Sunday, August 2, 2009

Quick and Easy Dinner

I know that we all could use another simple meal idea for a crazy weekday or lazy weekend that is the reason I came up with this recipe. The cooking time is minimal which is great when you are famished! And don't be scared to change up the ingredients. When I made this I had not been to the store so I just threw in the pot what sounded good to me.


Chicken in Puff Pastry

Ingredients:
extra virgin olive oil
1 TBS butter
1 medium onion
1 TBS minced garlic
2 TBS chopped banana peppers
Provolone cheese
puff pastry (I used Pillsbury Recipe Creations Crescent)
1 can cream of mushroom soup (or whatever else you choose)
3 boneless skinless chicken breast (cut into bite sized pieces)
1 1/2 to 2 TBS chives
1 1/2 to 2 TBS parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Drizzle EVOO to coat the pan.
Once hot add the diced onion. Saute until partially cooked, about 2 minutes.
Next add the cut up chicken breast. Brown the chicken but do not cook through as it will cook further in the oven.
Once the chicken has browned add the garlic. Allow the garlic to heat and combine with the chicken and then mix in the soup, banana peppers, herbs, butter, salt, and pepper.
Once combined remove from heat and set aside to cool.

Now take out a baking sheet and cover it with foil. Spread the pastry out onto it and you may stretch it a bit until you have a nice rectangular shape but be sure not to tear it or use a rolling pin because that will tear the dough.
Once the dough is ready you may take the filling and spoon it into to center of the pastry leaving room around the edge to fold it up.
Once all the filling is in the center you may cover it with as much cheese as you desire. Just eye ball it but if your chicken breast were quite big you may not want to use all the filling, but don't sweat it the chicken mixture is very tasty by itself served with a flaky buttermilk biscuit.
Now fold the sides of the pastry up over the chicken mixture. It your pastry tears it all good just use your kitchen scissors and cut some excess from elsewhere to cover the hole.
At this point you may brush it with an egg wash or not. The egg wash will give the pastry a nice gloss when baked...totally up to you.
Pop it in the oven at 400 degrees until browned about 12 to 15 minutes.
Slice it up and serve with a vegatable side. And there you have a wonderful, delicious meal in just a few minutes.



2 comments:

I love reading your comments! Thank you for sharing your thoughts.