Looking back over Tasty Tuesday I've realized that I like to share dessert and appetizers and drinks. This means one of two things: I would be an awesome caterer or my future family may starve from lack of real sustenance. Here's something delicious to remedy that.
The Mister and I made this original recipe from the lovely folks over at Dinner a Love Story. We liked it so much on Monday we made it on Wednesday with some changes to adapt more to our taste. To me, those two things (the ability to be easily made on a weekday night and the easy adaptation) are the marks of a great recipe. Read on here for our recipe but seriously go visit Dinner A Love Story for even more of these awesome everyday meals.
Start cooking a pot of rice for three people. The Mister and I used some jasmati that was in the pantry with a dollop of butter added from the very beginning. Use what you have but if you haven't tried jasmati I highly recommend it - so yummy and so what more flavor than dear old Uncle Ben's.
Chop up four pieces of bacon into inch and a half pieces and throw it into a large skillet on medium/high heat (and yes, by "large" I mean "big", now is not the time to skimp.) Chop up a small onion, rinse a half pound of portabellas and rough chop them and keep these in a bowl by themselves. Drain your can of artichokes, chop a whole container of cherry tomatoes in half, zest one lemon, and put plenty of salt and pepper on this mixture.
Once you're on the home stretch with the vegetables, the bacon will be start to show signs off being cooked (i.e. not raw) but not crispy and here will be brown bacon-ness on the bottom of the pan. Pour a few gluts of olive oil (2 tablespoons?) on top and let it sizzle for the next two minutes while you finish up with the veggies. While you're waiting, take one chicken breast and split it in half
Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon (set aside on a paper towel and when it cools snack on while cooking) and immediately put your two pieces of chicken breasts in the pan and let them cook for 3 minutes a side. Again, there should be crispy brownness hanging on the bottom of your pan. Yum. When finished browning, set the chicken aside (and no snacking since it's not cooked through all the way.) Thrown in the onions and mushrooms for about three minutes. If you're like me you'll want to keep cooking them. If you're like my Mister you will prevent people like me from doing craziness like that.
{the aforementioned brown bits are very apparent here}
Dump your remaining veggies. Take a picture with your phone. Throw it onto Instagram and impress your friends with your culinary talent. By then another three minutes will have gone by and you can add a half cup of white wine and half cup of chicken broth to the mixture while you're stirring like a banshee with your wooden spoon. By doing this you are getting all the aforementioned brown yumminess off the bottom of the skillet and adding approximately a ton and half of flavor to your dinner. Squeeze the chicken back into pan and bring all this yumminess to a boil. When it starts bubbling, cover it, turn it down to a simmer, and let it cook for another 8-10 minutes.
If you haven't been attending to your rice, now would be an excellent time to make sure it's not burnt… not that I would know anything about that (sarcasm). When you've got that under control, add 2 teaspoons of *dijon mustard to 1/3 cup of heavy cream and stir, stir, stir.
*Quick word about mustard: I hate it. I used stone ground mustard because it reminds me less of the mustard soaked sandwiches my dear father served me as a helpless child. Despite my intense hatred- in my opinion it is super necessary in this recipe. for the love of all things tart please don't leave this step out.
Right before the ten minutes are up throw in half a bag of spinach. It gives it really pretty color (and the required Popeye vitamins) and will quickly cook down and spread out over the dish. When the timer buzzes, pour the cream into the skillet and make sure every bit has been blessed with the polka dotted sauce.
Cut up everyone's serving of chicken and use a ladel to spoon an equal serving of veggies, meat and cream sauce over your bowl of rice. The picture I have is the best shot that gives a hint of the consistency:: it's thin, (the vegetable jucies plus the olive oil base account for this) but it has the creamy taste followed by the twang of the mustard. Yum. This is seriously delish stuff folks. Definitely a new go-to for a weekday meal since all this cooking can seriously be done in 30-40 minutes.
Does anyone else have a major mustard aversion? Or any other childhood aversion that causes you to avoid lots of recipes as soon as you see that it's including on an ingredient list? I know I really need to work on it… obviously I will be tackling my problem two teaspoons at a time.
