This Chicken Breast with a Walnut Aillade elevates boring plain chicken into an easy gourmet meal! What is a Walnut Aillaide Sauce? It’s a garlic sauce. This sauce is made with walnuts, walnut oil, and, garlic and fresh parsley. With a food processor, it takes a minute or two to make and it turns into a creamy emulsion. Chicken is marinated in plain yogurt, and then pan seared and topped with this sauce. It’s a quick and delicious meal. As an optional condiment, I topped this with my savory tomato jam recipe atop a mound of creamy polenta. Restaurant quality, for sure!
In my last post, I shared how I made a Savory Tomato Jam. The recipe for Chicken Breasts with a Walnut Aillade comes from “Two Fat Ladies“. If you’ve never watched their show, it’s quite interesting. I’ve caught a few episodes on the Cooking Channel, and their British humor is quite entertaining. So, what is an aillade sauce? It’s a garlic sauce. I loved the simplicity of the sauce, that is the star of this show. I thought this would be a perfect work night dinner– and it was. Within the last minutes of making this dish, I was inspired to top the chicken off with some tomato jam. It was a great idea, my husband said. He loved the whole dish.
Whole foods had a terrific sale on free-range boneless chicken breasts, so I stocked up and froze a few packages. I thawed the chicken, in the fridge, the night before. The chicken is marinated in plain yogurt with fresh lemon juice– for about 30 minutes.
I usually keep a container of Fage Greek Yogurt on hand. I love how thick it is, and the non-fat version is excellent. But, any kind of plain yogurt will work.
Seasoned the chicken with just salt and pepper and set them into the yogurt and lemon juice…
The sauce is very simple to make. (A food processor plays a helpful role). Begin with two ounces of fresh garlic. (I used two large cloves.) I always keep shelled walnuts in the freezer– grab a large handful, or about 2 1/2 ounces. Add about one Tablespoon of water, and grind the walnuts. Season the ground walnuts with some salt…
Spoon over the aillade (walnut sauce) and cook over low heat until chicken is done (just a few minutes more).
I’m on a polenta kick, as of late. I make mine with chicken stock, Parmesan cheese and sometimes a little mascarpone cheese or either heavy cream or half and half. At first, I thought I’d make mashed potatoes, but the polenta called my name. So, there’s the final dish. I think it took about thirty minutes to make.
Pan-Fried Chicken Breasts with Walnut Aillade
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 ounces shelled walnuts
- 2 cloves garlic peeled
- Salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup 1/2 walnut oil (or olive oil
- Handful chopped parsley
- 4 boneless, skinless, chicken breasts
- 1 cuppint plain yogurt
- 1-2 Tbsp. Lemon juice
- walnut oil or peanut oil
Instructions
- In a food processor grind the walnuts and garlic. Add 1 tablespoon cold water to help. Season with salt and pepper and slowly beat in the oil until you have a thick sauce almost like a mayonnaise. Stir in the parsley.
- Marinate the chicken breasts in the yogurt, seasoned with salt, pepper and lemon juice for 1/2 hour. Wipe off surplus yogurt.
- Heat some oil in a frying pan and pan fry the chicken for about 3 minutes each side to sear. Spoon over the aillade (walnut sauce and cook over low heat until chicken is done.
- Optional: Serve over creamy polenta and top with Savory Tomato Jam (recipe link in notes)
Notes
Nutrition
Savory Tomato Jam
adds an extra layer of flavor to many dishes. It's great on seafood,
too. I made this recipe when I had a dish, at a local restaurant, that
had a lemon-rosemary grilled chicken, served on risotto cakes with a
dollop of tomato jam. I loved it so much, that I went home to figure out
how to make it myself. I think I succeeded! For example, place a mound
of this on seasoned grilled chicken. Delicious!
Ingredients
- 2 pints small tomatoes cherry and/or pear; about 4 cups
- 2 tsp coarse salt & a few twists of the pepper mill
- 1/4 cup brown sugar can increase, up to 1/2 cup, if you like it sweeter
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 small onion chopped
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1 Tbsp. sugar
- 1/8 tsp. red pepper flakes
- 1-1/2 cups water or enough to just cover the tomatoes
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- 1-1/2 tsp dried thyme
Instructions
- Wash tomatoes and drain.
- Add tomatoes to a pot and season with salt & pepper.
- Add the sugar, vinegar, onion, garlic and red pepper flakes.
- Add approximately 1-1/2 cups water, or enough to just cover the tomatoes.
- Add the juice of 1/2 lemon and thyme (can use fresh, if desired, but double the amount)
- Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduced to a low simmer.
- Allow to reduce until thickened, and most of the water has evaporated–time varies between 20-30 minutes, possibly more. Just watch it carefully so that it doesn’t dry out and burn.
- Can be stored in an airtight container, in the refrigerator, for a couple of weeks.
Nutrition
Everything here looks yummy and very interesting. The Walnut sauce looks so flavorful and I like how it emulsifies in the food processor like that. I also love that you marinate the chicken in the Greek Yogurt, I am definitely going to try that. I'm sorry I missed the sale at Whole Foods – that's a great deal!
This is definitely my kind of dish Debby. I have coveted your tomato jam!!
Walnuts are so scrumptious (and not just in desserts)! This looks fabulous, Debby.
I could live on Fage yogurt!
I really like the way this sounds, Debby. I'll have to try it. Time is a problem now, but when I get to it I'll let you know how it was received by my gang. Because it comes from you, I don't suspect there will be a problem:-). Have a wonderful weekend. Blessings…Mary
Everything here looks good.
Wow this whole meal, every aspect, sounds absolutely amazing…from the walnut sauce to the tomato jam. And then you served it over polenta. You're basically my hero.
I love the Fat Ladies and their crazy affectations (trilling their rs for example). I know one of them is dead now (the lifestyle they bragged about got the better of them after all) but she must have died happy.
Lovely sauce. I'm mildly allergic to walnuts, so I wonder if it would work with another nut. I do find boiling the nuts first cuts the itchey mouth issue though.