Chicken Stroganoff

I don’t know if it’s my many-generations-removed Eastern European heritage or if it’s just that this dish resembles the thinly sauced Kraft macaroni and cheese that I devoured as a kid, but I love stroganoff. LOVE IT. Unfortunately, I’ve had to take a hiatus from the dish lately because Husband HATES it. He had warned me this; in fact he has warned me multiple times of his dislike for all cream sauced dishes. However, even his pouts and protests couldn’t deter me when I came across this recipe for Chicken Stroganoff on the Real Simple website. Could it be possible to emulate such a delicious symphony of flavors with a slightly healthier slant? I determined to find out.

I had my first moment of doubt when I realized the recipe called for barbeque sauce. Really? Barbeque sauce in an updated Eastern European dish? That seemed odd…as did the Dijon mustard and the hot sauce, but I pressed on. I thinly sliced the onions in rounds (pain in the butt if you asked me) and evenly patiently waited for the mushrooms to “release their liquid” which as best as I can tell is really just another way to say let them get super soft.

I made only one change to the recipe, as I believe recipes should be followed to a T when made the first time: I substituted a cup of chicken broth + 2 teaspoons of white vinegar for the cup of white wine. This is such a common replacement that I barely consider it an adjustment at all. In fact, this little trick has saved me multiple emergency trips to the store as I never seem to remember that wine has a shelf life of about two days in our house before being devoured.

Some reviewers on the Real Simple website expressed difficulty getting the ½ cup of liquid out of the vegetables; however when I placed them in my colander I had no trouble squeezing that out (on a side note, I have only 1 colander. It kind of irked me that this dish required the straining of vegetables in said colander when I also needed it to drain the egg noodles. It all worked out in the end, but was still annoying).

With the recipe preceding as instructed, and looking quite like the picture, I couldn’t wait to dig in. I served the stroganoff over whole wheat egg noodles and although Husband looked skeptical, he pretended to be a good sport through the first few bites. Unfortunately, this recipe was VILE; a tasteless mess of mushy vegetables and lukewarm chicken. Husband threw his away and made a PB&J sandwich. I doused mine with salt and pepper (finally, some flavor!) and persevered; however there was a ton left over that we threw away with the recipe. What a waste.

Summary:
Difficulty Level: moderate (cutting onion rounds are hard!)
Effort Level: moderate (there are a ton of steps)
Cost: moderate—there are a ton of ingredients
Results: VILE. DO NOT ATTEMPT AT HOME.