Italian Night: Roasted Chicken with Chanterelle Red Wine Yogurt Sauce

I took an italian cooking class last week with my family and loved it!  We were celebrating my cousin's 17th birthday and we all had a blast.  We also made some amazing food.  


The highlight for me was a chanterelle wine sauce we made with the main course.  We mixed in some heavy cream and parmesan and it was to die for.  Definitely not an every night of the week kind of thing.


But it was so delicious I immediately started thinking of substitutes for the cream.  This is going directly against everything the teacher in the cooking class told us about not substituting milk for cream [because it doesn't have the milk fats to keep the sauce together].  I don't think I can argue that the bacterial cultures in yogurt will work any better to keep the sauce from separating! 


So I decided to try mixing the yogurt with 1 part yogurt and 1 part water. And add it at the very end so it didn't reduce enough to separate.  It worked perfectly - just to add a bit of creamy probiotics and turn this dish into one that you can justify enjoying on a nightly basis.


And voila: easy, healthy and delicious roast chicken with a chanterelle red-wine-yogurt sauce.  Buon Appetito!

Ingredients:
For the Chicken (I got this delicious marinade from the cooking class as well!):
1) Two chicken breasts
2) 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
3) 1/2 tsp rosemary
4) Zest of half a lemon
5) 1 tbsp olive oil
6) Black pepper
7) 2 garlic cloves, minced


For the Sauce:
1) 1 large garlic clove, minced
2) 2 small shallots, chopped
3) Handful of chanterelle mushrooms
4) 2/3 cup of red wine
5) 2/3 cup low sodium beef broth
6) 2 tsp corn starch and 2 tsp cold water, whisked together
7) 1/4 cup yogurt and 1/4 cup warm water, whisked together
8) Olive oil
9) Salt and pepper
10) Asparagus spears, cut in half
11) Gnocchi (I just used store bought - this was a weeknight meal after all!)


Directions:
1) Mix together chicken marinade ingredients. Marinade chicken for an hour or two in the fridge.
2) Preheat oven to 400.
3) Add chicken breasts and cook for 20-25 minutes, depending on how thick they are.  Let the chicken breasts rest for 5 minutes before slicing them.
4) Boil water for gnocchi.  Add gnocchi and cook until gnocchi rises to the top of the pot.  Strain and add some olive oil to keep them from sticking.
5) In the meantime, heat up olive oil in a pan.  Add shallots and garlic on medium-high heat. Add chanterelle mushrooms.
6) Add red wine.  When the red wine starts bubbling along the sides of the pan, add beef broth. 
7) Add asparagus spears and begin reducing.
8) Stir in your corn starch
         *Make sure the corn starch is mixed with equal part cold water, and the 
           sauce is hot when you add it to avoid clumping. 
9) Add yogurt mixture and gnocchi and turn heat down.
10) Season with S & P to taste.

Garnish with rosemary sprigs, serve with a nice bottle of chianti and enjoy your italian evening!