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Best of January – Fancy Chicken Breasts with Mushrooms
Served with sweet potatoes
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Serves 4
Prep time: 25 minutes Total time: 45 minutes |
- 10 oz. button mushrooms
- 3 large sweet potatoes
- 1 bunch flat-leaf (Italian) parsley
- 3 oz. soft goat cheese
- 4 thin slices prosciutto
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup fresh bread crumbs
- 4 large, boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1/4 cup white wine, such as Pinot Gris
Shopping List
- Black pepper
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- Garlic
- Sea salt
- Unsalted butter
Pantry Items
- 9X13 baking dish
- Chef’s knife
- Heavy skillet
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Medium saucepan
- Mixing bowls
- Nonstick fry pan
- Paring knife
- Rolling pin
- Spatula
- Steamer
- Tongs
- Waxed paper
- Wooden spoons
Tools
- Wine: Pinot Gris or whatever you are going to use for the chicken
- Dessert: Ice Cream Sundaes
Suggestions
- When you walk in the door
- Don’t refrigerate the chicken or the goat cheese
- Preheat the oven to 375F
- Get out Pantry Items
- Get out Tools
- Assemble the ingredients
- Open the wine and refrigerate it
- Prep
- Put 3 cups water in a steamer and set over medium heat.
- Place the chicken breasts between two pieces of waxed paper and pound on them gently with a rolling pin until they’re about 1/4-inch thick.
- Peel and mince 1 small garlic clove.
- Mix the goat cheese with the garlic and lots of black pepper.
- Quickly rinse the mushrooms (it’s ok, they won’t absorb water). Trim off the stems, if necessary, and thinly slice them.
- Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into 2-inch chunks.
- Rinse and pat dry the parsley. Pluck 1 cup leaves.
- Lay out the chicken breasts. Lay a slice of prosciutto on top of each (if the prosciutto hangs over the chicken, trim it).
- Place one-quarter of the goat cheese mixture on one end of the prosciutto. Roll up the chicken breast around the filling.
- Set the rolled up breasts on a plate, seam-side down. They’ll stay rolled up.
- Put the bread crumbs in a shallow bowl.
- Whisk the egg with 1 tsp. water in another bowl.
- Dip each rolled chicken breast first in the egg, then in the bread crumbs. Roll it around so it’s covered in crumbs. (tip – use one hand for dipping the chicken into the egg mixture, the other for dipping into the crumbs – it’s cleaner this way!)
- Start Cooking
- Place the sweet potatoes in the steamer, cover and steam for about 20 minutes until they are tender through.
- Heat 2 tbsps. oil in the heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Brown the chicken on all sides, which will take about 7 minutes.
- Put the chicken in the baking dish and put it in the oven for 15 minutes.
- Check the sweet potatoes. Make sure there is enough water in the steamer. If not, add some boiling water.
- Melt 1 tbsp. butter in the nonstick fry pan over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and saute them until they begin to give up liquid, about 4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
- Add 1/4 cup white wine, stir and cook just until the wine is hot and the mushrooms are tender, about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat.
- Mince the parsley. Add half of it to the mushrooms, stir and taste for seasoning.
- Check the sweet potatoes – they should be cooked. Add the rest of the parsley to them, and 1 tbsp. butter. Mix, crushing them at the same time. Season with salt and pepper.
- Cut into one of the chicken breasts – if the meat is white, it is cooked through.
- Evenly divide the mushrooms and the sweet potatoes among 4 dinner plates. Put a chicken breast on each plate, and take the plates to the table. Dinner is served.
- Don’t forget the wine!
