Serves: 2
Preparation: 20min
Cooking: 35min

No, it’s not a children’s bedtime story; it’s a love story. This rich flavoursome recipe combines everything we love about food. Chicken fillets are fried in bacon juices, and then served with a rich sauce made from bacon, butter, and beer. It also makes for a perfect romantic dinner for two.

Making a pan sauce is a great skill to add to your repertoire. These sauces require the use of a skillet or frypan without a non-stick coating. This is because they use the bits that stick to the bottom of the pan, called the sucs (pronounced ‘syk’), as the part of the sauce.

If you only have non-stick frypans, you could try using a large stainless saucepan or pot. It’s not essential to use Mountain Goat Hightail, any good amber ale would be fine, but then you would loose the great title.

Ingredients

• 2 Chicken fillets (about 500gm)
• 1 large middle bacon rasher (80-90gm)
• 1-2 shallots chopped (35-40gm)
• 1 clove garlic finely chopped
• 1 medium sized mushroom chopped (30-35gm)
• 90ml Mountain Goat Hightail Ale
• 2 teaspoon malt vinegar
• 1 tablespoon cream
• 50gm cold butter
• 2 teaspoons chopped chives

Method

1. Remove rind and roughly chop bacon.
2. Cook in frypan until the bacon is crispy.
3. Remove from pan using a slotted spoon and set aside.
4. Place chicken into pan and cook on medium heat until edges are opaque, about ten minutes.
5. Turn fillets over and cook on a lower heat until cooked through, about another ten minutes.
6. Remove fillets and cover with foil.
7. Add shallots and garlic to the pan and cook until they begin to look translucent.
8. Pour in the beer and vinegar to deglaze the pan.
9. Using a wooden spoon scrape the sucs from the bottom of the pan.
10. Add mushroom and cream.
11. Reduce the liquid until it begins to thicken.
12. Remove from heat.
13. Add the cold butter, mix until it melts and the sauce thickens.
14. Stir in the bacon pieces and chopped chives.
15. Slice chicken and serve, topped with bacon beer sauce, along with a couple of glasses of Hightail ale.