Saturday, March 8, 2008

Olive stuffed chicken with polenta

I was kind of in a Mediterranean mood last night. My original thought was to make some kind of homemade pasta with chicken. I was thinking I would make something like my creamy chicken and rosemary pasta but with homemade noodles. But when I got home from work I had no flour to make pasta. So I had to look through my pantry to find something else. That's when I spied a big container of yellow corn meal that I haven't touched in a long time. Of course! Polenta. It's easy to make and delicious. You simply whisk in some corn meal and salted water and cook it with stirring until it is thick and creamy - about 40 minutes. You can add cheese to it if you like or even cream or butter. I left it non-fat as it was creamy and delicious enough. To go with the bed of polenta I made a stuffed chicken breast. I started with a boneless skinless chicken breast that was pounded out very thin. It was stuffed with a mixture of green olives, Italian peppers and a bit of feta cheese. This was just ground up in the food processor, slathered on the chicken and the whole thing was rolled up. I seared it on both sides in a hot pan and finished it off in the oven until it was cooked through. Accompanying the chicken and polenta is a bit of sautéed onions and baby spinach flavored with lemon juice.

4 comments:

Nora B. said...

Scrumptious and healthy meal, Greg. I never got the courage to pound chicken breasts after I tried it for the first time, and I basically "mashed" it...maybe I used too much force...?

test it comm said...

That meal sounds pretty tasty! Rather than pounding meat I tend to place it in plastic wrap and roll it with a rolling pin.

Greg said...

A rolling pin sounds like a good idea. I usually use the side of a big heavy cleaver. The flat blade does a pretty good job. I pound them out between plastic as well.

Nora B. said...

thanks for all the tips, guys.