French Fridays with Dorie: Cinnamon-crunch chicken

This week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe was intriguing to say the least. Pan fried chicken breast coated in a mixture of crème fraîche and speculoos crumbs, aka cinnamon crunch chicken.  Yes, you read it right. I approached this with some trepidation as it just sounds wrong. It took about 10 minutes to pull together…

I couldn’t find speculoos here so I used some cinnamon-ginger snaps… I thought the slight kick of the ginger would do well with the chicken….

Crème fraîche is used in this recipe because it is able to be heated up without breaking (sour cream will break when heated up). You mix the crumbs of a few cookies into the crème and then once the chicken is cooked and browned all round, you mix in the crème and stir until the chicken is thoroughly coated in the sauce.

I served this on crisp green and yellow beans for some contrast in colour and texture…

Wowzers – what a surprise! So subtle.  The tang of the crème worked well with the sweetness of the cookie. I loved the texture contrast as well – cream and crunch and tender chicken.

A real revelation – I will definitely be making this again or at least a variation on it. So easy you could whip it up after work one night and be sitting down to a classy meal in under an hour. Merci Dorie!

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44 thoughts on “French Fridays with Dorie: Cinnamon-crunch chicken”

  1. This looks so pretty, Mardi! I’m happy you enjoyed this. I couldn’t find any creme fraiche and had been wanting to try the speculoos anyways so I baked some for this week. They are cooling off as I type.

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  2. Interesting, indeed! Sounds more Belgian than French and definitely worth a try for a great, speedy supper. I tried something like this with fish the other day and although the kids adore speculoos, they asked for it, strangely, without the topping. They were wrong. Can’t go wrong with this one! Love your colourful green beans with it.

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  3. I think I was a little less suspicious than Mardi, though it did appear slightly odd when she listed ingredients.

    Very pleased with the result…flavourful, but on the “tame” side: a pleasant meal. I know that sounds decidedly underwhelming, but not every dish needs to hit you over the head with a 2×4. Even for Mr. Neil. 🙂

    I paired this with a bright, hoppy English-style “Adam’s Honour” IPA (India Pale Ale). For you Americans reading, this is *not* the currently faddish American overly-hopped style. Nice bitterness, but not so strong as to overwhelm the subtlety of the dish.

    Definitely a repeat request.

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  4. I met Dorie this week at the Greenbrier, and she is absolutely lovely. We discussed this recipe and she demoed her new iPad app which is 5 star all the way!

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  5. I though about buying ginger snaps, I even had them in my hand at the grocery store, but knowing that the speculoos will be in the stores shortly made me decide to wait it out. However, yours looks great and now I am also thinking that the ginger taste would probably work well with the chicken. To be honest, I was a little wary of this one as well, but now seeing everyone else’s tasty dishes gives me a little more courage.

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  6. I should’ve thought to crumble extra cookies on top of the chicken just before serving so that way, I could have had the crunchy texture too. Btw, love the look of those yellow beans…so unusual (to me, anyway).

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  7. Oddly enough, I just noticed crème fraîche in the grocery store this week while picking up some sour creme and wondered what it would be used for. Love that you chose yellow and green beans to go with this dish. This looks like a recipe I will definitely try.

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  8. Yep…ginger snaps. Me too. Lots more flavor and I dumped in a little cinnamon for more flavor. I think we have found a better cookie for this recipe. I like that it is quick and tastes good our way.

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  9. This looks great! I couldn’t find the cookies she calls for in this recipe, so I sat this one out. I didn’t even think of ginger snaps! Great substitution, I’ll go back and try it with those too.

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  10. Quickly reading this post title I was like Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal – on chicken??? I was intrigued, but am happy to see that your dish sounds much more refined and pretty than what I was expecting. Speculoos make it much more classy than cereal. Lol. 😀

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  11. SO gorgeous on top of green beans…you figured a way to make this bland looking but delicious chicken look great. I agree…a nice subtle flavor…really tasty!

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