Poulet sauté Alice (chicken with cognac mushroom cream sauce)

Melt the butter with about a tablespoon of olive oil in a cast iron pot over medium to medium-low heat, never high, since butter burns.

Salt the chicken (no pepper yet, it can burn) and lay it skin side down with space between pieces; leave it to color without moving, timer set for 25 minutes.

Meanwhile quarter the mushrooms and saute in a little olive oil over medium-high with salt and pepper until lightly colored.

After 8 to 10 minutes turn the chicken over and keep cooking.

Reduce the brown chicken stock over high heat to about 100 ml to concentrate it.

After a good 15 minutes or more, depending on size, move the chicken to a tray, cover with foil and keep in a 70C oven; pour off and keep the excess fat.

Over low to medium heat, then high, cook the shallots and mushrooms in the caramelized juices.

Deglaze with the white wine and cognac, scraping up the juices, and reduce by about half.

Add a grind of pepper and all the reduced stock; reduce by a third to a half.

Stir in the cream, at least 100 ml; return the thighs and braise 10 minutes.

Return the breasts for a few minutes to reheat; check the core reaches 65 to 70C, then two or three minutes more turning the pieces.

Turn off the heat; adjust salt and pepper only at the end. Optionally remove the chicken and reduce the sauce over medium-high to the thickness wanted.

Serve the chicken with the sauce and mushrooms beside it, finished with a little parsley.