Chicken with orange sauce

This is a simple recipe that will make you very popular.

Ingredients
4 chicken breasts (more or less depending on how many people)
1 Kg oranges (again, mileage may vary)
2 spoons maicena
Olive oil

Preparation
Extract the juice from the orange and divide it into two recipients (Note of the editor: DO NOT USE BOXED ORANGE JUICE, it will not make a good sauce and it might give a very ugly taste).
In a sauce pan, add some olive oil and let the chicken breast cook for about 5 minutes in low fire.
After 5 minutes, dump the orange juice into the sauce pan with the chicken. Raise the fire to medium/high and let it boil. Once it boils, lower a little the fire and let it cook there for 40-50 minutes.
In another sauce pan, add the orange juice and add the maicena. Mix it well and let it boil. Once it boils, lower the fire and let it there for 20-30 minutes, until it starts to reduce. Be careful, keep your eyes on this since sometimes it might reduce faster than 20-30 minutes.
Once the orange juice is reduced, dump it into the sauce pan where the chicken breast is cooking and voila. Let it there until the chicken is ready.

How it should be
If you do it the right way, the chicken will be extremely tender and the orange sauce will be non liquid.

Potential problems
If you burn the chicken or let it get crispy in the beginning, do not despair. The solution for that, is to cook the chicken longer into the orange juice.
If the sauce is too liquid, you need to add a little more maicena and let it boil and reduce.


Improvements
Of course if you are really into this, you can let the chicken marinating for a couple of hours in the orange juice.

Suggested companions
Rice, with red pepper, garlic and some asparagus.
This goes wonderful with Pinot Noir or Carmenere wines.

Mushrooms, mustard and creme fraiche

This is a very simple sauce that will add flavor to any dish.

Ingredients
- Mushrooms
- Creme fraiche
- Mustard (preferably Dijon, but it's up to you)
- Olive oil or butter (or if you like you can use both)

Preparation
Cut the mushrooms in slices, not terribly thin but not thick either.
In a frying pan put the olive oil (enough to create a thin layer on the frying pan), start medium fire and then when the oil is starting to warm add the mushrooms.
After a while the mushrooms will have suck some oil, so add a little to compensate (You can skip this if you are not fond of oil or butter).
When the mushrooms are ready (they turn brown and become very soft), add the creme fraiche. Let them cook for two or three minutes, you will notice the creme fraiche starts getting "liquid".
Once the creme fraiche is semi liquid (again, this is entirely up to you there is no magic bullet here, just your personal taste), add one spoon of mustard and mix it with the creme fraiche and the mushrooms. Once everything becomes an homogeneous mix (one or two minutes after the mustard was added), turn off the fire and voila!

Recipe exchange

Since I love cooking so much, I decided to create a blog specifically to post recipes, tips and trick about cooking.
My next post will be a simple but very tasty recipe for a sauce that goes with almost anything. It will give a special touch to any dish.