Chicken Cordon Bleu....Sort of...

I know it has been a while, but you get busy, ND starts winning football games, and the next thing you know I hadn't really cooked anything worth writing about since August.  That's depressing, I promise I'll do better in the new year.  The good news is I'm here with a new recipe!  So quit complaining and enjoy.

I've been browsing epicurious lately trying to find something that sparked my culinary imagination, and while epicurious can be awesome, if you don't have a plan it can be a recipe wasteland.  There are so many ways to search through their recipes that if you don't go in with a plan you're doomed, you'll never find anything you want to eat.  I think its the exact opposite of going grocery shopping when you're hungry.  I know if I've shopped hungry because I come home with enough food to feed myself for two weeks, and some kind of Hostess product (R.I.P) usually Ho Ho's.

It took me a while but I finally found a dish that spoke to me, Prosciutto Stuffed Chicken with Mushroom Sauce.  I don't know why exactly it spoke to me, but I do love prosciutto and since its been a while I figured I'd go with it.

Prosciutto Stuffed Chicken with Mushroom Sauce

-  4 chicken breasts
-  Kosher salt
-  Fresh Ground Pepper
-  8 thin slices of prosciutto
-  8 thin slices of provolone
-  32 fresh basil leaves (you can definitely get by with less, 32 is a little overkill...and I love basil)
-  3 Tbsp Unsalted butter, divided
-  1 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
-  4 cups mixed mushrooms, chopped into small pieces (crimini, chanterelle, and maitake...or in      my case just crimini because the Ralph's near me sucks and never has a good selection of mushrooms or herbs.
-  2 cups low sodium chicken broth
-  1 tsp red wine vinegar
-  2 Tbsp mixed chopped fresh herbs (I went for basil and chives...again small selection)


Part of why I wanted to try this is because the last time I was rolling/stuffing chicken I definitely had mixed results, not on the food, just on my own stuffing/rolling abilities.  Start off by halving the chicken breasts horizontally and open halves like book.  This is a slightly more delicate task than I first thought. I realized this after I almost sliced my hand open, and then when I essentially cut the first piece of chicken in half.  My advice, be careful and patient.  Patience is not one of my best cooking qualities, I long to be skilled enough with a knife to work as a chef at Benihana.  I don't actually want to work there, I just want to be that skilled with a knife, just to impress my friends.

Pound the chicken breasts until they are 1/4 inch thick and season on all sides with salt and pepper.  This is another task that never goes well for me.  If someone has some kind of advice as to how to pound chicken thin without it essentially disintegrating that would much appreciated.

I love how recipes will sometimes specify that you need to work with one piece of chicken at a time, because obviously I planned on banging these things thin with a mallet in each hand.  First of all I'm ambidextrous but I'm not that ambidextrous.  Second, I don't even own a second mallet.  The other thing I imagine is some bonehead stacking all the chicken on top of each other and trying to pound the whole thing to a 1/4 inch, good luck genius.

I always laugh about this because I'm a big believer that if directions or a sign specifies something absurd it is only because someone else tried the absurd thing to warrant the creation of said sign.

But I digress, once you have pounded out the chicken breast, lay cut side up and overlap 2 slices of prosciutto on top of the chicken leaving a 1/2 inch border.  Perhaps if I could pound chicken properly I would have enough room for a 1/2 inch border, but I did the best I could.  Next put two slices of provolone on top of the prosciutto and layer 8 basil leaves on top of that all maintaining that 1/2 inch border.  I apparently did not buy enough basil so I didn't do 8 full leaves on each chicken, but I still think it turned out pretty good in the end.

Roll up the chicken and tie with kitchen twine to hold it together.  I forgot to buy kitchen twine.  I always forget to buy kitchen twine.  Every time I have to tie something in the kitchen, I forget to buy the twine.  So I rolled my chicken and used gravity to hold the roll by putting the open "flap" on the bottom.

Preheat the oven to 450.  While that is heating up break out your big skillet.  Keep in mind that eventually this whole skillet is going in the oven so if it is a prissy little delicate skillet you might want to grab a different skillet.  Actually the recipe just says "large heavy, ovenproof skillet".  Now I understand that there are different surfaces and different kinds of skillets, but it is a tool that is designed to be put over a direct flame, how harmful can 8 minutes in an oven really be?

Heat 1 Tbsp of butter and 1 Tbsp of veggie oil in your skillet and brown the chicken on all sides which takes roughly 10 minutes, at least it did for me.  Then take the skillet and stick it in the oven for about 8-10 minutes.  The recipe says until an instant read thermometer reads 165 when inserted into the center.

Lets be honest if you pounded chicken down to about a 1/4 inch, then basically cooked it in the skillet for 10 minutes, after about 10 minutes in the oven at 450 its going to be cooked all the way through.

Put the chicken on a plate and scrape the drippings from the skillet.  Put the skillet back on the stove top and melt 1 Tbsp of butter over medium-high heat.

Add the mushrooms and cook until the mushrooms are golden brown.  Also remember that your skillet was in the oven, don't grab the handle with your bare hand a few minutes later.  It will hurt.  Also remember what I said about signs and warnings earlier, I'm the bonehead who grabbed the skillet, it did in fact hurt.

Add the chicken broth and vinegar and simmer until the liquid is thickened and reduced, approximately 12 minutes.  Let me say, my mixture reduced, but there was literally no thickening going on.




Stir in the last of the butter and random herbs you decided to chop up and season with salt and pepper.


Cut the chicken into slices and drizzle the mushroom sauce over and serve.  In my case I put the mushroom sauce on the side, I wasn't ready to commit to the mushroom sauce.

While I was doing all of this I was also making a little veggie side dish.  A very easy recipe and in the spirit of my grandmother, the BEST green beans I've ever had.

Slow-Roasted Green Beans with Sage

-  2.5 lbs of green beans, trimmed
-  3 bunches of scallions, trimmed with 1 inch green tops still attached, halved lengthwise
-  6 large garlic cloves cut lengthwise into 4 slices
-  1/2 cup olive oil
-  2 Tbsp fresh sage
-  1 Tbsp fresh rosemary
-  1 Tbsp fresh thyme
-  2 tsp Kosher salt


For the green beans the recipe says to preheat the oven to 375.  Since I already had mine at 450 for the chicken I decided the green beans could handle a little extra heat.

Combine everything in a big bowl and season with fresh ground pepper.  Toss it all around to make sure everything gets nice and mixed in.  Transfer to a large rimmed baking sheet.

Roast the beans, stirring every 10 minutes until they are wilted, shrunken and browned at the edges, which the recipe says is roughly one hour.  I probably had them in there for about 35-40 minutes while I was cooking the chicken and it turned out delicious.  So simple and they were fantastic.

Ok now I have to go find something new to cook.