Artichoke Chicken

[zarhooie]

When I go to tag sales, I looooove browsing through the old cookbooks. My favorites are old church cookbooks, and I tend to bias my purchases in that direction. However, there was a tag sale a couple weeks ago and I picked up an old Pampered Chef cookbooklet (small cookbook). In it, there was this awesome recipe for pan-fried herbed chicken with an artichoke topper that looked tasty. I didn't have all the ingredients so I modified my recipe to fit that. My modified recipe below the cut!


Food items

CHICKEN:
Rosemary Herb rub
4 chicken breasts, pounded flat-ish (not too thin; just so they're evenly thick across the surface)
a few tablespoons of olive oil

ARTICHOKE STUFF:
one can artichoke hearts (9-10 smallish hearts), drained and chopped
4 T mayonnaise
1/2t lemon juice
3/4c Parmesan cheese (the plastic jar stuff works well for this)

Non-standard implements:
Kitchen mallet
broiler (in your oven) and broiling pan

First, the rosemary herb rub. I have access to a pretty comprehensive herb garden out front, so most of these ingredients I used fresh. If you don't have access to fresh herbs, it's ok to use dried, or even to purchase a pre-packaged herb mix from the store. My amounts are to taste, so feel free to modify! A hint: you can buy very small amounts of most of these items (dried) at your local Co-op in the bulk foods section. If you are using dried herbs, you should add a very small drizzle of olive oil to help keep the ingredients bound together.

3-4 sprigs fresh rosemary
2tsp fresh thyme
3 sage leaves
4tsp fresh oregano
Using a Chef's knife, chop the above into small pieces. Then add:
1T fresh ground black pepper
1T sea salt (regular or kosher works too)
2T dried basil
2T dried onion slices
1T garlic powder

Mix that all up nice and then half of it on one side of your chicken breasts. Place chicken herb-side down into pan with hot olive oil. Pan-fry for 2-3 minutes on each side or until cooked through and golden brown.

While your chicken is frying, make the artichoke topping. Mix the artichokes, mayo, lemon juice and cheese together until smooth. If it isn't holding together well, add a little more mayo.

When chicken is done frying, place on greased broiler pan. If you don't have a broiler pan, you can use a metal rack on a cookie sheet. REMEMBER TO LEAVE THE OVEN DOOR OPEN WHEN YOU ARE BROILING. Spoon artichoke mix on top of chicken in a pleasing manner, and broil for 5-6 minutes, or until topping is golden brown.

I served mine with rice (pan-fried in the leftover olive oil in the pan for extra flavor) and mixed vegetables. Tasty!

Comments

[tattycat]

I have got to try this. I love love love artichokes.