Chicken Santa Rosa

This recipe is inspired by a dish served at Maria's Italian Kitchen in Los Angeles. They describe it as "chicken breast sautéed with fresh garlic, butter and sun dried tomatoes, then finished with a splash of white wine, a touch of cream and Dijon mustard." Well heck! That sounds like an open invitation to cook it at home! ;-) Here's my rendition of Chicken Santa Rosa:

1 chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces
3 T. butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ to ½ C. sun dried tomatoes, drained (see note)
approx. 1/4 C. white wine (Chardonnay suggested)
¼ C. cream
salt to taste
2 t. prepared mustard
spaghetti

Heat the water you are going to boil the spaghetti in, and time the cooking of your spaghetti to coincide with finishing the sauté. Spaghetti takes about 8-10 minutes in briskly boiling water.

Preheat sauté pan over a medium flame and then melt the butter. Add the chicken pieces and sauté until lightly browned. Add the garlic and continue sautéing until the garlic becomes limp and translucent. Be careful to not burn the garlic! Add the sun dried tomatoes and enough wine to keep everything damp and reduce the heat. Cook about 5 minutes over low heat and stir things now and then to incorporate the pan drippings into the wine (i.e. to deglaze the pan). Your spaghetti better be almost done by now! Add the cream and part of the mustard and stir to blend everything evenly. Taste it and consider adding more mustard, possibly even more than the amount stated above. The dish should taste a bit mustardy but it's up to you to decide how much is best. Salt to taste and serve over spaghetti. (1 serving)

Variations: This recipe can also be cooked using two skinless bone-in chicken thighs, or by using a boneless, skinless chicken breast pounded a bit between two layers of plastic wrap (rather than using bite sized pieces). It also goes well with brown or white rice instead of spaghetti. (I recommend the bone-in chicken thighs served with brown rice. The pounded breast could go with either spaghetti or rice.)

Note: Sun dried tomatoes are available either dried, or dried and then mixed with olive or other oil. If you have the dry kind you reconstitute it by soaking in a small amount of water for 1-2 hours, and then drain it. I use the other kind, which comes already mixed with olive oil and spices. I recommend using the bottled kind. This is a really great ingredient that adds an amazing amount of complexity of taste to your recipe.

Credit: My own recipe, inspired by Maria's Italian Kitchen.

Filed under Poultry Tagged Italian, copycat, pasta, signature, dinner