Friday, October 21, 2005

stuffed chicken with mushrooms

I got home from work pretty early yesterday, circa 5:30, and decided I'd be adventurous and surprise Chris with a new meal on a week night instead of going through our take-out menu collection.

So I chopped up a head of garlic (not too fine, but rather in biggish chunks) and washed and sliced some baby portabella mushrooms. Set aside. In a saute pan, I browned a couple chicken breasts in butter on high for a couple minutes each side, obviously until slightly brown. Removed pan from heat. Cut into the middle of the chicken breasts and stuffed with some goat cheese (I used some leftover stuff from last weekend, with garlic & herbs), a few chunks of garlic, and some rosemary. Buttered the bottom of a glass roasting pan, placed chicken in it, covered with aluminum foil and started baking at 375 degrees. Added garlic to the saute pan and cooked for 5 or so minutes over medium heat, scraping up the chicken bits and stirring in (adding a little more butter as needed). Added the mushrooms and cooked down a bit. Added some white wine (i used about half a cup, maybe a little more) and cooked down. Added a cup of water and a bullion cube, some black pepper, some cayenne pepper, and a spoonful of brown sugar to sweeten it just slightly. I let it simmer away for a little while so the flavors would intensify some more. Then I took the chicken out of the oven, threw the mushroom mixture on top of the chicken breasts along with some extra rosemary, and put back in the oven. I left it in for another 30 minutes or so, which was a little too long.

Serve over white rice, also drink the rest of the white wine especially if, like me, you manage to get raw chicken juice on the cork. I used a bottle of Rhine Riesling Petit Chapeau which has a lovely sweetness to it, worked well with the mushrooms and rosemary. Also it's on sale at Zachys right now for a mere $7. Can't beat that. I think Chris liked it too.

No comments: