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.
4 pieces skinless chicken legs, season with salt and pepper
Coat chicken lightly with flour
Olive oil and butter in pan
Fry in pan 3 minutes each side
Add onion and mushroom to the pan sauté for about 3-4 minutes, than add garlic, sun dried tomato. Finally add a tablespoon of flour to make a roux
Add white wine first and chicken stock and tomato purée to the mixtures
Add cream , don’t worry about the sauce is too thin. Once the cheese is added, it’ll thicken the sauce.
Add all the baby spinach to the sauce
Finally add the Parmigiano Reggiano just right before it is done. The cheese can thicken the sauce.
Dinner is served with focaccia bread
Tuscan Chicken with Rigatoni