Chicken and Bechamel Crepes

My French husband spoiled me by making these crepes for dinner last night. I haven’t been feeling well lately and he was nice enough to make a stash of these to last a few nights so that I won’t have to cook. These are rich, so you won’t want to eat them every single day. But delish…

French recipes give quantities in grams rather than cups and I don’t have the equivalents. Though I’m sure you can find them on-line if you don’t have a food scale. The recipes have been translated and adapted from the Petit Larousse de la Cuisine.

Crepe batter

This batter is for savory, rather than sweet crepes.

100g of white flour (we’ve tried the recipe with whole-wheat and it doesn’t turn out well, so this is one of the recipes where I’ve conceded and use white flour)
 
2 eggs
1 tsp. butter
300 mL milk
pinch of salt

1. Beat the eggs and flour together with a whisk until you obtain a smooth batter. Mix in milk with the whisk.

2. Melt the butter in the microwave and mix into batter.

3. Let the batter sit for 2 hours at room temperature.

Making the crepes themselves is a bit of an art and not one that I’ve ever tackled myself. Though my husband makes it look quite easy. After searching for a good crepe pan over here for years, my husband is now quite satisfied with the Starfrit pan, which he finds makes crepe making painless.

The pan must be hot before pouring batter into it. Using less than a full ladle of batter, pour just enough batter into a crepe pan and quickly turn the pan around to spread the batter evenly across the pan. If you have a good quality pan, such as the one suggested above, you won’t need to add additional butter to cook the crepes. However, if your crepes stick, you may want to add a bit of melted butter to the pan prior to pouring the batter in.

Once you can move the crepe on the pan by shaking it a bit, the crepe is ready to be flipped. Use a spatula or flipper to help flip the pancake (though my husband likes to just flip them in the air, a bit like pizza-makers do. But I don’t, suggest you try that the first time you make this recipe!). You can also buy an adapted tool made specifically to flip crepes, in specialty kitchen stores, such as Ares. Then cook for approximately one minute, until the crepe is cooked on both sides. Remove to a plate to cool. You can pile one crepe on top of the next as they are cooked.

Béchamel Sauce

30g butter
30g white flour
300mL milk
100mL chicken broth

1. Melt butter in a small heavy-bottomed pan over medium heat without letting it brown. Gradually add the flour, stirring continually with a whisk as it is added. Continue cooking for approximately 4 minutes.

2. Heat milk in the microwave. Pour milk into the pan and mix together until fully mixed and you obtain a thick consistency.

3. Pour in chicken broth and stir until mixed.

Putting it all together:

3 boneless chicken breasts, diced small and cooked
1 pkg. mushrooms, sliced and cooked

1. Mix chicken and mushroom into béchamel sauce. Spoon mixture evenly over 6 or 7 crepes. Roll each crepe and place in a baking dish. You can optionally sprinkle the crepes with a bit of grated cheese before placing them in the oven to heat for 15 minutes (if the sauce is still hot) at 300^oF. These will keep well in the fridge, likely freeze well and are good reheated.

As a variation, you can use cubed or sliced ham instead of the chicken.