G found lovely asparagus at the Amish Market, imported from somewhere of course, but the ends were not hard and dried up the way one usually finds them in a grocery store, and they quite tender with very little that needed trimming away.
Often, when I make this dish I cook the sauce until it is very rich and thick and just barely coats the vegetables and chicken. This time I cooked it less so that it was more like a thick broth in the bottom of the bowl, giving us an excuse to drop our popovers into the plate and soak up the wonderful liquid.
Now that is springtime heaven.
Chicken with Morels and Asparagus
2 cups Chicken Stock
½ pound morels
1 pound asparagus
1 shallot, thinly sliced
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon tarragon
½ teaspoon pepper
¼ cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon olive oil
Trim the ends off the asparagus and peel the larger stalks if tough, reserving the stems and peels. Trim any hard ends from the morels. Cut the remaining asparagus into 1 inch long sections and set aside.
Preheat oven to 200 degrees.
Place chicken stock, asparagus and morel trimmings, salt, and tarragon in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Simmer for at least 20 minutes but perhaps for up to 40 minutes, until flavorful and reduced in volume. Strain and set aside.
Heat the olive oil in a large nonstick skillet. Brown the chicken breasts until golden on both sides. Remove chicken from skillet and keep warm in the oven. Add the asparagus pieces to the hot pan and sauté until crisp tender. Remove asparagus from pan and keep warm in oven with chicken.
Add shallot to skillet and sauté, stirring constantly until just beginning to brown. Add mushrooms and the strained chicken stock. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 10 minutes. Add cream and return to a simmer. Return chicken breasts to skillet and simmer until sauce is thick and reduced to 1/4 to 1/2 cup.
Add asparagus and any drippings to the skillet and simmer just until the asparagus is hot through. Serve immediately.