Tonight in the Mason Dixon Master Chef Competition one of the dishes to be judged will be Chicken Neptune, a seared chicken breast with scallops, shrimp, jumbo lump crab meat, and a sherry cream sauce.  This dish is not in any of my cookbooks and will be a chance for the chefs to have a little of their own creative touches. 

To cook this recipe I would first begin making the sherry cream sauce.  To begin with I would put a quart of cream, with a quarter cup seafood stock, cup of sherry, and bouqet garni and reduce.  I would add the seafood stock to help impart more seafood flavor into the dish since the theme of it is chicken with the seafood. 

I would then slice the chicken so it could be stuffed.  I would stuff it with the crab meat and bay scallops (bay scallops for their smaller size and stuff them whole).  I would then sear the chicken in olive oil and season it with salt, pepper, parsley, and chives.  And finish cooking in the oven.  While the chicken is in the oven I would dice up the shrimp, sear them and add them to the sherry cream sauce.

To plate I would sauce the dish, slice the chicken on the bias (at an angle) one time in half.  I would lean the to pieces together showing the seafood stuffing to the diner. 

If the menu was not so specific there are other ideas I have for this dish. 

One idea instead of serving it as a seared chicken breast would be to braise the chicken, shred it with a fork.  Then shred the scallops into small pieces.  I would then make a crabcake base for it, a combination of mayo, egg, old bay, splash of Tabasco, chives, parsley, dry mustard.  Slowly mix the base with the seafood and chicken, add bread crumbs as needed.  Now you have a Chicken Neptune 'Crabcake'.

For sauce I would also change it to a Mornay sauce, a basic cream sauce with Parmesan and gruyere cheese added to it, and then finished with butter.  I would still consider adding the shrimp to the sauce with the Chicken Neptune Crabcakes due to the change in texture.  Adding a bit of sherry to the sauce would still go well too.

Another way I would consider cooking the dish would be to slice the chicken in half so there are 2 long, THIN pieces.  I would then pound it out with a meat tenderizer.  After it is pounded out I would season both sides, salt, pepper, chives, parsley, and then place all the seafood onto the chicken (yes this time even the shrimp).  I would then roll the chicken up and wrap it in plastic wrap.  Put the chicken on parchment paper and bake at 350 until it reaches an internal temp of 165.  Estimate about 35 minutes.  And then top it with classic Mornay sauce.

For wine I would pair it with an unoaked Chardonnay, maybe from California.  Chardonnay has a enough flavor to hold it's own with all of these flavors, and I think the oakyness may conflict with some of the flavors especially the crab.  A New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc might pair very well with the Neptune cakes.  I would avoid red wine with this dish.

This weekend I went to Tiffany's family Easter dinner. I decided that even though most of the food was home style cooking to stay true to my cooking style and make a seafood risotto. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups arborio rice
1 lb shrimp, peeled and deviened chopped up
1 lb crab claw (you can use any kind, claw was on sale though)
1 onion
1 red pepper
1 container Swanson chicken stock (fresh stock, or even a seafood stock would be better but for time store bought will be fine)
Parmesan cheese
butter
salt
pepper
Old Bay

1. Toast arborio rice in skillet until it gets a lightly toasted color, in another pan lightly caramelize onion and red pepper in a small amount of butter.

2. Add toasted arborio rice to onion and pepper mixture, then add a cup of stock and shrimp to the rice, add a little bit of Old Bay and salt. Keep stirring.

3. After most of the water is soaked up by the rice add the crab meat and more stock, and a little bit of old bay, salt and pepper. Continue stirring.

4. continue adding small amounts of water as the water gets soaked into the rice, until the rice is tender.

5. When the rice is tender and you no longer need to add water or stock to cook it add 3 T of butter and 4 oz of Parmesan cheese. Season with salt, pepper, and old bay to taste.