brunosdream

This is a first for me… making a meal at my friends’ house which included items from 2 previous posts – Julia Child’s French bread and biscotti. We hit a trifecta w/ this meal! We had the bread w/ the main dish and the biscotti for dessert. All in all, it was a delicious meal, and best of all, I didn’t have to do the dishes since I did the cooking!

Ingredients:

5 chicken breasts

8 oz. crimini mushrooms – slice half  and rough chop half

1 bag baby spinach

1 large butternut squash - peeled, seeded and cut into 1 inch cubes

5 slices proscuitto – cut into 3/4 inch squares

5 cloves garlic – minced

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 quart veggie stock

4 dried sage leaves – crumbled

1 large shallot – brunoised

1 tablespoon buerre manie (equal parts flour and butter blended into a paste)

olive oil

salt + pepper

Procedure:

1) Gently pound chicken breasts between 2 pieces of plastic wrap until 1/2 inch thick.

2) Lightly saute’ proscuitto in a non-stick pan; let cool.

3) Saute’ spinach in olive oil w/ 2/3rds of the garlic and all of the red pepper flakes; salt to taste and let cool.

4) Saute’ chopped mushrooms in olive oil w/ remaining garlic; salt and pepper to taste and let cool.

5) For sauce: Sweat the shallots in olive oil until opaque, add sliced mushrooms and lightly saute’ until soft, then add veggie stock and reduce to 1 1/2 cups. Once reduced, add buerre manie to thicken; salt and pepper to taste and remove from heat.

6) Blanch squash for 3 minutes in well salted water. Strain and set aside.

7) With wide side of chicken breast towards you, spread in a line 1/5 of the spinach, chopped mushrooms and proscuitto, roll up the breast leaving seam side down then secure w/ kitchen twine. Repeat process w/ remaining breasts.

8) Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

9) Brown chicken rolls on all sides, place in an oven pan, cover w/  foil and bake for 25 minutes or until internal temperature is 150 degrees F.

10) Remove chicken from oven and let rest, covered, while you finish preparing the squash.

11) Add butter to a large, deep pot and heat until it turns brown; add squash, sprinkle in the sage and toss to coat w/ butter. Continue tossing occasionally until squash is warmed through; pepper to taste and add salt if needed.

12) Reheat sauce, remove twine from chicken rolls and slice 1 3/4 inches thick.

13) In a large serving dish, place squash in center, then arrange chicken slices around the squash.

14) Place sauce in a small bowl and serve w/ chicken.

15) Dinner time!

Happy Spring!!

 Bruno