French cuisine · Dough, Pasta & Rice

Bouchée à la Reine

Crisp puff pastry cases filled with chicken, veal quenelles and mushrooms in a light cream sauce.

Ingredients · for 4 servings

• 4 puff pastry vol-au-vent cases
• 300 g chicken breast fillet
• 250 g ground veal
• 250 g mushrooms
• 1 shallot
• 40 g butter
• 40 g flour
• 400 ml chicken stock
• 150 ml cream
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 egg yolk
• Salt, pepper, nutmeg

Instructions

1. Cut the chicken breast into 2 cm cubes, quarter the mushrooms and finely chop the shallot; shape the ground veal, seasoned with salt, pepper and nutmeg, into small dumplings 2 cm in diameter.
2. Bring the chicken stock to the boil, poach the chicken cubes and dumplings in it over low heat for 8 min until cooked through, then lift out and reserve the stock.
3. In a second pan, melt the butter, sweat the shallot until translucent, stir in the flour and cook for 2 min without letting it colour.
4. Gradually pour in the hot stock, stirring until smooth, and simmer gently for 10 min until the sauce is thick; add the mushrooms and cook for a further 5 min.
5. Whisk the cream and egg yolk together, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the liaison – the sauce must not boil again – then season with lemon juice, salt and nutmeg.
6. Warm the meat and dumplings through in the sauce, heat the pastry cases at 180 °C for 8 min, fill to the brim, put the lids on and serve immediately.