Light Bouchées à la Reine (Chicken Vol-au-vents)

📝 Ingredients

• 4 large puff pastry vol-au-vent cases (about 30 g each)
• 400 g chicken breast (2 fillets of about 200 g each)
• 200 g minced veal, 15 % fat
• 300 g button mushrooms
• 1 shallot (about 30 g)
• 20 g unsalted butter + 30 g plain flour
• 1 chicken stock cube + 600 ml hot water
• 100 ml light cream, 12 % fat + 1 egg yolk
• ½ lemon (for the juice)
• 200 g long-grain rice
• 10 g fresh parsley
• Salt, black pepper, nutmeg

🍴 Utensils

• Large saucepan and sieve
• Medium saucepan
• Large sauté pan
• Whisk
• Slotted spoon
• Baking sheet

📖 Steps

1. Season the minced veal with salt, pepper and a pinch of nutmeg, then shape about twenty cherry-sized meatballs (10 g each) between wet palms. Cut the chicken into 2 cm cubes.
2. Dissolve the stock cube in the 600 ml of hot water in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer (small bubbles, never a rolling boil). Poach the chicken for 6 min, adding the meatballs after 2 min, then lift everything out with a slotted spoon. Keep the stock.
3. Rinse the rice in a sieve until the water runs clear, then cook it for 11 to 12 min in a large pan of boiling salted water (according to the packet). Drain it, return it to the pan and keep it covered, off the heat, until serving.
4. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 160 °C. Clean the mushrooms with damp kitchen paper, slice them and finely chop the shallot. Fry them in a large sauté pan with the butter over a medium heat for 6 to 8 min, until their liquid has evaporated and they are starting to brown.
5. Sprinkle the flour over the mushrooms and stir for 1 min to cook it without letting it colour. Gradually pour in 400 ml of the poaching stock, whisking constantly to avoid lumps, then leave to thicken for 5 min over a low heat.
6. In a bowl, whisk the cream with the egg yolk, pour in a ladleful of the hot sauce while whisking, then pour everything back into the sauté pan. Heat for 2 min over a very low heat without boiling, or the yolk will curdle.
7. Add the chicken, the meatballs and the juice of the half lemon, season with salt and pepper and grate in a little nutmeg. Reheat for 3 min over a low heat: the sauce should coat the back of a spoon (if not, loosen it with a little of the remaining stock). At the same time, put the pastry cases in the oven on the baking tray for 5 min.
8. Carefully remove the lids from the pastry cases, fill them generously with the piping hot ragout, sprinkle with snipped parsley and put the lids back on. Serve immediately with the rice topped with the rest of the sauce: filled too early, the pastry cases go soft.