cooking @ home

I guess if I had to choose what was my so-called signature dish this would be the one.

This recipe wasn’t inspired by anything I saw elsewhere, just the ingredients at hand. I had a lot of left over ricotta and didn’t want to make another desert with it; in other words, I’d already done sweet, now I wanted to do something savory. There was chicken on hand, and frozen spinach too. Aha, florentine. The incredible sauce came about as an after thought initially when I had made way too much stuffing. And then the sauce was so wonderful it just had to be put on something, and thus came the idea for egg noodles as I was tired of putting things atop the usual pasta or rice, and the noodles seemed to lend itself better to it. (That said, you could substitute fettucini I’m betting, but still, how often do you have an egg noodle dish? So I’d still go with the noodles as my number one choice.) It’s my very own version of a classic and so rich and tasty, I tend to even over-eat this meal at times.

I’m pretty proud of all of my dishes (or I wouldn’t share them with you.) But I’m also tough on myself and usually think even my finished dishes could sometimes use improvement. (Maybe some can, most I probably should leave well enough alone.) But this is definitely one of personal favorites that I think is at the top of it’s game, so I’m very proud of this one.

Now, since we’re using four large half-breasts it seems like the natural thing to say is “this serves four”. And it does, but — they have to be really hungry. Remember, large chicken breasts. The one I had the other night, I was stuffed as much as the chicken when I was done. So afterwards I figured out, four in a package, package was three pounds. If they were of equal size that would have been 12 ounces each, and my piece was the largest in the bunch so it was probably on the order of 14 or 15 ounces. Plus it’s stuffed plus a plate full of starch underneath it. Therefore, you could probably serve six easily, and maybe stretch it out to eight (and still give folks around 6 to 8 ounces of chicken, so not bad a stretch that.) Serve it family-style instead of individually. Since it’s stuffed, a row of nice one-inch slices over that bed of noodles will look very attractive too!

By the way, I have to mention, there is something about this dish (and others) that drives me crazy. It’s not the making of it, it’s the relaying of it. You see, I have always so been one of those folks who puts together in ingredients on the fly, as needed, not one who measures. Alas to share my recipes, things need to be measured. Here in lies the rub: Too many variables!

For instance in this very recipe, the chicken breasts I bought turned out to be roughly 30% larger than the one’s I cooked when I first came up with this recipe several months ago. That meant two slight problems: I initially hadn’t made enough sauce (and had to up the ingredient amountts) and also an additional 10-15 minutes was required in cooking time. Now how does anyone give out exactling measurements when the very fact of two “large” breasts can mean very different things to very different people? How can I be exact when the breasts I myself purchase from the same supermarket might vary as much as 20-40% in size from one time to another?

Not sure what the answer is. I’m a long time cook, but a very short time recipe writer. All I can say is, I hope this works for you. If not, you’ll need to adjust. And I suppose that is the answer right here. That it ends up being up to you. A good cook, a long time cook, knows this is not all written in stone and to change up as circumstances dictate. For you new cooks, you’ve been warned: Adjust as necessary. And when it comes to recipes, remember what Captain Jack Sparrow says “There’s not so much rules as they are guidelines.”

Harry’s Stuffed Chicken Florentine
©2007 Harry Kenney

ingredients

2 large boneless, skinless breasts cut in half (4 half-breasts)
8-10 oz frozen chopped spinach, cooked
1/2 medium (or 1 small) yellow onion, diced
2/3 cup ricotta
1/2 cup (total) grated parmigiano (two 1/4 cups actually)
2 cloves garlic
garlic powder
salt
pepper
1/4 pint heavy cream (can substitue light cream)
1/2 cup dry white wine
8oz egg noodles (often this is half a bag)

Frying pan to medium heat, add cooking oil, two garlic cloves sliced, onion, lightly brown, add cooked frozen spinach (cooked in microwave covered for 3 minutes prior to this), add 1/2 cup of ricotta, 1/4 cup grated parm, salt and pepper, lower heat a bit and mix together for about two minutes. Let this cool down enough so you can work with this with your hands.

With a sharp knife make pouches in sides of the chicken breast pieces (see photo above) and place in as much of the warm (not hot) spinach mixture as possible. You may or may not want to toothpick these for better closure. Season both sides of chicken with salt, pepper and garlic powder and place in frying pan, medium-high heat, cooking oil, brown both sides of the chicken, 3-5 minutes per side.

While browning the chicken. Preheat oven to 400 degrees, and take the remaining stuffing from the frying pan and put into a medium sauce pot. Add in the cream and the white wine. (A drier, more medium-bodied wine such as Pinot Grigio is preferred. Don’t use a sweet wine in this.) Stir and mix together well over low heat . As we are transforming our stuffing into a thinner sauce of more volume, you need more seasoning, so add salt, pepper and another 1/4 grated parm. Stir off and on, this should take 3-4 minutes. You do not want to reduce this mixture, btw.

Pour a little bit of the sauce into the empty casserole dish (or dishes if chicken pieces are very large) just to coat. Place chicken on top, pour rest of sauce completely around the chicken and some on top. Cover with aluminum foil. Place in heated 400 degree oven until done (when it reaches an internal temperature of 165-175 degrees F). Depending on oven, chicken pieces etc, this will take about 35-50 minutes.

About 15 or 20 minutes before chicken is done, cook egg noodles in boiling water, drain fully. Remove chicken from casserole dishes, put on side for moment. On each person’s plate, make a bed of noodles, spoon over liberally with florentine sauce, place chicken on top, add a little more sauce to top of chicken and serve.

Personally, I don’t think any side veggies are needed with this meal. Myself, I like serving it with some chilled cranberry sauce and a glass of white wine on the side — preferably the same wine used in the dish — although a slightly sweeter, fruitier wine would work nicely too.

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