This was an impromptu inspiration a few years ago - I had chicken, asparagus, chèvre, and arugula. What to do...EUREKA! And today I found myself in the same situation - chicken breast, a small amount of asparagus leftover from the asparagus tart I made a couple days ago, a bag of arugula, and some tasty, tasty herbed goat cheese. Plus, I had an open bottle of white wine to use up. I'm moving in 2 weeks, so I'm trying to use up everything in my fridge and pantry. Chicken broth in the cupboard...use that sucker up!
I think my favorite thing about this dish is how the chèvre starts to mix in with the pan sauce, and then the arugula catches all of the excess to make a seriously tasty little salad underneath.
My sister won't eat this because apparently they used to serve those frozen, molded stuffed chicken breasts in her sorority house all the time, and the ladies got to calling them "hamsters." So here you are, folks, asparagus and chèvre stuffed hamster over arugula!
Ingredients:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
10 spears of asparagus (approx - more if you only want to use the head ends)
2 oz herbed chèvre (approx)
salt and pepper
olive oil
1/2 cup white wine
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
2 loose cups arugula, washed and drained
Equipment:
1 skillet or chef's pan
1 baking dish
kitchen twine
1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Pound the chicken breasts flat and lay them underside up. Salt and pepper. Cut the asparagus spears to the width of the chicken breasts. (I used all head-ends because I had enough asparagus left and I wasn't going to use it for anything else, but you can use head-ends and stalks.) Lay chèvre in slices across the asparagus.
2. Roll up chicken breasts and secure with kitchen twine. Make sure to tie them pretty tight, so the stuffing doesn't come out.
3. Heat olive oil in a skillet on medium-high. Sear chicken rolls for a few minutes on each side, so the whole thing gets a nice crust. Transfer to a baking dish.
4. Bake until cooked through, about 15-20 minutes. Meanwhile, make the pan sauce. (IMPORTANT - make sure to remove any pieces of chèvre that have oozed onto the skillet before deglazing.) Deglaze the pan with the wine, then add about 1 1/4 cups of the chicken broth. Raise the heat to high and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to medium high and allow the sauce to reduce. When thickened, add the remaining chicken broth, stir, and reduce heat to low (this prevents the pan sauce from gumming up on you while you wait for the chicken). Allow to simmer for a few minutes until sauce is a rich brown and the chicken is done. Remove twine from chicken. Divide arugula between 2 plates and place one chicken roll on each. Spoon pan sauce over. Drink some wine.
The close-up:
And the cross section:
MEDIA PAIRING:
In honor of my sister, the Hamster Dance Remix.
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