Thursday, December 18, 2008

Artichoke-stuffed Chicken Marsala

I apologize that I haven't been posting new stuff lately, I haven't really made all that much, and things have been a little on the hectic side schedule-wise.  Enough with the banter and the excuses though, let's get this rolling.

As a first caveat, I've only actually done this once, and due to time constraints I actually couldn't make this as ideally as I would've liked, so some of the baking times and temperatures might be slightly estimated, meaning, I haven't actually tried them to see if they're ideal.  You'd probably want to tweak it a little as you go along, just so things work out a little more nicely.  I haven't really tried everything on here, so this is more of an ideal situation of how I'd make it.

Ingredients:

boneless, skinless chicken breast
canned, quartered artichoke hearts
fresh mozarella cheese (preferably a block, not shredded)
onion
mushrooms
marsala cooking wine
flour
sugar
salt
black pepper
lemon juice
Italian seasoning

Cooking directions:

1.) Soak the chicken breast in lemon juice overnight (not necessary, but it will tenderize the meat)

2.) Sear the chicken breast in lemon juice, just to get the outside looking cooked, you can skip to this if you don't have time or the inclination (or the lemon juice) to soak the breast the night before

3.) Drain the artichoke hearts

4.) Split the chicken breast open and stuff with a slice of mozarella, some artichoke hearts and season with salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning

5.) Place stuffed breast into a roasting tray, pour in marsala cooking wine (a small layer)

6.) Cover with foil and cut slits in, then bake for 35 minutes

7.) On a stove heat a sauce pan with butter, saute the onions and mushrooms (and remaining artichoke if you have extra), seasoning with salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning

8.) When the vegetables have browned add marsala wine and sugar and mix

9.) Let the wine reduce with the vegetables for about 15-20 minutes

10.) Add a little more butter and flour to thicken the sauce into a glaze/roux

11.) Pull the chicken out of the oven, drain out excess liquid

12.) Pour glaze over the chicken and bake uncovered for another 10-15 minutes

That should do the trick, I'll update if I try this and it doesn't work out that well.  The first time I did it, I didn't really have time to drain the chicken.  Cooking the chicken in the wine will give the meat itself a marsala flavor and keep it from drying out, however, I kind of like that roast flavor too, so, you want to drain it afterwards so you can get that edge.  I think you could probably just bake it uncovered with out adding the glaze and add the glaze afterwards.  As with all my recipes, I encourage you to play around with it and see if you get some better results.  Each person likes it a little differently.  Hope you enjoy!