Day 38: Chicken Florentine Penne

Things have been a little crazy around here, lately.  Two sick children, and a tickle in my throat--uh-oh.   Having any kind of illness obviously does not make one thrilled with the idea of cooking.  So I guess we'll see how the next couple of days go.  Tonight I am still feeling good, and I had a great night in the kitchen!  I seldom use recipes when making dinner, I think I've said before.  I usually just skim a recipe I think I want to make, get the gist, then go at it.  The result is usually my "version" of someone's recipe.  When it comes to certain classics, though, I tend to not use a recipe at all.  I know the basics of most traditional dishes, so I can usually just make them myself without a reference.  Things like pot roast, chicken parmesan, roasted chicken, chicken & broccoli alfredo, (& more) I make often and have "perfected" my recipe for them.  Tonight was the first night in a long time that I made a classic dish that I've never made before.  And I added a twist!

Chicken Florentine is traditionally lightly breaded chicken breasts served in a spinach cream sauce.  I was going to make this tonight and serve it with herb-roasted potatoes.  At the last minute, though, I changed my mind and decided I wanted a pasta dish.  So I turned it into Chicken Florentine Penne.  I've never made Chicken Florentine before, so it was fun for me to just create.  I tried to pay attention to the amounts of ingredients I used, too.  I rarely measure when cooking dinner.  However, if I were to ever actually write and publish any of my recipes, I would want to use exact measurements.  That would require working in a test kitchen of some sort to practice and make sure everything is just right.  For this blog, though, I'm trying just to carefully eyeball what I use and write approximate measurements.  While tonight's dish was very tasty, I didn't like my pasta/chicken ratio, so I'm going to write this recipe with a little more chicken and spinach than what I used tonight. 

Chicken Florentine Penne
1 lb penne
2 lg chicken breasts, sliced through the middle, forming 4 thinner breast-halves
flour, egg, breadcrumbs, grated parmesan cheese (for breading chicken)
1 1/2 cups fresh spinach, roughly chopped
1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
1 shallot, finely diced
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 TB butter
2 TB flour
1 cup white wine
2 cups half and half
extra virgin olive oil
salt, pepper

Get a large pot of water boiling on the stove.  Set up 3 bowls/plates for breading the chicken.  1 bowl with flour, 1 with a beaten egg + water, 1 with breadcrumbs + parmesan cheese.  Season each bowl with salt and pepper.  Place an oven safe skillet over medium-high heat with olive oil in it.  Turn the oven on to 350*.  Dip the chicken in the flour, then the egg, then the breadcrumbs and cheese.  Place in the skillet and brown on one side before flipping.  Once flipped, turn off the burner and place in the oven to finish cooking.
Salt the boiling water liberally.  Pour in the pasta and cook according to package directions.  Add the butter to a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the shallots and cook 1 minute.  Add the garlic.  Once fragrant, add the flour and cook another minute.  Add the white wine, spinach, and tomatoes.  Cook 1-2 minutes until the wine is reduced and the sauce starts to thicken.  Pour in the half and half and continue stirring.  Season with salt and pepper.  Drain the pasta and add it to the sauce.
When the chicken is cooked through, slice the breasts into thin strips and add them to the pasta.  Serve hot.