Weeknight Dinner: Chicken with Pesto
Summer is the season of the freshest ingredients, and we're focusing this summer on cooking with them. We are combing our stack of Farmer's Market cookbooks for the best recipes to highlight the qualities of fresh fruits and vegetables. We are canning, preserving and pickling what we cannot use for home-cooked dinners. We are trading the fallout from our bumper crops with that of a neighbor.
As we harvest, gather and prepare the fruits and vegetables from garden plants, we encounter another resident of the culinary garden: fresh herbs. Feathery dill goes in the pickle jar, while lemon verbena and lavender make jelly. The astringent blades of rosemary top a crust of Lammas bread or perfume a dinnertime pork roast. Parsley, surprisingly assertive when fresh, finds its way onto the plate and into the sauce. A handful of lush savory and heady tarragon enliven a main-course salad, with the remaining sprigs set out to dry along with dusky thyme.
Those herbs, grown lovingly and dried properly, will enliven winter cooking. But one summertime herb we must always use fresh is basil. A fragrant bunch of basil is the essence of warm, sensual days. As with most culinary herbs, basil's chief contribution to cooking is bouquet. The distinctive aromas of basil are slightly different based on whether the strain is Mediterranean or Asian in origin, but as a rule the dominant fragrance notes are pepper, lemon and camphor. In part due to its broad leaves, basil has a high distribution of its fragrant oils. Cutting, crushing or otherwise bruising these leaves releases the oils, and therewith, flavors.
Nothing highlights the spectacular flavor and aroma of fresh basil like pesto. This simple, ubiquitous sauce originated in Genoa, where along with pasta it is used on everything from sandwiches to vegetables. Like such now-common but once-exotic staples as Brie and curry, pesto came of age in the American kitchen in the 1970s and 1980s. Once the provenance of Italian kitchens or serious cooks, making a good pesto is now a fundamental skill for any cook.
Here is a weeknight dinner to celebrate summer's favorite herb. Chicken breasts (as always, humanely raised) are poached with wine and a touch of herbs and served with a heaping dollop of pesto and as much Parmigiano-Reggiano as you want, all atop a swirl of pesto-tossed linguine. Make a tomato salad to serve with your chicken dinner, and open a nice bottle of white wine -- try a stony New Zealand sauvignon blanc, a crisp Finger Lakes riesling, or, of course, a satiny Italian pinot grigio.
CHICKEN WITH PESTO
The secrets to good poaching are to apply gentle heat and not to peek during the cooking process. These techniques bathe the meat in flavorful liquid and steam, resulting in a moist and deeply flavored dish. This recipe uses a food processor to make the pesto; if you prefer to use the traditional mortar and pestle to make your pesto, this recipe will work fine with that. This recipe looks like it has a lot of steps but, as always, it is just a matter of establishing a rhythm -- also as always, this is a simple dish to prepare.
For the chicken
Two boneless skinless chicken breasts, approximately 8 ounces each
1 bottle dry vermouth
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
Freshly ground black pepper
Coarse sea salt
For the pesto
1 – 2 bunches fresh basil
¼ cup pine nuts
2 medium cloves garlic
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon salt (Greek sea salt works well)
For the pasta
1 pound fresh or quality dried linguine
Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1. Rinse the basil under cool water and set upside down in a colander or flat on paper towels to drain.
2. Turn the oven to 200 degrees. Scatter the pine nuts in a single layer on the bottom of a clean cake pan. Place in the oven and roast until the pine nuts give off their fragrance, approximately five minutes. Remove the roasted pine nuts from the oven; set aside to cool.
3. Use a sharp knife and a clean cutting board reserved for poultry to trim the breasts of the tenderloin if it is present. The tenderloin is the strip that is attached to the large, main chicken breast and separated by a membrane. Freeze the tenderloin for another use. Slice carefully, watching your hands and moving the edge of the knife away from you.
4. Remove the tough lower stalks of the basil (it is okay if some leaves come with it). Place the stalks of basil in a saute pan or deep saucepan. Add the black peppercorns to the basil.
5. Gently lay the trimmed chicken breasts atop the basil and peppercorns. Gently pour enough vermouth into the pan to cover the breasts by ½ inch.
6. Cover the pan containing the breasts and poaching liquid. Turn heat to low. Poach on low heat until breasts are cooked through but still moist and the aroma of the poaching liquid fills the room, approximately 20 minutes.
