Tuscan Chicken

If you are looking for a quick, tasty, and easy recipe when you have unexpected guests coming to dinner, Tuscan chicken could be one of the top ten choices. The origin of Tuscan chicken comes from the Tuscany region in Italy. Italian uses Leghorn chicken, a breed of chicken originating in Tuscany, in central Italy. However, it was a creation from the Olive Garden, an American casual wannabe Italian casual family restaurant, to make this chicken dish famous in North America. There are many variations of this recipe but several key items are essential, baby spinach, cream, Parmigiano Reggiano, and skinless chicken (breast or leg ). To turbocharge this recipe, I’ve added many other ingredients to make it tastier!

Serve four

Preparation time 45 minutes

Ingredients:

Chicken breast or leg	4 pieces, Skinless
Heavy cream	250 ml
Chicken stock	250 ml
White wine	250 ml
Tomato puree	150 ml
Juice from 1 can of white bean	150 ml
Sun dried tomato, julienne	50 gm
Sweet onion, ½	200 gm
Garlic, lightly chopped	2 gloves
White bean, 1 can	500 gm
Cremini mushroom, slices	200 gm
Baby spinach	1 cup about 150 gm
Parmigiano Reggiano, grated	200 gm
Flour	6 tablespoons, 5 Tbsp for coating the chicken and 1 Tbsp for thickening the sauce
Tomato purée	200 gm
Kosher salt	1 teaspoon
Freshly grated black pepper	½ teaspoon
Olive oil	¼ cup, 60 ml
Unsalted butter	3 pieces, 20 gm

Method:

Season the chicken (breast or leg) with salt and pepper, lightly coat it with flour.

In a 12” cooking pan, add olive oil/butter and turn heat on to medium low. Don’t use high heat as the butter contains water and it’ll spark like crazy.

Once you see most of the butter has melted, place the chicken in the pan and turn heat on to medium. Cook for about three minutes each side and turn chicken over to the other side for browning.

Turn oven to 375F.

Take chicken from the pan to a baking tray. Bake chicken for 12 minutes.

Add onion, mushroom to the pan, quickly mix it well and let it sauté for about three minutes. Add a tablespoon of flour to the pan to make a roux (flour and fat mix together to form a thickening base). After the roux is formed, add the garlic, sun dried tomato to let it cook for another three minutes till everything is softened.

Pour in the white wine and use a whisk to mix it thoroughly until the alcohol from the wine has evaporated. Add chicken stock, tomato purée, juice from the white bean, and cream to the pan, salt and pepper to taste.

Let the sauce cook for 5-8 minutes to blend in the flavors. By this time the chicken in the oven should be ready. Take the tray out and let the chicken rest for 3-4 minutes.

Add the white bean to the sauce, mix well. Place baby spinach in the sauce, mix it up lightly. Add the Parmigiano Reggiano at the end just before serving. If you add the cheese too early, it’ll settle on the bottom of the pan and the sauce will become sticky to the pan.

Add the chicken to the sauce and let it cook for one minutes and pour the juice from the baking pan to the sauce for the extra flavors.

Transfer the sauce and the chicken to a deep dish serving plate. Garnish with chopped parsley (optional) and sprinkle the chicken with extra Parmigiano Reggiano.

For serving ideas, you can serve with crusty bread, pasta, risotto, focaccia or mash potato.