Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Chicken stuffed with spinach, prosciutto and Boursin cheese

Oh.My.Goodness.

I wanted to make something rich and lush and satisfying and this was exactly the right thing.

I was afraid the cheese would totally melt away in this, but there was still some present in the chicken. And what did melt away was there in the sauce, giving it some creaminess.

The spinach gave it good color and a little texture. The prosciutto just sent it to another level for me. I love prosciutto.

I would guess you can use sliced ham instead of prosciutto. I also think I may try this again and substitute mushrooms for the spinach. That might give it an earthier flavor. Or some asparagus spears to give it a brighter flavor.

But for last night, this was perfect.

chicken stuffed with spinach, prosciutto and Boursin

4 servings

5 ounce bag of baby spinach
4 thin chicken cutlets (6-8 ounce each piece)
(I bought thin-cut chicken breast steaks and pounded them into thin cutlets)
Sea salt and fresh black pepper
dill - minced fresh or dried flake
(I used dried here since my market was out of fresh. Fresh is my preference)
8 thin slices about prosciutto
(I bought about 1/3 pound and it was just enough)
5 ounce package Boursin or similar cheese, cut into five pieces
1/4 cup flour
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch dissolved in 1 tbsp water

Heat large oven-safe skillet and cook spinach about 1 minute or until wilted.
Save this skillet, the chicken will cook in this.

Put spinach in colander and rinse with cold water until cool.
Squeeze out as much liquid as possible.
Set aside.




If using thicker pieces of chicken, pound them into thin pieces.
I put the chicken between sheets of plastic wrap. This way I can see them, but the mess is contained.

Heat oven to 425.

Season cutlets with salt and pepper then sprinkle with the dill.
Layer prosciutto evenly over chicken.
Layer spinach evenly over that.
Crumble Boursin over that. Reserve the 5th piece to be used in the sauce later.

Roll cutlets and secure with toothpicks in 2-3 places.
My toothpicks were sticking out a lot so that it would make it difficult to turn them to cook.
So I cut them off to be more flush with the top of the chicken. They can be removed before serving.

Season outside with salt and pepper and then dust with flour, shaking off excess.

Wipe any moisture out of skillet then heat olive oil on high heat.
Add chicken, seam side down.
Cook until browned on bottom, about 4-5 minutes, then turn chicken.
Cook about 2-3 more minutes or until browned.

Turn so they are seam side down again and add the wine and broth.

Cover and bake in the oven for 12 more minutes, until chicken is done.

Remove from oven and transfer chicken to a platter. Remove toothpicks and cover with foil.

Transfer skillet to the cooktop and heat on high.
Add the cornstarch mixture and whisk until it starts to thicken.
Add remaining piece of Boursin and whisk until blended.
Salt and pepper to taste.

To serve this I cut the chicken down the middle and poured the sauce down into it.


I served this with roasted shoestring potatoes with rosemary and lemons.
For veggies, keep it simple with steamed green veggie like broccoli or asparagus.
The sauce is rich. The sides can be much more simple.

This would be excellent dinner party food. You can get the chicken assembled up to just before you dust them with flour and keep them in the fridge.
When you want to cook them, remove from the fridge and let stand about 10 minutes.
Dust them with flour and cook according to the recipe.

This is how I did it and they were perfect.

4 comments:

Lou said...

My stomach is now angry at my for feeding it Lean Cuisine for lunch. This looks delicious. I'm sure it was!

Jill said...

Ha. Sorry to your stomach.
You need to come out for a visit some time. I will cook you dinner.

And yes, it was delicious. So were the leftovers I had for lunch.

Thomas Holloway said...

That looks delicious. I will have to try that but change the spinach since neither my wife nor myself will eat that unless its raw.

Tom

Anonymous said...

Know this is an oldie but I wanted to let you know that I found your post and tried your recipe, and it was absolutely awesome!

Few things I tweaked: I switched out the cheese for Camembert, I added mushrooms to the spinach, and I moved everything to a casserole dish for baking instead of cooking in the skillet. While things were in the oven, I built another sauce from the chicken scrapings, broth, wine, diced stalks from the mushrooms, and remaining Camembert and served over the chicken once it came out of the oven. Fantastic! Thanks so much for the post!