7. While the chicken is poaching, fill a pan large enough to hold the linguine with water. Add a generous amount of salt. Turn the heat to medium-high.
8. While the pasta water is coming to the boil, make the pesto. Peel the garlic and remove the root end. Half each clove; remove and discard any sprouting from the center. Press each half through a garlic press into the reservoir of a food processor. Sprinkle the garlic with the teaspoon of salt.
9. While the garlic is salting, shake the basil to dry it. Strip the basil of its freshest green leaves to measure between 2-1/2 and 3 cups of leaves tightly packed. If you don’t have enough leaves, supplement with the brightest green parts of the stalks.
10. Add the cooled roasted pine nuts to the garlic and pulse just to combine. Continuing to pulse, drizzle in 1 - 2 tablespoons oil to form a smooth, fragrant paste.
11. Continuing to pulse, add the basil. Once all of the basil is incorporated (it is okay if there are some large pieces of basil in the mixture), add the remaining olive oil in a thin stream, continuing to pulse until the mixture is smooth and very fragrant. Set the pesto aside until ready to serve.
12. Once the water is boiling, prepare the pasta according to package directions for dried. For fresh pasta, reduce the heat so that the water is gently boiling. Shake the fresh pasta dry of its dusting of cornmeal. Gently lay the fresh linguine into the water. Use a wooden spoon to separate the strands of pasta. Cook until the pasta is tender and floats to the surface, approximately 8 minutes.
13. Place a colander in the sink and drain the pasta. Return the pasta pan to the stovetop; reduce the heat to low.
14. Use a silicone spatula to scrape the pesto into the pasta pan. Use the spatula to stir the pesto as it heats to keep it from separating. Heat just until warmed through, typically 3 – 4 minutes. Use the spatula to transfer about one third of the mixture to a serving bowl.
15. Return the pasta to the pot containing the remaining two thirds of the pesto. Use tongs or the wooden spoon to combine the pasta with the pesto.
16. Once the chicken is done, use tongs or the wooden spoon to place a generous serving of linguine in a dinner bowl. Use tongs to lift a chicken breast from the poaching liquid. Shake the chicken breast dry of excess liquid, then place atop the pasta. Sprinkle the chicken with coarse sea salt and several grindings of fresh black pepper.
17. Pass the small bowl of pesto at the dinner table, along with the grated Parmigiano –Reggiano.
As we harvest, gather and prepare the fruits and vegetables from garden plants, we encounter another resident of the culinary garden: fresh herbs. Feathery dill goes in the pickle jar, while lemon verbena and lavender make jelly. The astringent blades of rosemary top a crust of Lammas bread or perfume a dinnertime pork roast. Parsley, surprisingly assertive when fresh, finds its way onto the plate and into the sauce. A handful of lush savory and heady tarragon enliven a main-course salad, with the remaining sprigs set out to dry along with dusky thyme.
Those herbs, grown lovingly and dried properly, will enliven winter cooking. But one summertime herb we must always use fresh is basil. A fragrant bunch of basil is the essence of warm, sensual days. As with most culinary herbs, basil's chief contribution to cooking is bouquet. The distinctive aromas of basil are slightly different based on whether the strain is Mediterranean or Asian in origin, but as a rule the dominant fragrance notes are pepper, lemon and camphor. In part due to its broad leaves, basil has a high distribution of its fragrant oils. Cutting, crushing or otherwise bruising these leaves releases the oils, and therewith, flavors.
Nothing highlights the spectacular flavor and aroma of fresh basil like pesto. This simple, ubiquitous sauce originated in Genoa, where along with pasta it is used on everything from sandwiches to vegetables. Like such now-common but once-exotic staples as Brie and curry, pesto came of age in the American kitchen in the 1970s and 1980s. Once the provenance of Italian kitchens or serious cooks, making a good pesto is now a fundamental skill for any cook.
Here is a weeknight dinner to celebrate summer's favorite herb. Chicken breasts (as always, humanely raised) are poached with wine and a touch of herbs and served with a heaping dollop of pesto and as much Parmigiano-Reggiano as you want, all atop a swirl of pesto-tossed linguine. Make a tomato salad to serve with your chicken dinner, and open a nice bottle of white wine -- try a stony New Zealand sauvignon blanc, a crisp Finger Lakes riesling, or, of course, a satiny Italian pinot grigio.
