A Great Night In, Outside!

For weather like this, it’s great to cook up a meal you can take outside on your porch and enjoy. The stuffing makes this a great meal for the season, although this can be served anytime of the year.

 This meal serves four with leftover potatoes, but you can double the chicken recipe and serve eight.

Stuffed Chicken Breast

Ingredients

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, 6 ounces

Large plastic food storage bags or waxed paper

1 package, 10 ounces, frozen chopped spinach

2 tablespoons butter

12 small mushroom caps, crimini or button

2 cloves garlic, cracked

1 small shallot, quartered

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 cup ricotta cheese

1/2 cup grated Parmigiano or Romano

Toothpicks

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Sauce:

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

1/2 cup white wine

1 cup chicken broth

Directions

Place breasts in the center of a plastic food storage bag or 2 large sheets of waxed paper. Pound out the chicken from the center of the bag outward using a heavy-bottomed skillet or mallet. Be firm but controlled with your strokes.

Defrost spinach in the microwave. Transfer spinach to a kitchen towel. Twist towel around spinach and wring it out until very dry. Transfer to a medium-mixing bowl.

Place a nonstick skillet over moderate heat. When skillet is hot, add butter, mushrooms, garlic and shallot. Season with salt and pepper and saute 5 minutes. Transfer mushrooms, garlic and shallot to the food processor. Pulse to grind the mushrooms and transfer to the mixing bowl, adding the processed mushrooms to the spinach. Add ricotta and grated cheese to the bowl. Stir to combine the stuffing. Return your skillet to the stove over medium high heat.

Place a mound of stuffing on each breast and wrap and roll breast over the stuffing. Secure breasts with toothpicks. Add 3 tablespoons oil to the pan, 3 turns of the pan. Add breasts to the pan and brown on all sides, cooking chicken 10 to 12 minutes. The meat will cook quickly because it is thin. Remove breasts; add butter to the pan and flour. Cook butter and flour for a minute, whisk in wine and reduce another minute. Whisk in broth and return breasts to the pan. Reduce heat and simmer until ready to serve. Remove toothpicks. Serve breasts whole or, remove from pan, slice on an angle and fan out on dinner plates. Top stuffed chicken breasts or sliced stuffed breasts with generous spoonfuls of the sauce.

Baked Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients

1 tablespoon butter

4 pounds russet potatoes, peeled, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 cup whole milk

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted

1 1/2 cups grated mozzarella

1 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 teaspoons garlic powder

2 tablespoons plain dry bread crumbs

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Coat a 13 by 9 by 2-inch baking dish with 1 tablespoon of butter and set aside.

Cook the potatoes in a large pot of boiling salted water until they are very tender, about 15 minutes. Drain; return the potatoes to the same pot and mash well. Mix in the milk and melted butter. Mix in the mozzarella and 3/4 cup of the Parmesan. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper and add garlic powder. Transfer the potatoes to the prepared baking dish. Stir the bread crumbs and remaining 1/4 cup of Parmesan in a small bowl to blend. Sprinkle the bread crumb mixture over the mashed potatoes. Recipe can be prepared up to this point 6 hours ahead of time; cover and chill.

Bake, uncovered, until the topping is golden brown, about 20 minutes.