Good Morning, All! I hope everyone had a LOVELY weekend, as J, J & I absolutely did. Nothing super was on sale this week, so we figured that it would be fun to change it up a little, and go the simple old chicken breast. I know chicken breast is pretty much a staple in every household, but we don't often cook it, because we try to bring you all more "exotic" or "gourmet" types of menus. So we figured that we'd take the chicken breast and try to fancy it up into a fabulous meal that anyone could make at home... and I'd like to think we were very successful!
Cocktail - Sour Appletini
Easy. Pucker vodka, freshly pureed apple juice, and a little splash of Polar Seltzer Granny Smith Apple. I would like to point out the Pucker vodka - we've never tried it before. For those who love flavored martinis - it's great. There was no need to add any extra flavoring... it had a fantastic apple taste!
Appetizer - Phyllo Cups with Goat Cheese, Apples, and Candied Walnuts
Guilty as charged. This was definitely a "use up what's in the fridge" type of appetizer. We used those pre-shaped phyllo cups that you can find in your freezer section. Then filled them with a fabulous mixture of crumbled goat cheese, diced apples, and crushed hot candied walnuts. We then threw them under the broiler for a minute and served. Lovely bites of goat cheese goodness.
Entrée - Rosemary Chicken Breasts with Brown Butter Balsamic Ravioli and Spinach Salad with Pancetta-Shallot Vinaigrette
Isn't it pretty??? This was a fantastic meal! Bursting with flavor and lots of great textures! And the best part is - you probably have everything in your fridge already! (And start to finish... approximately 30 minutes... she wasn't lying.) Let's break it down....
Chicken:
The balsamic gives it a nice caramelized taste. Cook time was spot on. However, the cracked garlic really didn't do much for flavor, so I suggest seasoning with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. (Can you ever have too much garlic?) Also - as a personal preference, I always find chicken breast rather dry. I think a little balsamic reduction drizzled over would be divine. However - great way to cook chicken!
Ravioli:
We used a plain four cheese ravioli, although I'm sure a wild mushroom one would have been fabulous as well. This was sooo simple. We were able to cook the ravioli in advance and let them sit in the colander while we did the chicken and browned the butter. Yes, the ravioli kind of stick to each other. Once you have them in the pan with the butter, they'll come apart - just be patient. And the balsamic turns slightly syrupy after a few minutes - so delicious! (FYI - serving size seems off. We only used a 9oz package of ravioli, and that easily could have fed 4 grown adults with large appetites.)
Spinach:
Love this spinach! (It seems like every week we love the new greens recipe.) Once we took the chicken off the skillet, we added the pancetta, then the shallots, then made the dressing. We moved the final dressing to a bowl, and right before serving, added the spinach, allowing it to slightly wilt, but not go overboard. This led to a sweet and savory spinach dish with some crunch and texture!
So here's how you're going to do it. Marinate the chicken. Get the ravioli water boiling. Add chicken to skillet around the same time you boil the ravioli. Take ravioli out, drain, and put on skillet with brown butter. Let that brown while you take chicken out of skillet and put in oven to keep warm. Add the shallots, pancetta, etc to skillet that you had chicken in. Once butter is browned, add ravioli and cook through. Once ravioli is done - plate ravioli, plate chicken, add spinach to the dressing you just made and plate that as well. Voila.
Entrée Wine - Cloud Break Barrel Fermented Chardonnay
Okay, I forgot to take a picture. This is one of the house wines of a local liquor warehouse called Total Wine. (www.totalwines.com) It's a really cool place. It's about the size of a Wal-Mart and sells all booze. Wow. Anyways... John and Jennifer picked this up and you'll never guess that it was a $5 bottle of wine! (We don't always have to be snobs, guys, I promise.) It was super rich and buttery, with a heavy oak taste, and lots of vanilla and apple. You need to be a Chardonnay drinker to enjoy the oakiness of this wine. (And good thing I love Chardonnay!) If you haven't checked this place out, I seriously recommend.
Dessert - Champagne Parfaits with Pears and Blackberries
Please ignore my Stella glass. It was the only glass I had that slightly resembled a parfait dish. And ignore the smear on the top. And ignore that I couldn't layer it beautifully like most other food bloggers would have done. It was good, but not our favorite. First off, the custard is kind of rich and heavy. (And oops... I used semi-dry champagne - so it was very sweet... even with brut champagne, I'd recommend less sugar.) The pears didn't poach enough for my taste, but they worked nicely with the blackberries. Overall... it was good, just not a "wow" dessert. It would have been simpler to use the custard to make a crème brulee and top it with the pears and the blackberries.
So there you go - a lovely meal that can be made on any weeknight! And a new fabulous way to cook chicken breasts! Not sure what we'll be doing next week - stay tuned!
Next Week - Tuna
Tsk, tsk, tsk...
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