Recipe: Make It Your Own

A few days ago, I saw this Chicks Dig It Chicken recipe on Damsel in Dior. The BF and I had just gone to the store the day before and I knew I had enough in the pantry to make a version of this recipe.

Here's Jacey's recipe with my edits:

Ingredients:

Two chicken breasts split and pounded out very thin (ask your
butcher to do this)

I used chicken breast tenders that were on sale at Trader Joe's and left over from a meal the night before. I would say I had about 6.

1 ½ cups of seasoned bread crumbs

I used 1/2 cup of seasoned bread crumbs.

3 generous tablespoons of grated parmesan cheese

1/6 of a cup of cheese.

Olive oil (a lot), salt (preferably kosher) and pepper (preferably
ground)

7 slices of parma prosciutto (trim the fat if a lot)

7 slices of provolone (grande is better; the mild provolone will
lose presence next to the big flavor of the chicken and
prosciutto)

2 packs of baby bella mushrooms sliced (you can be creative
here ; crimini, shitake, etc. just not white mushrooms – they are
watery, don’t have much flavor and very low nutritional value)

1 package of crimini mushrooms from Trader Joe's. They were all on the small side.

3 cups of chicken broth (more or less, depending on how much mushroom sauce you want. Make sure it is the less sodium kind. Don’t want to over salt this dish!)

3/4 of a cup of low sodium chicken broth.

Toothpicks or cooking twine

2 cloves of chopped garlic

1 cup of dry white wine (Sauvignon Blanc , Pinot Grigio)

Two good pours (turn the bottle upside down and let wine splash in the pan, don't hold for any amount of time) of Chardonnay I opened the night before. About a $20 bottle on sale for $10. Any decent drier white will do.

One package of thin asparagus. I prefer my asparagus about the thickness of a sharpie. If you like it thicker just cut into smaller pieces.

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

#1: Lightly brush each side with olive oil and season with salt and
pepper. In a small bowl, combine (3 tbs) parmesan cheese, (1. 5 cups) seasoned breadcrumbs and enough olive oil to make the mixture a little dense to form a paste. Spread the mixture on one side of each of the chicken breasts

Use a pie tin or in a pinch a plate and put the breadcrumb cheese mixture in it. After brushing the chicken with olive oil pat both sides of the chicken in the dry mixture to bread the chicken. Repeat patting twice to make sure chicken is thoroughly covered.

#2: Lay a piece of prosciutto and provolone on each of the pieces of
chicken. You don’t want any meat or cheese to go over the sides of
the chicken or too close to the top, try and keep the edges of the chicken clear. You might have to split each piece of prosciutto and provolone in two.

#3: Starting at one edge, start rolling the piece of chicken while keeping the prosciutto and cheese in place with your middle fingers. When fully rolled, take a cut piece of cooking twine and make a few (depending on how big the piece is) ties to enclose
the chicken.

TIP: This is a good hosting recipe because you can do everything up to this point hours before your guests come over. Stick these chick-a-dees in a roasting pan with a little broth on the bottom, cover in saran wrap and place in the fridge. Then, whenever you’re ready (40 minutes or so prior to serving) you can continue with the recipe.

#5: Heat olive oil (enough to cover bottom of pan) in a large enough saute pan to fit all the chicken pieces. Add one two cloves of chopped garlic. TIP: Heat the oil long enough on a mid flame so the oil gets hot, but then lower the flame before adding garlic – don’t
burn the garlic! If you burn the garlic, start over, chef’s rules! Add the chicken pieces and let them brown (about 2 minutes/side, but use your judgement).

I always find that approx. cooking times are incorrect. The chicken breading should look golden brown. Not blond brown but brown. People often make the mistake of not browning the outside enough. 

#6: Add about ½  ALL of the mushrooms and stir. Once all the mushrooms are coated, turn the flame back to mid, add about a ½ cup of chicken broth, and stir. After about a minute, add about a ¼ cup of white wine. Keep stirring, you’ll notice a nice sauce starting to form. Season a little with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.

Throw in the chicken broth. You should hear an immediate sizzle and steam should shoot out at you. Don't be afraid just back away for a minute. Stir the dish and leave the heat on med-high. After about half of the liquid has evaporated pour in the wine. Add a couple of turns of a pepper grinder. If you don't have a grinder about a pinch works.  Continue to stir the dish. 

#7: Coat a roasting pan with olive oil (I like to use a cooking brush here, but a paper towel works fine) and add a little chicken broth to the bottom.

#8: Once your chicken is browned, lay them in the pan and pour your
mushroom sauce over the top of the chicken, and around the sides Bake for about 20
minutes, checking on it at least twice to turn and baste with the mushroom juice. If you see the juices starting to go down, add some more broth and a little more wine and stir.

Once done, lay a little sauce on a serving platter, snip the twine from the chicken, and pour rest of the sauce on top of the chicken. It’s going to be delicious and your guests are gonna LOVE it!

Best served with red baby potatoes and asparagus.

I took Damsel's suggestion but just threw the asparagus into the pan. I washed and dried the whole package and snapped off the dry ends. (If you hold the asparagus horizontally take the back end between two fingers and pull down it will break where it's supposed to.) I cut the asparagus into about 1 1/2 in long pieces and threw them into the pan. It only took a couple of minutes for them to cook and still be crispy. Keep stirring when you add the asparagus. 

Then viola, dinner in about 20 mins. You can add a starch if you want but the BF and I ate it without. A great piece of crusty bread or some red potatoes would be nice too.