6.30.2008

what i made for dinner :: spinach + brie chicken with tomato orzo

spinach + brie chicken with tomato orzo

seems like i haven't cooked in forever ... what the heck have we been eating for dinner lately??

while cleaning out some old emails i came across one from martha stewart with 30-minute recipes. wouldn't hurt to give it a try; it sounds tasty and easy enough :: spinach + brie chicken with tomato orzo.

instead of chicken breast i used skinless chicken thighs because we like the juicier meat. i didn't have dijon mustard so i made a 1:1 mixture of regular yellow mustard and mayonnaise, but we couldn't taste it at all in the dish. maybe next time i'll get some dijon or, my favorite, grainy mustard.

handling the brie was the tricky part. as per someone's comments on the recipe, i put the brie in the freezer for a bit, but it could've been kept in longer. i didn't use dental floss to cut it, but a regular cheese knife, which was fine until the brie started to warm up and got kinda gooey on the cutting board. i also used toothpicks to keep the chicken rolls together. i didn't heed the warning to soak the toothpicks beforehand, so i cut them down as close to the meat as possible so they wouldn't catch fire under the broiler.

cooking time was about seven minutes but you should check it periodically. some of the chicken pieces that were close to the flame started to burn part way through so i turned the baking sheet. i even lowered the rack to the middle of the oven about five minutes into the broiling.

no suprise that ian did not like it much; he's not a fan of tomatoes or spinach. the orzo side dish can easily be altered to include a different vegetable (i'm thinking about using blanched asparagus next time, which i know ian will eat). the chicken reminded me of a chicken florentine dish i used to make in college, which was time-consuming and more labor-intensive. this one is simple and easy to make, but because everything cooks quickly, active time is about 20-25 minutes.

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