Chicken with Grape Mustard Cream

This chicken with grape mustard cream is a microwave reinterpretation of the French bistro classic chicken Veronique, where green grapes meet white wine cream sauce. The technique is unconventional but the flavors land squarely in classic territory, the sweet pop of grapes cutting through a creamy Dijon-spiked sauce.

Microwave cooking gets a bad rap but it works for chicken breasts. Three minutes per side covered with plastic delivers gently steamed chicken that stays juicy in a way pan-frying boneless breasts struggles to match, especially under a sauce that hides any color you’d lose.

Draining the chicken liquid into the cream-mustard-flour mixture is the smart move. That liquid is essentially concentrated chicken stock with wine and aromatics, and using it instead of plain stock gives the sauce a rounder, deeper flavor.

Pro Tips

• Use seedless green grapes and add them only at the very end, just to warm through. Cooking grapes longer breaks them down and turns them mushy.
• Whisk the flour into the cold cream and mustard before microwaving the sauce, this prevents lumps from forming.
• Cover the chicken loosely with vented plastic wrap, full seal traps too much steam and waterlogs the meat.
• Slice the chicken across the grain into thin medallions and fan over the plate before topping with sauce, this presents better than whole breasts.

Variations

• Use red grapes for a sweeter, more dramatic sauce color contrast.
• Sub a tablespoon of grainy mustard for the Dijon for more visible texture in the sauce.
• Add a tablespoon of fresh chopped tarragon at the end for the most classic Veronique flavor profile.