Here's another dish I made while on vacation. Quick, simple, and delicious. The key to this dish is to infuse the cream with the garlic before cooking.

6 chicken breast halves
1/2 lb mushrooms, sliced
2-3 slices Provolone cheese
1 cup heavy cream
3-4 cloves garlic, sliced
1/2 cup white wine
Salt & pepper to taste
Olive or nut oil

Several hours (I did it in the morning, actually) put the sliced garlic into the cream. Let sit in the fridge until a half hour before cooking the dish.

Slice pockets in the chicken breasts.

Saute the sliced mushrooms in a little oil just until the moisture starts to flow. Set aside and let cool.

Stuff the chicken breasts with a layer of mushrooms and a layer of Provolone. Sear both sides in a hot skillet. Lower heat and continue frying until almost cooked through. Set aside but keep warm.

Deglaze the skillet with the wine, and let it reduce by at least half. Add the cream and garlic, and reduce by half until nice and thick. Add the balance of the mushrooms.

Return the breasts to the skillet, turning to coat with the sauce. Finish in a 350F oven until chicken is cooked through, approx ten minutes.

We served this on pasta, but rice would work well too.

Can you describe what the soaking of the garlic in the cream does? I've seen a similar recipe lately. I assume the cream gets a garlic flavor. But is it mellowed by the cream?

Matt

Technically, I guess, it would be called an infusion. The garlic flavor is infused throughout the cream with equal intensity. And, because the cream already is flavored by the garlic, there's no loss of garlic taste, as happens when you, say, roast it.

I'm not sure what you mean by mellowed. I don't use California White (the typical supermarket garlic), so have no need to soften the taste. In this case, for instance, I used Music, from my own garden.

What I was looking for was a full-bodied garlic flavor to the pan sauce. The infusion does that for me.

By mellowed, I meant the effect similar to what parsley does with garlic. Parsley cuts the flavor of the garlic some and the parsley's flavor melds with the garlic's flavor.

Wow! You grow your own garlic? I grew some it the past and actually thought about growing garlic as a crop at one time. I couldn't figure out the marketing of it.

Matt

Yeah, I grow my own. At one time I had 12 different varieties growing. Plus other offbeat alliums, such as Rakkyo and Perlsweibel.

I've just obtained, after four years of searching, a red multiplying onion. That will go in this year for sure.