Monday, November 24, 2008

One Pan Dinner: Feta Spinach Chicken Roulade & Vegetable Drawer Medley

Feta & Spinach Chicken Roulade Dinner with Cornbread Stuffing and Vegetable Drawer Medley

A collection of cookbooks can be a precarious and wondrous thing to have. Precarious because you think, "I'll never get through all of these recipes! What was I thinking?" and wondrous because, "I'll never get through all these recipes! What was I thinking?!" One such cookbook I own is called Restaurant Favorites at Home. Inside this book are many restaurant dishes 'scaled down' in ingredients and preparation to be made in at least an intermediate cook's home. On many occasions I opened that book determined to finish just one of the unbelievably divine dishes inside, and each time I opened that cookbook I closed it feeling intimidated, feeling defeated, feeling as if I had no business cooking at all and will from hereon out surrerender to eating out forever. Past this past Saturday was different-I was hellbent on cooking something out of that book when I stumbled upon the Feta Spinach Chicken Roulade.

I have made several roulades so I was ready for this challenge and thought, "Bring in On fancy cookbook! I ain't scared of you no more!" Liberated and empowered I preheated the oven to 400 degrees, sauteed flat leaf spinach in extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice and garlic, pounded and trimmed my boneless, skinless chicken breasts, covered those breasts with fat free feta cheese and the cooked spinach and rocked that roll! Don't be afraid to use toothpicks to secure your roll, or roulade, before putting it through the three phases of breading: 1) all purpose flour 2) beaten egg and canola oil 3)bread crumbs.
Once the rolls have been properly breaded, pan fry the rolls in extra virgin olive oil over low heat. Be sure to use tongs to evenly brown the rolls on all sides. Once your color is all even, whack those bad boys on a baking sheet and put them in the preheated oven to continue cooking for 12-15 minutes. Once they are done, take them out too cool so the toothpicks can be fished out and the rolls can be sliced.

But before we get to the cooling and cutting, let's look at the Vegetable Draw Medley. I'll give you one wild guess how I came up with the name. :) Taking the parsnips, celery, and yellow pepper I had just hanging out in the fridge I cut them to similar sizes. Once the chicken roulades are in the overn, put some fresh evtra virgin olive oil in the same pan and bring up to temperature over a medium-high heat. Put in some more garlic and lemon juice then the celery. Let the celery cook for a few minutes before adding the yellow pepper and parsnips.

Vegetable Drawer Medley

Salt and pepper to taste the whole pan and sautee the whole shabang together for about 8-10 minutes and your medley will be fresh, delicious
, and ready for eating! Put some cornbread stuffing on an over safe plate and put it in the preheated oven for 1o minutes to reheat. Cut your chicken, put all three items on a plate, and this one-pan-three-dish-dinner is a meal fit for a queen with little mess to clean up. TAKE THAT Restaurant Favorites at Home Cookbook!!!

7 comments:

Reeni said...

Your dinner looks fantastic! I love the chicken, you did a great job, yummy!

sj said...

delicious! I think this looks amazing!

ncfoodie said...

Beautiful work! I know what you mean re: the intimidation factor of some cookbooks. But you conquered that roulade!

inland empire restaurant and food reviews said...

What a great idea for a meal!!Thanks!!

Joie de vivre said...

This looks absolutely delicious. I like to write the date in the cookbook above a recipe I've prepared. That way I may someday cook every recipe in a cookbook, but at the rate I'm collecting them, I'm not sure that's going to be possible!

Rachel J said...

Reeni - Thanks for the props :)

Jo - I always love when you stop by girl!

NC - No chicken shall defeat me, maybe some cookbooks still, but no chicken...

Inland Empire - I'm here to help. The Vegetable Drawer medley can work in TONS of situations.

Joie - Thanks for the tip! Dating recipes is a great idea. I must admit all my recipes are a bit un-organized to date.

Shelby said...

This looks so yummy!

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