Chicken with mushrooms in a Madeira sauce recipe

This classic, creamy chicken dish makes a perfect romantic dinner for two

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 free-range skinless chicken breasts (see top tip, below)
• 1 small onion, peeled and sliced
• 1 clove garlic, peeled and kept whole
• 100ml (3½fl oz) white wine
• 4 tbsp Madeira (or Marsala or dry sherry)
• 142ml carton double cream
• Knob of butter
• 3 portabellini or chestnut mushrooms, sliced
• New potatoes and sugar-snap peas, to serve

Method

1. Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the chicken, skinned-side down, along with the onion slices and garlic clove. Cook over a medium heat for 5 minutes, then turn the chicken over and stir the onion occasionally.
2. Pour in the white wine and let it reduce by half. Stir in the Madeira and simmer for a couple of minutes. Add the cream and simmer for a few more minutes, until heated through and thickened a little. Turn off the heat and leave to rest for a couple of minutes.
3. Heat the butter in a small pan and cook the mushrooms for 2 minutes.
4. Take the chicken out of the pan and slice it through, if you like. Reheat the sauce, remove the garlic, and spoon sauce on to 2 warm plates. Place the chicken on the sauce and arrange the mushrooms on top. Serve with potatoes and sugar-snap peas.