This arose out of a desire to use up some leftover chicken more so than a desire to eat another meat-based crêpe recipe so soon after 5-24: Meat-Filled Crêpes, but it turned out to be pretty good in its own right.
5-22: Crêpes with Chicken really should be “Crêpes with Chicken and Mushrooms”, as mushrooms are just as much a part of this as the chicken.
I had originally considered making it at breakfast, but I’m glad I didn’t–it’s definitely a savory dish. Crêpes are popular in this book–all this practice is making me quite the crêpe-master.
Recipe card. As I said in 5-24: Meat-Filled Crêpes, I don’t have a lot of prior crêpe experience. However, they’re really not difficult to do, and the method they describe here is much better than the one I followed for the last recipe–I’m going to stick with this method in the future.
Had I cooked these in order, I would have gotten the crêpe experience and procedure from this one to use in the next one in the sequence–that must be why they don’t give you a method in that recipe. Mystery solved.
Ingredients. I subbed in half-and-half for milk, which went fine–no complaints or problems. In fact, I think it helped with the structural integrity of the crêpes–not only were they less sweet than when I previously used coconut milk, they held together much better as well.
I also used Mexican shredded cheese instead of mozzarella, since that’s what I had.
Chose to make the crêpes first this time, since I knew what consistency I was going for.
Melting butter in my ancient butter-melter that I inherited from my mom when I moved off to college. I thought it was odd to have at the time, but I actually use it now and again.
That was crêpe #2–I only sacrificed one to the god of crêpes/pancakes. All the rest were a success. 🙂
After I make all the crêpes (that’s the last one in the background–a MEGA-crêpe), I start melting butter in the same pan for the onions and mushrooms. I questioned using the big 12″ skillet for making the filling, but it was a good choice–it made a large amount, enough for probably eight 8″ crepes.
If I made it again, I would cut the mushroom pieces down smaller than this, but that’s a personal taste preference. I also used about 2 oz. more mushrooms than it called for–the package was 8 oz. and I didn’t want the last bit to die forgotten in the fridge.
It was just very mushroom-y, is what I am saying here.
Chicken after it’s been pulled off the bone–about 2 thighs worth of leftovers from another meal. It was a good amount of chicken, but I would have needed about 1 more thigh-worth to balance out the amount of mushrooms I used. I also diced these pieces up smaller than the mushrooms–I should have made them more equivalent in size.
Half-and-half for the filling, instead of milk. Gave it a good creamy consistency, but why wouldn’t it?
Filling as it cooks. I didn’t experiment with additional spices–just stuck with salt and pepper. This is before I mixed all in but after I ground it on top–it’s not this peppery once it’s mixed.
Parsley is from the bag of minced frozen parsley in my freezer–just a pinch for each tablespoon equivalent and it comes right back from frozen. Not exactly fresh, but more flavorful than dried and more reliable/less wasteful than fresh.
Rolled three crêpes into each glass baking dish (these are small, about 6″ by 9″) and put them on a baking sheet to make it easier to get them in and out of the oven. Cheese & butter on top, broiler preheated, ready to roll.
I was about to put them in when I had a thought–glass bakeware really shouldn’t go under the broiler–it’ll crack. I dropped my oven temperature to about 400 degrees, gave it a minute or two with the door open to bring the temperature down, and put them in.
If I made it again, I wouldn’t use glass bakeware so that I could put them under the broiler and get a better brown on the cheese. I chose to use those because they have tops to them and I could easily stick the remainder in the fridge for leftovers without extra work.
That’s what I get for trying to cut corners. It was good, but it could have been that much better had I done it right.
The final product–we each ate 1 ½ crêpes, since I had made two containers of three each. It was quite filling–definitely enough for a meal. If I had cut the mushrooms smaller and browned the cheese better, It would have been absolutely terrific.
Grade: A
