Chicken au Champagne with Mashed Celeriac, Balsamic Braised Fennel, and Roasted Sweet Potato Salad with Honey Dijon Vinaigrette

I've been living in my apartment for 4 months, but not until now was there a dinner party. I wanted it to be simple, elegant and relaxed.

So it started with cremini mushrooms, sautéed until their liquid evaporated, then drizzled with lemon juice and tarragon, and finally placed on toasted baguette.

This was served with champagne...well, a nice prosecco (It sounds very fancy, but in Italy I was told that most prosecco (and sparkling wine) is cheap because it's so easy to make. It doesn't have to be good quality, but it has a snobbish reputation here in Canada. Really it's overpriced (despite being completely affordable),oh-so-refreshing, dry sparkling wine. You need to spend a lot to get a good bottle of prosecco, and that's hard to find in Canada, and certainly not what you need for this recipe.

The whole idea was that I wanted to make Chicken au Champagne from Mireille Guiliano's non-fiction/cookbook, French Women Don't Get Fat. I'd tried a few recipes from it and been completely underwhelmed, since the recipes are so simple and depend on finding the highest quality ingredients possible, which is sometimes impossible. But I figured champagne and chicken, this I can do. I also love the idea that you drink the rest of the champagne with the appetizer and meal. She was the one who taught me that champagne goes with everything, so I believe her. She was very right on that count. Lets not think about the fact that she works for a champagne company, Veuve Cliquot.

Anyway, she suggested pairing the leftover champagne with sautéed mushrooms, and I figured I'd dress it up a bit with tarragon and baguette. It's kind of hard to serve sautéed mushrooms as an appetizer by themselves. God forbid I have to hand around toothpicks...

For the salad any squash will do. Mine looked a bit like an elongated acorn squash. Cut it in half, scoop out the seeds and stringy insides, place it cut-side down on a baking sheet, and bake at 425 degrees for 45 minutes or until tender. Scoop out the pulp in as un-mangled a form as you can manage and slice into cubes. Toss it on romaine, or leaf lettuce, or fresh green of choice and call it a salad. Oh, but I added walnuts because there are strange people in this world who like walnuts in salad, and it does look pretty. The vinaigrette was 1 tbsp. red wine vinager, 1 tbsp. rice vinager, 3/4 tsp. dijon mustard, 2 tsp. honey, 1/2 tsp. garlic powder (I find fresh garlic too strong, but do as you wish), 1 tbsp. minced shallots and 1/2 c. olive oil. Whisk everything except the oil together and then add the oil in a thin stream while whisking to emulsify. You can change the ratios, change the spices, change the vinagers and you'll be just fine. I may have even added a little bit of balsamic that I had left over. Or maybe some lemon juice or lime juice. I wanted it to be a little tart so the squash wouldn't be too sweet. Maybe it seems hard but it's just a bunch of things thrown together, so as long as you keep the acid to oil ratio in check (2:1 or 3:1 depending on the sweetness or starchiness of the salad ingredients) you'll be fine.

Braised fennel is brilliant. The whole idea of taking a vegetable with such a strong flavour and cooking it with balsamic vinegar until the balsamic reduces to a thick coating and the aroma of anise permeates the kitchen, is brilliant. You reserve the tops of the fennel bulbs for stock or compost them and slice the bottom bulb into whatever size pieces you want. It cooks merrily away on low heat in a covered pan while you burn the chicken...

Mashed Celeriac is all it seems. Steam it, and mash it. Optionally add butter or olive oil. It's sweet, and a really nice change from mashed potato. I was inspired to try this after being at one of my favourite restaurants, Aix Cuisine du Terroir, and stopping mid-conversation to think, "Mashed Potato? No...too sweet...Turnip? Hmm...Celeriac!" The celeriac was the bed of starch that was topped with bitter pea sprouts, which were in turn topped by grilled duck in a sweetened pan jus reduction. The intensified sauce soaked down into the celeriac, taking me to a diabetic's Hell, and my personal heaven. After a few bites, and a long silence, I was, fortunately, able to resume semi-intelligent conversation. It's comforting to know that whatever the verdict, wherever I end up there'll be a bit of silence.

The highlight of the meal was certainly the chicken. Doesn't it just sound gluttonous to pour perfectly good champagne over chicken? Maybe if you're swimming in Veuve Cliquot...but you can't make this recipe with Baby Duck (Thank God). It needs to be dry white sparkling wine, and "dry" champagne does not mean "dry" in the same way that dry white wine is less sweet. You're going to want to look for a "brut" or "extra-brut". Most champagnes or sparkling wines will be sweeter because it's cheap to cover the taste of mediocre wine with sugar. Simple marketing: You'll sell more.

So season 4 chicken breasts (with skin and bone) with salt and pepper and place them in a roasting pan. Pour 1/2 c. champagne over top.

Make a deep incision in each breast and place a quarter of a shallot and a sprig of tarragon (or thyme, or basil) in each.

Broil the chicken for 4 minutes (or until the skin is brown), flip the breasts, and broil the other side for 5 minutes.

Remove the chicken from the broiler and baste it (if any champagne is left). Hopefully there's some left and your fire alarm didn't go off like mine did because the the chicken juices started to burn...Either way, ask your roommate to mind the front door and smoke alarm while you pour another 1/2 cup of champagne over the chicken and stick it back in the oven at 475 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes. Again, you should baste in this time. If there's no juice to baste with, consider adding more champagne...or if you've already drank it or refuse to use more, add chicken broth, or in desperate times, water. I think it would be better to cover the chicken with aluminum foil at this point than to add water, though. It's already browned, and the hot oven will only dry out the breast if there's no basting juice left.

It's really nice to have some pan juices left over, so there's something to pour over the mashed celeriac. Heaven does not come on its own. It is certainly not inevitable.

You really can taste the champagne. It's not too sweet on its own, but it's a beautiful way to add some flavour to simple roast chicken breasts. I can appreciate Mireille Guiliano's quest for easy recipes, as looking to enhance the natural flavour of the food is a very French way of cooking, but if you can't find or can't afford organic chicken breasts or a decent prosecco, champgne or dry sparkling wine, this recipe will leave you disappointed. If that's the case, make more salad dressing and tear the chicken breast apart in frustration. Then shred it over the roasted squash salad and toss with the extra dressing. You may even develop a taste for walnuts, since they'll have more flavour than a ho-hum chicken au champagne. The upside is that you'll have enough alcohol left to forget about it, and that's what dinner parties are really about. Well, that and good company.