Chicken Florentine

I was a cook in a past life. Chef, line cook; broiler, fry, saute, expediter. I rocked. :D

One of the last places I cooked I was the only female on a 21 cook line-plus all the prep cook and dishwashers were male, too. I had the lead saute in that place.

Dinners were my specialty. I cooked one professional breakfast in my years of cooking, and quit the place the next day. Well, I had closed the night kitchen down at 1:30 am and had to be back at 4:30am for breakfast, so that might have had something to do with it. ;)

Last night I went out to harvest my baby spinach which had decided this heat wave was too much and had started to bolt. I happened to have a big bag of whole chicken breasts that needed cooking, and I remembered a favorite recipe -Chicken Florentine. Yummy. I imagine my vegetarian readers could put the florentine over grilled tofu...

Here's how to make it:

serves two generously.

Two whole chicken breasts, boned and skinned and split in half, or four boneless skinless half breasts.
Flour, seasoned with salt and pepper for breading. I also used crushed plain cornflakes in with the flour, but just flour is how we did it in the restaurant, and then salted and peppered the top of the chicken after breading.
vegetable Oil for sauteeing.

topping:
One bag of spinach, or three or four quart pot full.
One small yellow onion (about 1/3 chopped)
3 TBSP flour
I teas salt
white pepper to taste
1 cup whole milk or half and half if you want it rich.

You can make the sauce ahead of time, as we did in the restaurant, or you can do both at the same time, as I did last night.

Process:
soak the chicken breasts in cold salt water for an hour or so. I use about a tablespoon of salt mixed with enough water to cover. you can omit this step, but my grandmother told me to soak all chicken this way to remove the blood and make it more tender. I do it also as commercially bought chicken is really filthy-you don't want to know-and the salt water will kill everything but staph, which should succumb to the heat.

Take the breasts out of the water and dredge them in the flour. Your fry oil , just enough to keep them from sticking, should be heating on med-high heat. Once the oil is starting to heat, put the floured breasts in. Hot grease can spatter-use caution. If a spot of water explodes in it, shift the pan off the heat while you are adding the breasts.

Now leave them alone to golden brown on the first side. you should flip it only once to brown the other side. You don't want to thoroughly cook it, as it will finish in the oven.

While they are cooking, melt the butter in another pan and add the onions. Cook til transluscent. I scorched mine a bit last night-came out fine, but will darken the sauce.
Add the spinach and throw a lid on it to steam the spinach. Last night all I did was soak the spinach to get the slugs off. If you are using more mature bagged spinach,wash and soak in cold water, then pull the big stems off and coarsely chop it before putting in the pot.

Once the spinach is steamed (if you are timing things right, the breasts will have been flipped and nearly done by now), add 1/4 of flour and stir it into the spinach and let it cook a minute or two to bind the flour and kill the raw taste. Then stir in the cup of milk and let that cook a few minutes, stirring occasionally. Watch that you don't scorch it-if you wanted a smoke, you should have grabbed it earlier (how do you think I scorched the onions?) Should be pretty thick-if you let it cool for later use, it will be like pudding consistency.

Put the cooked breasts on a pan (I used one 1 inch deep last night-so not too shallow or you will have a mess in your oven), cover with the Florentine sauce, and top with mozzarella or provolone. Finish in a moderately hot oven (375-400). The cheese should get lightly browned. Enjoy!