The Startup Cook : Croque Madame Muffins

As mentioned before Rachel Khoo has been influencing me quite a great deal lately. Besides feverishly looking for a sleeved polka dot dress and lipstick, choosing another one of her recipes is embarrassingly enough proof of my innocent Rachel Khoo crush.

However, unlike Rachel Khoo’s Croque Madame Muffins I have substituted bacon with some minced chicken I found in my fridge. Of course, bacon eaters can completely disregard this and stick to the original version. But those who don’t eat bacon AND who can’t be (understandably) bothered making some chicken, can just use some pre cooked chicken sausages and skip the minced chicken step completely.

The effort is really minimal, and when sweating over a hot stove after an exhausting day isn’t an option, this is the ideal recipe.

It’s filling, different and every bite has a phenomenal crunch to it. Yum!


 

Ingredients

75 g of (minced) chicken
6 slices of bread
6 egg yolks
2 tbs of butter
2 tbs of flour
1 cheese single
1 tbs of chopped parsley
½ cup of milk (lukewarm)
½ an onion
½ lime
2 tsp of olive oil
1 tsp of Dijon mustard
1tsp of chili powder
1 tsp of chili flakes
Salt
Pepper

 

Directions

Preheat the oven to 190 celsius.
 

Minced Chicken Base

Squeeze the lime over the minced chicken, add the chili powder and let it marinade for few minutes.

Fine dice the onion and set aside.
    
Heat up a skillet with two teaspoons of olive oil; add the diced onions, chili flakes and sauté.

Add the chicken to the sauté with a dash of salt and pepper and cook for about five – ten minutes.

Once the chicken has cooked, take it off the heat and set aside.

 

Sauce

In a heavy based pan, melt two tablespoons of butter.

Once the butter has melted, add the flour in to it and combine well.

Let the paste cool down for few minutes and slowly whisk in the milk.

Put the pan back on the heat, add the Dijon mustard, a dash of pepper, whisk until the sauce is lump free.

Once the sauce has become smooth and thick take it off the heat.

 

The Croq Madam Muffins

Cut the crusts of the bread slices and flatten each slice with a rolling pin.

Butter both sides of the bread really well.

Place them in the rounds of a prepared muffin tin.

Add a tablespoon of cooked chicken to the base of every muffin.

Pour an egg yolk on top of the chicken.

Add a tablespoon of sauce on top of the yolk and season with salt and pepper.

Finish with pieces of a cheese single on top of the sauce.

Bake for 15 minutes.

Garnish with some chopped parsley.


 

Disasters, Warnings and Tips

If you want the yolk runny, bake only for ten minutes.

Unlike the original recipe, I put the yolk on top of the sauce.

Parsley wilts in high temperature, so strictly garnish after baking.

Do use pre cooked sausages (if you’re not a bacon eater), it is so much easier.

Rachel Khoo’s measurements for the sauce didn’t work for me, so I had to increase and decrease a bit here and there.

These muffins are brilliant! That crunch… I am in love with that glorious crunch.

Eggs are crazy expensive so using only the yolk seems like a waste.

When melting the butter, ensure that it does not convert to hot oil before the flour is added in.

I made scramble eggs with the egg whites.

Regular mustard is as good as Dijon mustard.

Parsley and minced chicken are my personal touches.

Does anyone know where I can get a sleeved polka dot dress?

I adore parsley, if I can put it in everything, I WOULD.

These can be made without the egg yolk as well.



Text by Shazzana Hamid