The Thrifty Cat who got the cream.....

So this weekend was a bit of a quiet one, I just exercised and chilled out with the fella and his family. It was a lovely one but I didn't get much cooking done. I ate healthily but didn't do much cooking from scratch, more like chicken wraps on the go etc so it was lovely to get back into the kitchen today and experiment with a recipe.
On my previous post I asked for peoples suggestions for 'healthier' versions of their favourite dishes. On Facebook I received some fabulous ideas and today was my first try.
A friend of mine LOVES Pollo alla Crema (chicken in a cream sauce), but at a restaurant or a homemade version the calories from vary from anything between 390 to 500+ calories! Not even factoring in the rice or pasta to serve it with you could be looking at 700+ calories for a meal!
So my challenge was to cut the calories and try and keep the taste as close to the real thing as possible. I have managed to cut down the dish to a mere 275 calories! If you serve with brown rice or brown pasta then you are going to have a meal for less than 500 calories, which although not suitable every night (due to the cream) is certainly worth banging out now and again!

The following recipe will serve 4. (Please note I have no idea if this is an authentic recipe however most recipes I found included all of the same ingredients and that's what I 'tweaked')

Pollo Alla Crema

Ingredients:

Diced Turkey Breast or Turkey Steaks diced (I used a 434g pack from Tesco. Less than £3. I also chose Turkey over Chicken as its slightly leaner and more cost effective)

100ml single cream

200ml weight watchers reduced fat creme fraiche 

1 large onion diced

2 garlic cloves crushed

1 x chicken stock cube dissolved in 500ml boiling water

1 egg yolk

1 tsp Dijon Mustard

Mushrooms 200-250g (depends on how much you like them! I found 200g was fine)

1 tsp sugar

175 ml white wine

Method:

- Spray some fry light into a large frying pan and seal the chicken/turkey pieces, transfer to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm.

- Spray pan with fry light again and on a very low heat add the onions and the tsp of sugar. Cook until soft and caramelised  (around 10 minutes)

- Stir in the garlic and cook on a low heat again for a few minutes. Re-add the chicken at this point along with the mushrooms.

- Add the wine and simmer and reduce until its practically disappeared.

- At this point add the chicken stock and reduce again (takes around 10 minutes) then stir in the dijon mustard.

- Stir in the creme fraiche and single cream and simmer until the sauce thickens. When it has thickened enough (it takes inbetween 5-10 mins) then take off the heat and slowly stir in the egg yolk. Put back on the hob and simmer for a few mins. 

- It is now ready to serve. You can have this with either Pasta (Tagliatelle would be nice) or Rice. I served mine with Brown Rice and it came in at 490 Calories. A good few hundred less than the original recipe and still very creamy and nice.

Enjoy!