Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Chicken Rolls in Tomato Sauce

Over the weekend I saw Giada make this recipe for Chicken Scallopine with Sage and Fontina. The dish looked tasty, but I didn't feel like spending the money to buy fresh sage and a specialty cheese, so I modified the recipe, substituting spinach and mozzarella for the sage and fontina. The result:


... was moderately successful. I had a tough time with the chicken - once I pounded it thin it was falling apart, which made it hard to roll into nice, neat packages. And since I was using breast meat it was dried out by the time the dish was finished. But the sauce, oh the sauce. It was spectacular. SP said if we use this sauce recipe for pasta from now on he'd be a happy camper. The only change I made from the original sauce recipe was to add some minced garlic to the tomatoes when I processed them. The flavor of the white wine mixed with the tomatoes, garlic and red pepper was phenomenal.
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10 comments:

  1. Do you think the drying out problem might be alleviated if you used boneless thighs? Wait...are there such a thing? If there is, I bet some dark meat would be yummylicious in that. This recipe looks great, albeit time consuming. And expensive. Sage and fontina? Woof.

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  2. C Laz - Dark meat would definitely work better in the moistness factor and yes, they do sell boneless, skinless chicken thighs. I used them once because they were SO cheap. I don't know why we don't buy them more often. What? You don't think sage and fontina are expensive?

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  3. Hey! I tried this from Giada, too. Little different, though:

    http://whatsfordinnergina.wordpress.com/2006/07/02/chicken-roll-ups/

    I just made sure I browned them for just the briefest time, then I put them in the oven to finish. Is that what you did? I didn't have the drying problem, so maybe they went too long..?

    Next time, I'm gonna try your sauce. That looks fantastic!

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  4. When I made Ina's 5 Cheese Penne, I just got the cheese for it. That alone cost me about $20. The fontina alone was $8! For a block! WTH is that?!

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  5. Gina - This recipe called for cooking them completely on the stove - browned first then added to the sauce and cooked for 20 minutes. I should have known not to cook them that long since the chicken was super thin and had been browned already for at least 6 minutes. Your rolls look great! I'll have to try rolling them instead of bunching them up next time.

    C Laz - Yeah, see, there ya go. I couldn't justify that kind of expense in our current situation. Maybe one week when things get better I'll plan to make the chicken rolls and the 5 Cheese Penne so I can buy one block and get two uses out of it.

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  6. Home Cook - Same thing happens to me when I try to pound out chicken. I can never get the chicken just right to stay rolled up.

    C Laz- Everytime a recipe calls for fontina I skip it! The cost of fontina is ridiculous!! :)

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  7. Dani - I think I'm too aggressive with my pounding. I don't have a traditional meat mallet - I bought a Death Blow hammer (that's what it's called, believe it or not) from a hardware store. I think it does too good of a job.

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  8. Death Blow hammer!! I love it!!

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  9. I've been meaning to take a picture of it for ages but I always forget. I'll try to remember for tonight. It's a sight, let me tell you!

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  10. Fontina...it's really a specialty cheese up there? I would definitely try it again using it. There is a lot more mouth feel to the Fontina than Mossarella and I bet it would go great with the sage...remember big pots of herbs are cheap, easy to grow, and would probably grow in your back yard wonderfully for most of the year, provided you give them some protection in the winter. Once you get over the initial investment of the pots, the rest is cheap!

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