Notes:
Tapenade is a Provençal mixture of olives, capers, and anchovy fillets. To mine I add a little garlic and
some apricots for a little zest and sweetness. While tapenade is excellent served on toast or baguette slices with aperitifs, it is used here as a stuffing for the chicken breasts. The breasts can be stuffed ahead and sautéed at the last moment.
Tapenade Ingredients:
3/4-cup mix of pitted olives, black oil-cured olives, Kalamata olives, and green olives
1 small garlic clove, peeled and sliced
2 dried apricot halves, cut into small pieces
1½ tablespoons drained capers
8 anchovy fillets in oil
Tapenade Procedure:
Put all the tapenade ingredients in the bowl of a food processor, and pulse to make a coarse puree
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Chicken Ingredients:
4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, about 6 ounces each
1 tablespoon good olive oil
4 tablespoon unsalted butter
1½ cups Baby Bellamushrooms,washed and cutinto 3/4-inch pieces
½ cup chopped onion
½ teaspoon salt, plus extra to taste
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus extra to taste
½ cup drywhitewine
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives or parsley
Chicken Procedure:
Cut a horizontal slit in each chicken breast to create a pocket, and stuff with the tapenade. Set aside until serving time.
When ready to cook the chicken, preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Heat the olive oil and 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet, and when hot, season the stuffed breasts with salt and pepper, and arrange them side by side in the skillet. Cook over medium heat, covered, for about 3 minutes on each side, and then transfer to a platter, and keep warm in the 180-degree oven.
Add the mushrooms and onion to the skillet, and sauté for about 2 minutes. Add the wine, and reduce the contents by boiling for 2 minutes. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter, and additional salt and pepper to taste, and mix well to incorporate the butter. Serve a chicken breast on each of four hot plates, and add any juice that has accumulated around them on the platter to the mushroom sauce in the pan. Divide the mushrooms and sauce among the servings, spooning it over the chicken breasts, and sprinkle the parsley or
chives on top. Serve.
Recipe Author: Chef Jacques Pepin
Source: http://wosu.org/2012/wp-content/uploads/Chefs2011_recipes_v01.pdf