in my cold box, and I used tapioca flour to make it gluten free. It was easy and delicious!
Maria T. October 27, 2014
LizzyD77,
Thank you for your comment and I am so happy you enjoyed the recipe.
I use tapioca flour regularly now as I have found the new gluten free flours to work wonders in the kitchen, even for me with no problems.
I'm sure thyme was very good in this dish because chicken and thyme go very well.
mj July 30, 2013
true, the sauce was fantastic right to the last drop
bacchus1959 July 29, 2013
when the recipe says let the alcohol evaporate..does that mean lets all the liquide of the alcohol evaporate?...
Wisdm July 4, 2013
this recipe is amazeballs! i subbed the cognac with sherry and swapped the sage leaves for ground sage because those things are what i had on hand and it still turned out deeeelish! would probably try with skinless chicken next time though! saved the left over gravy and used on biscuits in the morning. <3
Banana#5 March 24, 2013
Love this recipe! My family has asked me to make it again.
Darita March 2, 2013
The sauce is delicious, but the chicken was very under-done after 20 minutes. It is in a 375 degree oven right now, and after 15 minutes, the juices are still red. Did anyone else have this issue?
Banana#5 February 17, 2013
Hi, I went to the store looking for cream and all could find was half and half and whipping cream are any of these what I'm looking for? If not where do I look?
Aaron.food January 12, 2013
Hi,

This recipe looks awesome!
I was just wondering if i need to season the chicken overnight?
If yes, what's the recipe to season the chicken thigh with?

Thanks;-)
CarlaCooks January 12, 2013
Hi Aaron.food. When I made this recipe, I didn't season the chicken. The recipe is great without pre-seasoning the chicken (the flavor is the sauce is fantastic and will give enough taste to the chicken). However, if you wanted to, you could sprinkle some salt and pepper on the chicken right before sautéing it (in the first step). Happy cooking!
Yank January 15, 2013
No need to season overnight. Just season as in my comment/recipe below.
rachelnewman November 26, 2012
My boyfriend and I made this last night. It was totally delicious. We subbed cooking sherry for white wine and cognac, because whatever
foodieinthemaking September 14, 2012
Just made this tonight and this is a great dish! The sage makes all the difference. I ended up adding almost twice as much as what was called for and loved it!
Maria T. September 14, 2012
I'm so happy you enjoyed it!
Kathy C. July 16, 2012
I made this last week and it was a winner! Followed the recipe exactly and it turned out so good. Thanks so much for the lovely dinner!