A Duxelle is a usually a finely chopped mixture of mushrooms, onions, shallots and herbs sautéed in butter and or cream and then usually reduced to a paste – used most notably in Beef Wellington or as a garnish. Adapted slightly and not turned into a paste, this makes a delicious side dish working really well with a whole roast chicken. It also works perfectly as a stuffing for chicken breasts which I have done here as well as serving some on the side. This amount makes enough to fill 4 chicken breasts or 2 breasts and some over for a side dish. The flavours of mushroom and celeriac work really well together and I added a glug of madeira to the pan which also is the perfect partner for mushrooms. Topped with cream and really well seasoned, this tastes so good – even someone who thought they did not like celeriac, absolutely loved it.

4 carrots peeled and diced finely
About 30gr mixed mushrooms roughly chopped
2 slices from a big celeriac diced finely – make sure you roughly have the same amount as the carrot
A glug of madeira (say 30mls)
100ml cream
salt and pepper
2 small shallots finely chopped
1 big clove garlic peeled and crushed and mashed
20gr butter
2 tbsp rapeseed oil

Melt the butter and oil in a medium pan and add the shallot and garlic and fry until softened.
Tip in the carrot and celeriac and toss to coat in the butter oil.
Season well and cook for about 5 minutes with a lid on to begin softening the vegetables.
Tip in the mushrooms and toss to coat and cook on a medium heat.
Turn up the heat momentarilly and then tip in the glug of madeira and let it burn the alcohol off then turn back to medium.
Add the cream and stir.
Cover until the veggies are cooked. Make sure you don’t boil the cream.
If you are using to stuff the chicken breasts then spread out on a plate to cool
When it is cool, make a pocket in the chicken fillets (free range), season them well and stuff with the mixture. Cook in the oven for about 20 minutes at 180C and then served on a bed of Celeria Mash (I knew the rest of it would come in handy) with the rest of the duxelle on the side.

Absolutely delicious, really easy, very tasty and a great way to liven up chicken.