This sounds really fancy, but it's actually a really easy dish that everyone will love. Vegetarians can just remove the chicken and cut down on the cooking time.
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Chicken with Vegetable Ragout and Polenta
Recipe courtesy Sandra Lee and Foodnetwork, 2008
Cook Time: 5 hr 0 min
Level: Easy
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients
* 3 cups frozen primavera vegetable medley (recommended: Birds Eye)
* 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, rinsed and patted dry
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning (recommended: McCormick)
* 1 (14-ounce) jar pasta sauce
* 2 tablespoons tomato paste
* 1 teaspoon crushed garlic
* 1/4 cup dry sherry
* 1 (24-ounce) tube pre-made polenta, sliced 1/2-inch thick (recommended: Gennaro)
* Grated Parmesan, for garnish
Directions
Combine frozen vegetable medley in the bottom of a 5-quart slow cooker. Season both sides of the chicken breasts with salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning. Place chicken on top of vegetables.
In a large bowl, stir together pasta sauce, tomato paste, garlic and sherry. Pour 2/3 of the sauce over chicken and vegetables. Top the chicken with polenta slices and cover with remaining sauce. Cover and cook on the LOW setting for 4 to 5 hours.
Serve hot with Parmesan.
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Easy, right? But it take a long time. Here are my modifications:
I was short on time, so I used my deepest, biggest pan on the stove top. I only had 4 chicken breasts, which I browned in the pan for about 5 minutes with some olive oil. Then I dumped the vegetable, tomato sauce, spice mixture over the chicken and layered the polenta on top of everything. I cooked it, covered, on low heat for an hour and then high heat for about 10 minutes to get it piping hot. It turned out to need a little more salt and pepper, but the sauce was good, the chicken was moist and tender, and the polenta was creamy. It didn't last long. ;)
Hey did you notice the sun? I think we're finally seeing some summer and it's time to talk BBQ! Look for my next entry on how to make your BBQ sing!
Happy Eating in the Sun,
Your Nerd
