I got some drumsticks this week. Usually when I make chicken, I use chicken breasts. Chicken has more flavor when cooked bone-in, but it’s always so messy. Once in a while I’m okay with that though.

Looking at what I still had in my fridge, earlier this week, I figured I could make chicken in cream sauce. It doesn’t sound or look spectacular, but it sure does taste awesome!!! I also had some sweet red peppers, sweet onions and a little bit of home-made, dried pasta leftover. All in all it seemed like a balanced meal to me.

I thought the peppers and onions might not be the best compliment to the chicken dish, but since I had to use them, I went with it anyway. And wow, were we lucky. Unexpectedly it turned out a perfect match!

Chicken in cream sauce (recipe for 2, adapted from the Silver Spoon)

• 4 drumsticks
• salt, pepper, plain flour
• butter
• heavy cream
• lemon juice
• cooked ham, cubed

Pat the drumsticks dry using a paper towel. Season them with salt and pepper on all sides and sprinkle/rub some flour on them. Melt a good notch of butter in a heavy pan. Brown the chicken on all sides.
Pour in the heavy cream, about 200 ml, or cover the pan with about a  centimeter of cream. Cook on low heat for about half an hour, don’t let the cream go much above a simmer! Add a good squirt of lemon juice, some more pepper (and salt if you think you need that, but you shouldn’t, it’s bad for you!!!)
Add the cubed ham to the pan, cook for a couple more minutes  and serve.

I plated the chicken with a little ham and sauce, the (grilled) pepper and onions. I left most of the sauce in the pan. During the time the ham was cooking in the pan, I’d cooked the pasta. Since it was dried it needed to boil slightly longer than when made fresh. I drained the pasta, then added it to the pan with the cream sauce, stirred the sauce in, plated the pasta and divided all the remaining sauce over both plates.

It wasn’t a traditional Italian dish in any way (eating pasta with the meat and veggies is a big no-no) even though most of the food/recipes were Italian. Whatever it was (Valerie-an), it was very very tasty!!!