Night 3 02/04/10 Chicken Florentine

Hey guys! I'm stoked that I have 4 followers on my blog already! Thanks both Lindseys, Laura, and Jonathan! Tonight was night 3 of the HCSC and I made Chicken Florentine with fettucine. I wasn't sure what to cook tonight, so I googled "chicken recipe" and one of the first links was for this recipe. The recipe I made and am posting is different from the one I found, but I used the general idea of the dish, and the sauce recipe, to make it my own. The recipe had some flaws, so I'll give you what I feel to be the corrected recipe.

So here goes:

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 bag frozen spinach
1 can on sliced mushrooms
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup margarine (or butter, but save calories with margarine!)
3 teaspoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 milk (the recipe called for half and half, but I used skim milk instead)
1/2 grated parmigiano cheese
1 teaspoon italian seasoning (you can buy a premade one in the spice aisle)
1/4 cup bacon bits
1/2 shredded mozzarella

1. Preheat oven to 350. In a skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Cook the chicken in the skillet until it starts to get a little brown. (Don't overcook it because it's going in the oven soon.)

2. In another large skillet (or the same one) heat another 1 tablespoon of oil. Add the canned (or fresh if you'd like) mushrooms and let cook for about 3-4 minutes. Then add the bag of frozen spinach and 2 tablespoons of water. Let the spinach cook for about 5-6 minutes.

3. In a medium saucepan, slowly melt the 1/4 cup margarine and keep stirring. Keep the pan on medium heat. Once melted, add the minced garlic, lemon juice, italian seasoning, and cream of mushroom soup. Keep stirring until the cream of mushroom soup has thinned. Slowly add the 1/4 cup milk and 1/2 parmigiano and stir until it's a sauce consistency.

4. In a 9"x9" glass dish, spread the spinach and mushrooms on the bottom. Cover with half of the sauce mixture. Lay the chicken on top, then cover with the rest of the sauce. Sprinkle the bacon bits over top. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes, then sprinkle the mozzarella cheese on top and bake for an additional 15 minutes.

WORDS OF ADVICE:
1.I served the chicken florentine over fettucini. For 3 people I ended up using half a box. Same serving rules apply (the size of a quarter) for fettucini, but remember it takes longer to cook than thinner noodles. I've been making a lot of angel hair pasta lately and under estimated how long it would take the fettucine to cook. It's about 8 minutes. Although it was good, I would try it with a plain spaghetti noodle. Fettucine was a little too thick, and angel hair would be too thin. Spaghetti noodles would be just right.

2. Do not put the chicken into the dish and into the oven raw. That's what the original recipe suggested and it didnt cook all the way. We had to throw it into a skillet to cook, then back into the dish. Cook the chicken in a pan first, then add it to the dish.

3. Try to find substitutes for ingredients you don't usually have. I do not keep half-and-half on hand, which is what the original recipe calls for. I used skim milk, so I didn't have to buy half-and-half and the sauce turned out just fine. I also used margarine where it calls for butter. In this dish, substituting saved calories and money!

Tomorrow is Mexican night at the HCSC, so we're either having enchiladas or nachos! Hasta manana!