You can't go wrong with this fast, easy dish. A thin slice of boneless, skinless chicken breast is wrapped in a piece of proscuitto, sauteed quickly in a large skillet, then finished in the oven. If you like, make a light lemon-butter pan sauce to spoon over the finished dish. In my house, three of us like the sauce, but the younger ones still reach for the ever present bottle of ketchup. As long as they eat.
You can purchase the proscuitto at the deli counter (just be sure it is thinly sliced), but I like to keep a presliced package in the refrigerator. Trader Joe's has a good price for it and it keeps for at least a month, making it easy to put this dish together any time. There were eight slices in the package; if you find yourself with extra proscuitto, save some to throw on a delicious Pear, Proscuitto and Arugula Pizza (recipe coming soon).
For a quick side dish, I diced three oil packed sun dried tomatoes (from the jar left over from last week's pizza), then tossed them with hot whole wheat spaghetti and a spoonful of green olive tapenade.
Chicken Wrapped in Proscuitto
- 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 6 slices proscuitto ham, thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon butter
- 2 teaspoons grapeseed or olive oil
- 3/4 cup chicken broth (I used Better than Bouillon to make the broth)
- Juice of half a lemon (about 2 tablespoons)
- 1/2 tablespoon butter, cold
Trim any fat from the chicken and remove the tenderloin from the back of the chicken breast (I save these to make chicken tenders for the kids. Wrap in plastic and freeze until needed). Carefully cut each chicken breast in half lengthwise. Place the chicken on a cutting boad and put your hand flat on top of it. Carefully cut lenghwise through the chicken breast.
Season both sides of chicken with salt and pepper. You can do this by sprinking the cutting board with salt/pepper. Place the chicken slices onto the cutting board, then season the top of the slices.
Wrap a piece of proscuitto around the center of the chicken.
This can be done earlier in the day. Place chicken in a single layer and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate until ready to cook.
Preheat oven to 375. Heat butter and oil in a large skillet over medium high heat; swirl pan to coat with oil/butter. I needed my 14 inch All Clad skillet to fit the six pieces of chicken. Add chicken to pan and cook for 2 minutes on each side. Put pan in hot oven and cook for 5 minutes until done (no longer pink in center). One of my friends mentioned she has four kids (including three hungry boys) and her largest skillet could not hold enough chicken to feed the family. If you are cooking more than 3 chicken breasts, sear chicken in batches, then place on a rimmed sheet pan to finish cooking. You may need to add more oil/butter to the pan in between batches to keep the chicken from sticking. You can make the pan sauce while the chicken cooks.
Remove chicken from pan, place on a plate and cover with foil to keep warm. Add chicken broth to pan and boil for about 3 minutes, scraping any browned bits into the sauce, until it is reduced by half. Add lemon juice. Remove pan from heat. Add cold butter and swirl pan to melt into sauce. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed. Mine did not need additional salt, but I did add more pepper. Spoon sauce over chicken and serve.
