What did you have for dinner last night?

[KYHeirloomer]

Tonight was chicken breasts San Marco on a bed of baby greens, with millet & peas and sweet & sour lentils as sides.

[aeiou]

KYHeirloomer I have never heard of chicken breasts San Marco can you describe that dish...better yet provide the recipe. Thanks

[KYHeirloomer]

Chicken Breasts San Marco is an award winning dish from the Republic of Malta.

Basically, you stuff skinless/boneless chicken breasts with chicken liver pate and cooked asparagus. Then you bread them with finely ground almonds and pan fry in olive oil & butter, about 6 minutes per side.

An exact recipe, if you need it, can be found in Pippa Mattei's "25 Years in A Maltese Kitchen."

[aeiou]

Thanks for the description of Chicken Breast San Marco. Unfortunately I won't be able to make that dish unless I substitute another item for the chicken liver pate since I don't like chicken livers. Everything else sounds great in the recipe. Any suggestions on a substitution for the chicken livers?

[KYHeirloomer]

There are hundreds of recipes for stuffed chicken breasts. What makes this one what it is is the pate and the almond breading.

You could make a very thick veloute sauce, add the asparagus, so it is just napped with the sauce, and use that as a filling. I think the asparagus and almonds would go nicely together.

Another one we like is Ham & Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts

3/8 cup Monteray Jack, shredded
3 tbs chopped ham
3 tsp Dijon mustard
Pepper to taste
6 boneless chicken breast havles
2 eggs
3/4-1 cup breadcrumbs

Preheat oven to 400F. Lightly coat a baking sheet with cooking spray.

Mix cheese, ham, mustard & pepper in a small bowl.

Cut a horizontal slit along the long edge of each brest half, nearly through to opposite side. Open greast & place 1/6 of the filling in each breast, pressing edges firmly together.

Lightly beat the eggs. Place breadcrumbs in a shallow dish. Dip each breast in the egg, then dredge in breadcrumbs.

Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add breasts. Cook until browned on one side, about 2 minutes. Turn and brown other side.

Place breasts on prepared baking sheet. Bake until no longer pink in the middle, about 15 minutes.

This is, obviously, a variation of chicken cordon bleu. Note how you can ring all sorts of changes on this by changing the cheese, the type of ham, or the breading. For instance, try using gruyere cheese and country ham, with ground pumpkin seeds for the breading. It's a whole different dish. Or maybe prociutto (sp?) and asiago for the filling, and herbed Italian breadcrumbs for the coating.

All sorts of possibilities.

[KYHeirloomer]

For tonight we're having Seafood Lollipops with Remoulade Sauce; Garlic Mashed Potatoes; Red Onion Marmalade.

Lots of baby greens left over from last night, so I'll just toss them with some capers, cut up olives, gorgonzola, and a little evoo. A little fresh-ground black pepper to kick it up.

[KYHeirloomer]

Tonight was pumpkinseed crusted rainbow trout; gnocci with sage sause; gingered baby snap beans.

[oldbay]

We had barbecued chicken breasts along with a nice fresh cucumber and tomato salad with Italian dressing.

We used chicken breasts we bought at Costco.

Is it me? Am I the only one that thinks the Perdue chicken breasts as large as a elephant? We can't buy the Perdue breasts because they feed three and there are only two of us. I'm talking about the bone-in breasts and not the boneless skinless ones, which seem to be okay in size.

[KYHeirloomer]

We try to avoid Perdue, Old Bay. I don't care for the color or taste of it. And I try to stay away from the pre-packaged stuff from any brand as much as possible. Since Fresh Mart opened in Lexington, it's easy to do.

But I think you're right about sizes. At Fresh Mart I get the skinless and boneless whole breasts, and they're monsters. A half breast certainly feeds the two of us, even after it's trimmed down.

What I do is cut away the "tenders", using that strip of silver skin as a guide. These pieces are reserved for other uses---maybe a chicken salad, maybe chicken a la king, whatever.

What's left of each breast half is more than enough for supper. Most of the time, Friend Wife takes the balance for lunch the next day.

[oldbay]

Tell us about Fresh Mart. Is it an organic market, a grocer with conventional/organic (ala Whole Foods), or the current thin with conventional grocers stocking organic?

Incidentally, I have an Uncle that works for a company that supplied some from somewhere to someone the supplied Perdue, and he says the color is from marigold petals mixed into the feed. That's natural, at least to me.