American Gangster pie, my man

Back to the basics of a quiet Sunday morning after a pretty busy few days. There has been snow shoveling and starting fires and grocery shopping and sore backs and doing weekend work and finally last night it was time to relax with dinner and a movie on Kline.

Katie hit the recipe books to see what she could do with chicken and found a great dish that turned out tasty and just what was needed on a cold Halifax evening.

Spinach and goat cheese chicken rolls

Ingredients

• four six-ounce chicken breast halves
• one box of frozen chopped spinach (10-ounce) defrosted
• 1/2 cup of goat cheese
• zest and juice of one lemon
• salt and pepper
• toothpicks
• three tablespoons of sesame seeds
• flour for dredging
• four tablespoons of olive-oil
• three cloves of garlic
• one small yellow onion, finely chopped
• one tablespoon of thyme leaves (we used the spice bottle)
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• two cups of chicken stock or broth
• 1/4 cup parsley leaves chopped
• three tablespoons diced roasted red peppers

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F

With a little bit of water put chicken breasts in a freezer bag (one at a time), seal up the bag and pound each breast until flat.

Dry spinach by wrapping it in a kitchen towel. Separate it and add it to a bowl. Add the goat cheese and the lemon zest. Add salt and pepper and mix until it all is combined.

Lay the chicken breasts out on a cutting board and season them with salt and pepper. Place a good amount of the spinach mix on each breast, along the edge of each.

Roll the chicken breast to close in the spinach mix to create a cigar shape and secure each with toothpicks. Season the outside of the breasts with salt and pepper and then dredge in the sesame seeds and flour.

Preheat a large skillet to medium or medium-high and heat with two tablespoons of the olive oil. Shake the excess flour off the chicken and toss then in the pan. Saute each side for about five minutes or until they are golden brown. Place of rimmed cookie sheet and put them in the oven for another five to seven minutes so the chicken will cook through.

Place the skillet back on medium-high heat and add the rest of the olive-oil. Next add the garlic, thyme, onions, red pepper flakes and some salt. Cook for about three minutes and then add a sprinkle of flour, cooking for one more minute.

Whisk in the chicken stock to thicken the sauce for three to four minutes. Finally add the lemon juice, parsley and the diced roasted peppers.

Ladle some sauce onto each chicken breast and serve. We had a side of rice to go with ours.

As I said it was pretty tasty and the chicken was cooked just right. The sauce had a very hot kick to it that you felt going down to your belly. I am a sucker for any dish that combines chicken and cheese so of course I love it.

Once we digested a little bit it was time to start a movie and enjoy some dessert. The flick for the night was one I have been wanting to see for some time. American Gangster with Denzel and Russell. Two great character actors about a story that I found pretty interesting.

We enjoyed this movie with a piece of blueberry pie (in case you did not get the title of the post). The pie was great as always and we can’t get enough of the blue boxed pie from the Superstore.

Katie did not make it through the movie because of the length and the warm fire we had going but I think she got the idea. I really enjoyed it and even though it clocked in at just under three hours I wanted more. I am a big fan of both Washington and Crowe and the last 20 minutes when they are actually on screen together reminded me of the movie Heat, where it was really long but you got to see De Niro and Pacino on screen sitting at a diner.

We kept commenting on how hard it must of been to operate any kind of undercover work in the 1970’s due to the lack of gadgets. The size of the walkie-talkies are great. The music was awesome, the acting of course was strong, even for the side characters. I am pretty sure Common was in there but I need to double check that.

American Gangster is one of my favourite movies I have seen lately so I would recommend it.

Phew, long post today. Better get going with my Sunday.

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