Stuffed Chicken and Herb Gravy with Polenta

Source:  Coooklng Light Magazine

Chicken & Gravy:
4 6 oz chicken breasts (boneless, skinless)
2 thin prosciutto slices halved
4 slices of provolone cheese
1 T canola oil
1/4 t pepper
2 T minced shallots
1 T chopped thyme
1.5 c chicken stock
1 T flour
1.5 T butter
1 T flatleaf parsley
1.5 t chopped tarragon

Polenta:
2 c milk
1/3 c water
1/2 c uncooked polenta
1/4 t salt

Cut each breast horizontally, but not through, to the other side to create a pocket.  Lift top flap of  chicken pocket, arrange 1/2 prosciutto slice in each pocket.  Top each slice with a cheese slice, press top flap of pocket down over filling.  Heat large skillet with oil.  Sprinkle chicken with pepper.  Add chicken to pan, saute 5 minutes or until deeply browned.  Turn and cook 4 minutes or until done.  Remove from pan, keep warm.  Add shallots and thyme to pan, saute 30 seconds stirring constantly.  In a small bowl mix 2 T stock and flour stirring with whisk.  Add flour mixture and remaining stock to pan.  Bring to boil, cook 3 minutes or until reduced to 3/4 c; scraping pan to loosen browned bits.  Remove from heat, stir in butter, parsley and tarragon.
To prepare polenta, bring milk and 1/3 c water to a simmer.  Gradually add polenta, stirring constantly with whisk.  Cook 3 minutes or until thick stirring constantly.  Stir in 1/4 t salt.

I am sure I am not alone with eating a lot of chicken.  I am comfortable with chicken, chicken breast is relatively healthy etc. etc.  I actually think chicken breasts are hard to cook -- they tend to be large (I couldn't find a 6 oz breast) -- and it's hard to cook them through without drying them out.  And. of course, they don't have much taste.  So, I am always interested in finding new recipes.

This was a good one.  As I said earlier, my chicken breasts were much larger than 6 oz, which made it harder to cook them (certainly took longer than the recipe suggests), and the thin prosciutto/cheese filling wasn't really enough to flavor them.  I used thyme instead of the tarragon as well.  It's winter, and  herbs are expensive, so I wasn't about to buy a whole package of tarragon just for this one thing.  However, I did use up the entire package of thyme -- which was probably more than the recipe called for.  Oh, and I reduced the butter to 1 tablespoon.  I don't know if it was that, or the "gravy" is really more of a sauce.  Which is fine by me.  

This is a good dish.  A nice alternative to some other chicken options, and not too labor intensive.  I will say though that the true star was the polenta.  I have tried many polenta recipes, and this was by far the best.  It was creamy, and cooking in the milk softened the grittiness (no pun intended).

And another note -- I'll have to take a course on food photography.  This was a pretty dish, but all the pictures I took turned out like beige mush and beige sauce.  I apologize for the lack of pictures, but I didn't want to discourage anyone from trying the recipe :)