Chicken in cream sauce with morel mushrooms

Soak the dried morels in hot water at least one to two hours and keep the soaking liquor.

Press the soaked morels in a strainer set over a bowl and reserve the juice; do not discard it.

Rinse each morel under running water and press it clean to remove all traces of sand.

Strain the reserved mushroom juice through a very fine sieve so no sand carries through.

Cut the larger morels in half so all the pieces are about the same size.

Season the chicken pieces lightly with salt and a bit of pepper. Chop the shallots thinly lengthways.

Bring the sherry to the boil for about 30 seconds so the excess alcohol evaporates.

Melt a little butter in the cast iron pan over low heat until foaming, add the chicken and colour it three to four minutes a side. It only needs a little colour, not browning, and is not cooked through at this stage.

Set the chicken aside on a tray. Keep the heat at medium at most so the butter does not burn. Sweat the shallots one to two minutes.

Add the morels, with a little more butter if needed, and cook one to two minutes.

Add the sherry and reduce it by about half.

Add about 100 ml of the mushroom stock, raise to medium-high and reduce.

Add a pinch of salt and a little chicken stock to correct the seasoning.

Add cream, barely covering the morels, and boil hard on high heat to reduce to a good consistency. The reduction took about ten minutes.

Return the chicken juices and then the chicken pieces to the sauce.

Cover and finish cooking ten to fifteen minutes until the chicken is tender. The sauce should nap a spoon.

variation: for more mushroom taste add more of the mushroom stock; for more alcohol add a little more sherry.

Plate the chicken breast with the pasta, a little parsley on the pasta, and serve the sauce from a sauce boat.