Ingredients

• 4 Chicken Breasts (Boneless, Skin-On)
• 100ml White Wine
• 200ml Brown Chicken Stock
• 200ml Passata
• 250g King Oyster Mushrooms (Cleaned, Trimmed, Cut in Half and lightly scored)
• 2tbsp Tomato Paste
• 2 Roma Tomatoes (skinned, de-seeded, and diced)
• 2 shallots, very finely chopped
• 1 Garlic Clove (finely diced)
• 2 Sprigs Thyme
• 2 Bay Leaves
• 1 star anise
• 1 Bunch Parsley (washed and roughly chopped)

Instructions

1. Season your chicken breasts with salt and pepper.
2. Heat a large sauté pan over medium high heat until very hot.  Add 1tbsp olive oil to the pan and sauté the diced tomatoes for 1min.  When done, remove and set aside.  Repeat this process with the king oyster mushrooms, season the mushrooms with salt and sauté until golden brown all over (approximately 4-5mins).  When done, remove and set aside.
3. In the same sauté pan used for cooking the tomatoes and mushrooms, add a little more oil and cook your chicken breasts skin side down under medium low heat.  Cook the chicken breasts skin side down for approximately 5-6mins, and about 2/3 of the way cooked through.  Remove your breasts and set aside.
4. Add your shallots and garlic to the pan and cook until lightly brown and translucent.  Add your tomato paste and cook for 1-2min, to remove some of the acidity.  Add your bay leaves, star anise and thyme, and deglaze the pan with white wine.  Turn up the heat to high and reduce your white wine till syrupy.  Add your chicken stock and passata and bring to a boil.
5. When the mixture comes to a boil, return your chicken breasts back to the pan and reduce the heat down to low and gently simmer/poach your chicken breasts until down (internal temperature 165ºF).  When done, remove and set aside your chicken.
6. Pass your sauce through a strainer.
7. Place a generous amount of sauce at the bottom of your dish/plate.  Add your chicken, mushrooms, and garnish with your diced tomatoes and chopped parsley.

Notes

• This is a simple, hearty and delicious chicken and mushroom recipe that’s great for either weekday or weekend dinner.
• If possible, try to find passata (tomato sauce) from San Marzano tomatoes.  Their much more flavourful and sweeter than regular tomatoes, and will give your dish a lot more character and depth.
• It’s important you don’t overcook your chicken, as you’re cooking chicken breasts which is quite lean and unforgiving unfortunately.
• Depending on the size and shape of your sauté pan, you may or may not need to add a little more liquid (chicken stock and passata) to your pan in order to properly cook/poach your chicken.  You basically want enough liquid to come into contact with the bottom 1/3 of the chicken breasts, so that the chicken cooks efficiently but not so much liquid that it floods and completely submerges the chicken making the skin limp and soggy.
• It’s optional whether or not you wish to strain the sauce at the end.  I simply did it to make it a little more elegant.  Having a few bits of garlic, thyme and shallots won’t harm the dish at all.
• I lightly scored the surface of the mushrooms not for the sake of presentation but to help the mushrooms cook quicker and more evenly by allowing the heat to better penetrate the center through the cut surface.  Also the scored surface will help the salt cling onto the surface of the mushrooms better through the groves.
• Traditionally button mushrooms are used for this dish, I simply used king oyster mushrooms as I find them a bit more robust and flavourful than regular mushrooms.  You could of course substitute the king oyster mushrooms with another variety of mushrooms.