Bouchee a la Reine

A recipe I want to share happens to be one of Vincent's favorite.   Sophie likes it because of the meatballs.  It kind of reminds me of a chicken pot pie but totally different at the same time, if that makes any sense.  This is my personal recipe that I developed and modified to our family tastes.

Ingredients

Meatballs:
.5 lb ground pork
1/4 cup Breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 teaspoon parsley
pinch of nutmeg
Salt
Pepper

Mix all ingredients together and make very small meatballs. Put meatballs in a pot of water. Bring to a soft boil until meatballs are done. Set aside.

Sauce:
4 tablespoons Butter
4 tablespoons Flour
32 oz (2 lb) (907 g) chicken or vegetable stock
8 oz (227 g) Sliced Crimini mushrooms
Roasted chicken from your local supermarket
Cream
Lemon juice

Bouchees are pastry shells you can buy pre made ready to fill or frozen. My favorite is Gourmet Pidy. There are 4 bouchees in a box. Refer to package for heating instructions.

Note: Veloute sauce "is a rich white sauce made with chicken, veal, pork or fish stock, thickened with cream or egg yolks."

The beginning stages of making the sauce starts out as a roux, then later becomes the veloute sauce.

Instructions:
In a medium sized pot or stockpot, make the veloute and/or roux sauce by melting butter completely. Turn off burner. Add flour slowly until smooth. Turn fire back on stove and cook until slightly beige/brown. Add chicken stock, stir and let it come to a soft boil, stirring occasionally until smooth.

In the meantime, melt butter in a sauté pan. Add mushrooms, salt and pepper, until mushrooms are slightly brown. Drain mushrooms on paper towel.

Roasted chicken:  Shred chicken in small pieces

Add meatballs, mushrooms and shredded chicken. Add salt and pepper to your taste. Allow sauce to thicken to your preference (I prefer it thin, while Vince likes it thicker, so ours is somewhere in between). At the end, add a little cream. Cook for another minute or two. Lastly, add about 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. At this point, it is ready.

Spoon veloute sauce over bouchees and enjoy.

Preparation Time:  1 hr

Cooking Time:  30 mins

Eating Time: 5 mins for Vince, 15 mins for MA, 30 mins for Sophie