Chicken Crepes
Ingredients
Chicken Filling
5 tablespoons butter
1⁄4 cup all purpose flour
Salt, to taste
1 1⁄2 cups milk
1 bunch green onions, chopped
2 cups chicken, cooked and cut in 1⁄4” cubes
1⁄2 cup white wine
1⁄4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1⁄8 teaspoon pepper
Dash cayenne
Crepes
1 cup milk
3⁄4 cup all purpose flour
1⁄4 teaspoon salt
Oil for skillet
2 eggs
Topping
1 egg yolk
1⁄8 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons butter, melted
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1⁄4 cup sour cream
Parmesan cheese, grated
Instructions
1. Make Chicken Filling: To make white sauce, melt 4 tablespoons butter in medium saucepan; remove from heat. Stir in 1⁄4 cup flour and 1⁄2 teaspoon salt until smooth. Gradually stir in milk; bring to boiling, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. Remove from heat, and set aside.
2. In 1 tablespoon hot butter in medium skillet, sauté green onion 1 minute. Add chicken; sauté 2 minutes longer. Add wine, 1⁄4 teaspoon salt, the Worcestershire, pepper, and cayenne; cook over medium heat, stirring 3 minutes. Stir in 1 cup of the white sauce just until blended. Refrigerate while making crepes. Set aside remaining white sauce for topping.
3. Make Crepes: In medium bowl, with rotary beater, beat milk with flour and salt until smooth. Add eggs; beat until well combined. Or blend the crepe ingredients in a blender until smooth. (You can do this with a hand blender or a real blender.)
4. Slowly heat a 5 1⁄2-inch skillet until a little water sizzles when dropped on it. Brush pan lightly with oil. Pour about 1 1⁄2 tablespoons batter into skillet, tilting pan so batter covers bottom. (I pour the batter from a 2-cup measuring cup. It makes this process much easier.)
5. Cook until nicely browned on underside. Loosen edge; turn; cook until browned on other side. Remove from pan; cool on wire rack. Then stack on waxed paper. Repeat with rest of batter, to make about 18 crepes. Lightly brush pan with oil before cooking each one.
6. Preheat oven to 350*F. Remove filling from refrigerator. Spoon 1 rounded tablespoon into each crepe; fold two opposite sides over filling. Arrange in shallow baking dish, seam side up; cover with foil. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, or until heated through.
7. Meanwhile, make Topping: In small bowl, with rotary beater, beat egg yolk with salt until foamy. Gradually beat in 2 tablespoons melted butter. Mix remaining butter with lemon juice, gradually beat into egg yolk mixture. With wire whisk or rubber scrapper, fold in remaining white sauce just until combined. Fold in sour cream. (I’ve always done all of this mixing with a fork, not a rotary beater.)
8. Uncover hot crepes. Spoon topping over them; sprinkle lightly with grated Parmesan cheese. Broil, 4 to 6 inches from heat, until nicely browned. If desired, carefully transfer to chafing dish.
Comments
When I was 13 or 14, my mom and brother went on a trip to visit colleges that my brother was interested in. This left me home with my dad and I remember being pretty excited about planning meals and cooking for the two of us. I had mentioned to my mom that I was interested in making chicken crepes, so she helped me find a recipe in one of her many cookbooks. I can’t even remember what the cookbook was called, I think it might have been something like “McCall’s French Cuisine.” I pretty sure that the requirement for a recipe to be in this cookbook is “must dirty every pot in a normal household, plus one.”
I believe that the original recipe called for curry powder and maybe heavy cream instead of the sour cream? I’m not entirely sure, though, as I’ve been making it this way for so long that I can’t imagine having it any other way.
I’m pretty sure that was during the phase I went through where I refused to touch raw meat, so my mom even cut the chicken into cubes for me before she left with my brother.
The big night came and I started cooking dinner around 5pm, thinking that it would take about an hour and be ready at 6pm. My dad was working in the basement. Around 6pm he asked how much time he had to keep working and I said, probably sheepishly, “another hour?”
7pm rolled around and I called down the stairs to him, asking if he was feeling super hungry. I guessed that dinner was probably still about an hour out.
If memory serves me correctly, we probably ate around 8pm that night, if not closer to 9pm.
In the 18 years I’ve been cooking this recipe, I have gotten much faster and more frugal in my pot usage. It now only uses 2 skillets, a saucepan, a blender, and only an hour or so! Impressive, eh? I still wonder what I did that first time to make this so complicated!
This is definitely a well-loved recipe in my family and it’s always the first recipe that comes to mind when I want to impress new friends and company. It’s safe to say that everyone who has eaten in my home has eaten this, assuming they eat chicken.
McCall’s French Cuisine