Pan-Basted Chicken Breasts with Pro­sciutto, Moz­zarella and Spinach

(serves 4, with a bit left over, probably)

4 large chicken breasts, bone­less and skin­less (although skin might be nice)
2 balls buf­falo moz­zarella, sliced thick
8 slices pro­sciutto
2 hand­fuls baby spinach
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsps but­ter
1/2 pound but­ton or chest­nut mush­rooms, quar­tered
sprin­kle dried basil
sea salt
fresh-ground black pep­per
8 tooth­picks (or you could tie them up if you know how: I don’t)

Lay the chicken breasts one at a time on your cut­ting board and flat­ten them out, push­ing that nice lit­tle ten­der bit to the side but keep­ing it attached. Cover the sur­face of each breast with moz­zarella slices, pro­sciutto and spinach leaves. Then roll it all up, or fold it, depend­ing on how thick it is, and secure it with the tooth­picks, fold­ing any strag­gly bits in and catch­ing as much as you can with the tooth­picks. The idea is to keep as much moz­zarella as pos­si­ble inside the pocket, since the ham and spinach won’t try to move.

Now heat your oil and but­ter in a large skil­let and sprin­kle in the basil, salt and pep­per. When it’s all siz­zling and bub­bling and lovely, place the breasts care­fully in. Throw the mush­room quar­ters in as well. Cook the chicken on one side until it becomes opaque and white, no longer pink (about five min­utes, per­haps). Turn and do the same on the other side. By this time some juices will have been released and turned into a deli­cious liq­uid with the oil and but­ter. Don’t taste it, though! Too raw. Wait till it’s thor­oughly cooked before you taste it for salt. Tip the skil­let and spoon up the juices in a soup spoon, and driz­zle it over each breast in turn, con­tin­u­ing to tip the skil­let when the spoon’s empty.

What you’ll find is that the moz­zarella melts and some of it escapes into the cook­ing juice, which means you’re pour­ing INTO and on top of the deli­cious pocket of chicken a com­plex ambrosia of oil, but­ter, cheese, basil, salt, pep­per and chicken juices. Turn the pock­ets on their sides, too, and brown all over. It’s hard to over­cook this dish because the ham and cheese mois­turise the chicken, so don’t worry too much. Keep spoon­ing those juices as often as you like. It’s fun!

When you’re sure the breasts are thor­oughly cooked (you can ver­ify this by look­ing at the bit of inside pocket that’s vis­i­ble, and make sure it’s no longer pink at all), taste the cook­ing liq­uid and add salt or more pep­per as needed. Finally, lift the breasts and mush­rooms out care­fully with tongs and just leave all that oil and but­ter fat behind: it’s done its job. Lovely.

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