chicken prosciutto.

Last night, I made delicious food.




I know this because they told me. "They" are my husband and friends, and they raved about this dish. And I loved it too!

But I was kinda bummed. My photos for this are kinda poopy. Blurry, bad lighting, etc. AND I learned a valuable lesson:


It's not always attractive to photo your food while it's cooking.








BLARGH!!!!!


I can't believe I took a photo that actually makes me not want to eat. As I reviewed the photos late last night, I just had to laugh at this one. WHAT WAS I THINKING???

Anyway, I hope I haven't deflated your expectations for this dish. Because it is a TEN (out of TEN).



Chicken breast.

Prosciutto.

Sage.

Butter... lots of butter.

And fontina cheese. Or gruyere (someone please tell me how to make a fancy "e". You know, the French "e". With the thingy above it). Here's why I used gruyere instead of fontina:

It's not that I didn't know where to find fontina. It's in the fancy cheese section of the grocery store. I found it just fine. But no one told me that it costs a BAZILLION dollars! For reals, it was like $9 for about 3 oz. Now, I like to cook "gourmet" foods or whatever, but I also like to save a buck or two from time to time.

So Jared got out his phone and found that gruyere was an acceptable substitute. I had not tried either of these cheeses before, but he read multiple sources that said this.

So we bought gruyere for about $4 for 3 oz.

Anyways, imagine this:

Seasoned chicken breast cooked to a nice golden brown in a pan of butter, topped with a sage leaf, and wrapped in salty, smoky prosciutto.

Oh but it gets better.

A thick slice of gruyere cheese melted on top of the buttery chicken. Smoky, tangy, buttery. The combination of flavors makes the chicken.

But wait, there's more! The sauce!

A cup of dry white wine (a cabernet sauvignon, perhaps), half a stick of butter, and some minced sage... no need to think about calories. Because it's delicious. Reduced in the same pan the chicken was cooked in, the scrapings from prior cooking carry the flavors that incorporate into the sauce. It all sings together in perfect harmony.

This is the best way I can describe it:



Chicken Prosciutto (from Simply Recipes)

Prep Time: 25 min.

INGREDIENTS

• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
• 8 whole fresh sage leaves
• 1/4 pound very thinly sliced prosciutto
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 8 thin slices Italian Fontina cheese (about 2 oz)

Sauce:

• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1 Tbsp minced fresh sage
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter, chilled

DIRECTIONS

1. Trim the chicken tenderloins away from the breasts, and reserve for another use. Cut each breast half in half, horizontally. Trim away any excess fat. Place the 8 chicken breast pieces between two large pieces of wax paper. Pound the pieces with a mallet until each one is about 1/8 inch thick. Season with ground pepper and set aside.

2. Heat the butter over medium heat in a large sauté pan. When the butter is foaming, add the sage leaves and cook them on each side for 1 minute. Remove the sage leaves from the pan and place a leaf on each of the chicken pieces. Next wrap each chicken piece with a single layer of prosciutto.

3. Dip the wrapped chicken pieces, one at a time in the beaten eggs, coating them well. Make sure the butter in the pan is foaming golden, not browned. Working in batches so that you do not crowd the chicken in the pan, place the chicken pieces in the pan. Cook the chicken breasts about 2 minutes on each side, or until they're just past pink on the inside, golden on the outside. Remove.

4. Place chicken pieces on a flat baking sheet, and cover each piece with a slice of Fontina. Place under a preheated broiler until the cheese just melts, about 1 minute. Divide chicken among 4 plates and serve immediately, with the sauce.

5. While the cheese is melting, pour out the butter from the sauté pan. Add the white wine into the pan, place over high heat. Reduce the wine to 1/2 cup. Add the minced sage about a minute before the reduction is complete. Reduce the heat to low and whisk in the chilled butter. Adjust the seasoning, pour over and around the chicken.

Serves 6-8.

My Tip: Make sure you have everything prepped and measured out before you start the actual cooking, because moves fast once you start melting the butter. I even pulled apart each piece of prosciutto so it was separated before I began. 

Served with a mixed green salad and garlic bread, this dish is great for entertaining. It was fairly quick and surprisingly easy to make.

And--BONUS--I have everything I need to make it again. I WANT MORE!!

Go make it. Now.