March 30, 2026
It’s time for another recipe from the restaurant days of the Kavanaugh’s Restaurant (1970-2005). Over the years we have had many favorite recipes in the restaurant, ones that our family loved, and ones that were special favorites of our guests, and we want to share some of those with all of you. We operated our restaurant for 35 years and had a great reputation for fine food and dining, with a number of recipes also featured in national publications. Our mother wrote three cookbooks which included; Cooking with Love, The Kavanaugh Cookbook, and The Cookbook of Menu’s. We always felt our restaurant was a leader in the dining experience here in the Brainerd Lakes area and set the tone for many of the better restaurants that we have in the area today. During that time, we utilized Farm to Table, when nobody else knew what that was. We also became famous for our Walleye recipes, utilizing only fresh walleye and selling over 300-pounds of this wonderful, flavorful fish each week in the summer. So, each time we do the recipe corner we will share a little story about the recipes and hopefully you will be able to enjoy them at home.
Kavanaugh’s Chicken Ginger Cream
While Chicken Ginger Cream may sound a bit unusual, it in fact, is a real favorite. Over the years in was a popular menu item, a classic on numerous banquet events, and to this day a real family favorite for all of us, often showing up on our Holiday and Birthday menus! The Chicken Ginger Cream was also around for a very long time and appeared first on our menus in the mid-1970’s and even made a return to our final “Classics Menu” in our final season in 2005. This is a recipe for 4-servings and can easily be scaled up for larger groups and can also be made the day before by pre-frying the chicken and making the base sauce without cream and then baking the chicken and finishing the sauce just before service. Enjoy!
For the Chicken
4 Boneless, skinless 5-6 ounce Chicken Breasts (lightly pounded to thin)
1 Egg
¾ cup Milk
1 ½ cups bread crumbs
2 Tablespoons butter
Mix the egg and milk together. Dip the chicken in the egg mixture, then coat with breadcrumbs. Melt the butter in a large sauté pan and fry the chicken in the butter, season with salt and pepper, until golden on each side. Place on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees until cooked through, about 15-18 minutes.
For the Sauce
2 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons finely chopped green onion
1 Tablespoon finely minced crystallized ginger
1 Tablespoon flour
¼ cup Madeira Wine
½ cup Chicken Stock
1 ½ cups Heavy Cream
1 Tablespoon finely chopped parsley
3 Tablespoons of toasted sliced almonds (for final garnish)
After removing the chicken, melt the butter in the sauté pan. Add green onion and ginger and sauté until softened a bit. Add flour and cook for 2 minutes, stirring. Deglaze with Madeira Wine and then add stock cooking for 5-8 minutes until thickened. Add in the Cream and allow to heat and thicken a bit, 8 minutes or so. Add chopped parsley and serve over chicken. Sprinkle with toasted almonds.