Chicken with Polenta and Prosciutto

Anytime we get any kind of “good news” J always wants to celebrate, which is good, I think you should celebrate even the little successes, but that always means going out to dinner.  When our cause for celebration can be as small as getting a pat on the back at work from your boss or receiving the quarterly dividend check, it might sometimes just be an excuse to be out of the house.  And when we get on a going out to eat kick where we eat out more than we eat in, like we have been lately, I have to eventually say no.  So I made this for dinner one night to celebrate J’s progress on his PhD and then had to give myself a pat on the back for the meal and made myself dessert ;-)

6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
2 tbs chopped fresh sage
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper
½ cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp olive oil
½ cup dry white wine
2/3 cup yellow cornmeal
2 cups water
1 cup diced, seeded, and peeled tomato
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
2 very thin slices prosciutto cut into thin strips

Sprinkle the chicken with sage, 1/8 tsp salt and pepper.  Place flour in a shallow dish and dredge the chicken in the flour.  Heat the oil in a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat.  Arrange the chicken in the skillet and cook for 4 minutes on each side to brown the flour.  Add wine, cover, and lower the heat and simmer for 20 minutes to cook the chicken through.  If towards the end of the 20 minutes the wine has nearly boiled off, add a little bit more to make sure you have a little bit of a sauce.

Meanwhile while the chicken is cooking, place the cornmeal in a small skillet over medium high and add the water in small additions.  Stir the mixture to get the cornmeal to absorb the water then add more water, repeating until all of the water is absorbed.  Season with salt to taste then remove from heat and let stand about 5 minutes.

After the chicken is cooked through, remove it from the pan.  Add the diced tomatoes and cook for ~5 minutes.  Stir in the juice and prosciutto and cook ~1 minute.

Spoon the polenta onto a plate and top with 2 chicken thighs and sauce.

Makes 3 servings

If you were making polenta as a side I would definitely not do it this way, it was definitely lacking in flavor.  But to be eaten with the chicken and sauce all together it was probably better than a polenta with a lot of flavor as it was probably more the texture that was needed than another flavorful component.

Whenever we start going out to eat frequently I get lazy and forget that I can make meals that are just as good or better than where we would go on a weeknight and I can find things that don’t take hours to make.  In my opinion, the key to an impressive meal is using high quality ingredients and fresh herbs.  That doesn’t have to take hours or use up your daily calorie allotment.