Here’s a delicious way to spruce up chicken breasts for dinner, and you can serve this dish over your favorite pasta. Makes about 4 servings.
Ingredients:
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 2 large)
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup seasoned flour (see below)
2 cups mushrooms, cut in half
1 clove garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups dry white wine
3 sprigs fresh thyme
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4-1/2 cup shredded Asiago cheese
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Seasoned flour:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
To make:
Pound chicken breasts with a meat mallet between 2 sheets of wax paper or plastic wrap until meat is of uniform thickness (about 1/4 inch). Cut into serving-size pieces (2 or 3 pieces per breast).
Heat the butter with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in deep, heavy skillet or saute pan over medium heat.
Dredge chicken in seasoned flour. Add to hot oil/butter in skillet. Saute until golden on each side, about 5 minutes per side. Remove from pan.
Add remaining olive oil to hot skillet. Saute mushrooms and garlic until mushrooms begin to brown.
Add white wine to skillet, scraping up all the browned bits that are at the bottom of the pan (this is called deglazing). Bruise the fresh thyme by twisting it between your fingers or hitting it with the dull side of a knife in a few places. Add thyme to mushroom/wine mixture in pan.
Return the chicken to the pan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer 15-20 minutes.
Remove chicken from pan. Add the cream and heat through. Add the Asiago. If you like food strongly flavored, use 1/2 cup; not as strongly flavored, use 1/4 cup. Asiago has a strong taste, and you can even use less for just a whisper of flavor.
Cook, stirring constantly over low heat until cheese melts. Continue cooking until sauce is reduced by about half. If you wish to skip the reduction step, you may thicken the sauce slightly with about 1 tablespoon instant flour or 1 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 2 tablespoons water. The reduction will taste better, though.
Add chicken back to pan and heat through.
Garnish with sprigs of fresh thyme and serve over pasta.
