Chicken in a Basil Cream Sauce

This is a rather simple and quick dinner that people will think took a long time to make. The total preparation and cooking time is about 30-40 minutes. What is nice about the dish is the blend of the Parmesan Cheese and chopped Basil. Fresh basil is definitely required for this dish as it is a key ingredient and probably wouldn't work very will with a dried herb substitute.

Chicken in a Basil Cream Sauce
Serves 4

1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup dried bread crumbs
4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 (4 ounce) jar sliced pimento peppers, drained
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper


DIRECTIONS:
1. Place milk and bread crumbs in separate, shallow bowls. In skillet, heat butter or margarine to medium heat. Dip chicken in milk, then coat with crumbs. Cook in butter or margarine, on both sides, until juices run clear (about 10 minutes). Remove and keep warm.

2. Add broth to skillet. Bring to a boil over medium heat, and stir to loosen browned bits from pan. Stir in cream and pimentos; boil and stir for 1 minute. Reduce heat.

3. Add Parmesan cheese, basil and pepper. Stir sauce and cook until heated through. Pour mixture over chicken and serve.

Truffled Gnocchi with Peas and Chanterelles

"Truffled" is used loosely in this case. There are no truffles at all in this recipe, Chanterelles in fact, but I couldn't find them and went with a mixed gourmet mushroom package from Papa Joes grocery. It turned out fantastic, even without the better mushroom choice; though, I'm still looking forward to trying it with Chanterelles.

The best part is it only took 10 minutes to make this meal.


Truffled Gnocchi with Peas and Chanterelles
Serves 4

1 lb. Potato gnocchi
2 tbsp. Extra-virgin olive oil
10 oz. Chanterelle mushrooms, roughly chopped
2 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup peas, fresh or frozen
2 tsp. Finely chopped fresh thyme
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 tbsp. Finely chopped chives
Freshly grated Parmesan

Cook potato gnocchi according to package directions.

Bring a 12” skillet over medium-high heat to high; add cream, peas, mushrooms, and thyme and cook. Stirring occasionally, until cream reduces by half. Season mushroom sauce with salt and pepper and remove skillet from heat. Add drained, gnocchi pasta to sauce pan and turn to coat, turning down heat to low. Plate pasta and sauce. Sprinkle parmesan and chives on top to serve.