Daring Chicken with Pecan Cream Sauce

What an interesting choice for this months Daring Cooks Challenge!  The July 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Margie of More Please and Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make their own nut butter from scratch, and use the nut butter in a recipe. Their sources include Better with Nut Butter by Cooking Light Magazine, Asian Noodles by Nina Simonds, and Food Network online.

Since I have pecans most mornings with my oatmeal.......I have a large bag of of pecans in my fridge.  I decided to try and make this challenge without purchasing any odd ingredients that I might never use up.  I opted to make chicken with pecan cream sauce.  I must admit that I got confused a bit about the directions and started looking to find a recipe using nut butter on my own and ended up with combination of the recipe provided and one that I found on the internet that had quite similar ingredients.......so this is my take on the challenge.  This recipe worked out perfectly for me as I had 3 egg yolks sitting in the fridge from the previous pavlova challenge:)  Waste not want not....and all that!

I was surprised at how quickly the toasted pecans were processed into butter!  I used my Bamix food grinder attachment and it was perfect for the small 3/4 cup volume of nuts that I was dealing with.  I was also surprised at how runny the nut butter was.  You can tell from the photo above that it is runny even with no liquids added....that is just processed nuts.  The sauce recipe that I chose to make called for what I thought was too much sugar and so I cut back from the 1/3 cup called for to 1/4 cup and would in future reduce that to 2 tbsp.  The sauce ended up being somewhere between nutella and peanut sate in flavour.  DH quite liked the recipe while my son liked it without the sauce.

To see the results of other Daring Cooks....look here.

Apple Filled Chicken with Pecan Cream Sauce.
3 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1/4 cup mild cheese, I used Yorkshire Wensleydale with cranberry because that's what I had
1 Granny Smith apple - peeled, cored and thinly sliced
1/4 cup finely diced onion, sauted
2 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
3 egg yolks
2 Tbsp white sugar
1/3 cup white wine
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup Pecan Butter
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly oil a baking pan.
2. Using a sharp knife, carefully cut a large pocket in each chicken breast. (Hint: Cutting close to the smooth side of the breast ensures no holes in the chicken.) Place 1/3 of the cheese inside each chicken, followed by 1/3 of the apple slices, and a small amount  onion, to suit your tastes. Pull the chicken back together, brush with a small amount of melted butter, and coat with breadcrumbs. Place stuffed breasts on baking pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until no longer pink, and juices run clear.(about 165F)
4. While the chicken bakes, you may start your sauce. In a double boiler over lightly simmering water, combine the egg yolks and sugar. Beat until the yolk lightens and froth forms. Slowly add the wine, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens. Remove from the heat and stir in the pecans and vanilla. The sauce looks nice served under the chicken with a small amount drizzled over it.