CHICKEN WITH PESTO
The secrets to good poaching are to apply gentle heat and not to peek during the cooking process. These techniques bathe the meat in flavorful liquid and steam, resulting in a moist and deeply flavored dish. This recipe uses a food processor to make the pesto; if you prefer to use the traditional mortar and pestle to make your pesto, this recipe will work fine with that. This recipe looks like it has a lot of steps but, as always, it is just a matter of establishing a rhythm -- also as always, this is a simple dish to prepare.
For the chicken
Two boneless skinless chicken breasts, approximately 8 ounces each
1 bottle dry vermouth
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
Freshly ground black pepper
Coarse sea salt
For the pesto
1 – 2 bunches fresh basil
¼ cup pine nuts
2 medium cloves garlic
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon salt (Greek sea salt works well)
For the pasta
1 pound fresh or quality dried linguine
Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1. Rinse the basil under cool water and set upside down in a colander or flat on paper towels to drain.
2. Turn the oven to 200 degrees. Scatter the pine nuts in a single layer on the bottom of a clean cake pan. Place in the oven and roast until the pine nuts give off their fragrance, approximately five minutes. Remove the roasted pine nuts from the oven; set aside to cool.
3. Use a sharp knife and a clean cutting board reserved for poultry to trim the breasts of the tenderloin if it is present. The tenderloin is the strip that is attached to the large, main chicken breast and separated by a membrane. Freeze the tenderloin for another use. Slice carefully, watching your hands and moving the edge of the knife away from you.
4. Remove the tough lower stalks of the basil (it is okay if some leaves come with it). Place the stalks of basil in a saute pan or deep saucepan. Add the black peppercorns to the basil.
5. Gently lay the trimmed chicken breasts atop the basil and peppercorns. Gently pour enough vermouth into the pan to cover the breasts by ½ inch.
6. Cover the pan containing the breasts and poaching liquid. Turn heat to low. Poach on low heat until breasts are cooked through but still moist and the aroma of the poaching liquid fills the room, approximately 20 minutes.
7. While the chicken is poaching, fill a pan large enough to hold the linguine with water. Add a generous amount of salt. Turn the heat to medium-high.
8. While the pasta water is coming to the boil, make the pesto. Peel the garlic and remove the root end. Half each clove; remove and discard any sprouting from the center. Press each half through a garlic press into the reservoir of a food processor. Sprinkle the garlic with the teaspoon of salt.
9. While the garlic is salting, shake the basil to dry it. Strip the basil of its freshest green leaves to measure between 2-1/2 and 3 cups of leaves tightly packed. If you don’t have enough leaves, supplement with the brightest green parts of the stalks.
10. Add the cooled roasted pine nuts to the garlic and pulse just to combine. Continuing to pulse, drizzle in 1 - 2 tablespoons oil to form a smooth, fragrant paste.
11. Continuing to pulse, add the basil. Once all of the basil is incorporated (it is okay if there are some large pieces of basil in the mixture), add the remaining olive oil in a thin stream, continuing to pulse until the mixture is smooth and very fragrant. Set the pesto aside until ready to serve.
12. Once the water is boiling, prepare the pasta according to package directions for dried. For fresh pasta, reduce the heat so that the water is gently boiling. Shake the fresh pasta dry of its dusting of cornmeal. Gently lay the fresh linguine into the water. Use a wooden spoon to separate the strands of pasta. Cook until the pasta is tender and floats to the surface, approximately 8 minutes.
13. Place a colander in the sink and drain the pasta. Return the pasta pan to the stovetop; reduce the heat to low.
14. Use a silicone spatula to scrape the pesto into the pasta pan. Use the spatula to stir the pesto as it heats to keep it from separating. Heat just until warmed through, typically 3 – 4 minutes. Use the spatula to transfer about one third of the mixture to a serving bowl.
15. Return the pasta to the pot containing the remaining two thirds of the pesto. Use tongs or the wooden spoon to combine the pasta with the pesto.
16. Once the chicken is done, use tongs or the wooden spoon to place a generous serving of linguine in a dinner bowl. Use tongs to lift a chicken breast from the poaching liquid. Shake the chicken breast dry of excess liquid, then place atop the pasta. Sprinkle the chicken with coarse sea salt and several grindings of fresh black pepper.
17. Pass the small bowl of pesto at the dinner table, along with the grated Parmigiano –Reggiano.
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