Dijon chicken -- braised chicken in a creamy mustard and white wine sauce

Break the chicken down into four pieces, or use thighs. Salt and pepper both sides.

Dust one side with flour to take the moisture off the skin, which stops it sticking.

Melt 40 g of butter in a sauté pan and start the chicken skin side down.

Colour on a medium to medium-high heat, patiently, even with the pan crowded. A little more than five minutes a side, then turn and repeat.

Add bay leaves and a bit of dry thyme. Garlic or shallot could go in but this recipe has none; it relies on the caramelised chicken juices in the bottom of the pan.

Deglaze with barely 200 ml of white wine -- a shallow braise, not a soak -- and bring to the boil.

Cover and braise 20 to 25 minutes, or as long as the pieces need; breasts can come out earlier if you are worried about overcooking.

Preheat the oven to 50 degrees Celsius. Scoop the cooked chicken out, cover it with foil on a tray and hold it in the oven while the sauce is made.

Remove the aromatics, filter the cooking juices through a small sieve into another container, clean the pan and put the juices back. Leave the fat and the impurities in for taste.

Bring the cooking juices to a boil. If there is too much wine, reduce until the juices taste slightly acidic but strongly of chicken.

Add 200 ml of cream and reduce one or two minutes until it coats the spoon. All the reduction has to happen now -- once the mustard and eggs are in the sauce cannot be boiled again.

Mix the two egg yolks with some of the hot sauce in a bowl, then stir that back into the pan with a whisk or a spoon, off the boil. The original recipe adds the cream, mustard and yolks together; adding the cream first lets you set the consistency before binding.

Off the heat, add a heaped tablespoon of Dijon mustard, mix and taste, and add more if you want it more mustardy.

Season with white pepper and a little Espelette pepper.

Warm the sauce on a very low heat, stirring constantly, to part-cook the eggs and thicken it -- the same effect as a custard. A minute or two.

Stir the leftover cooking juices in, return the chicken piece by piece and serve, either drenched in the sauce or sitting on it. Mashed potato alongside.