If you’re not the one cooking, stay out of the way and compliment the chef. ~ Michael Strahan

Happy Cooking

So the tiny patio garden is having a good Summer, surprising given it’s been the coldest, wettest Summer heree in like thirty years. My basil has been growing like gang busters and so a couple of weeks ago I cut it down and made pasta sauce with a lot of basil and garlic. It’s a long time family tradition that I wrote about a couple of weeks ago in my piece Happiness and Making Sauce. And the thing is, when you’ve got a lot of basil there are only two options, pasta sauce or pesto. I’m not a huge pesto fan, but I made pasta sauce and still have some in the freezer, so pesto it was.

Not being a huge pesto fan and being a Type 2 diabetic who rarely gets to eat pasta, I needed some way to use the pesto, and I settled on chicken pesto. So I spent the afternoon making pesto and then the chicken pesto in the image above. I thought I’d share the recipe and process tonight. Cooking makes me happy, like photography, it’s something I get really focused with and lost in and the time just slips by, and then of course I get to eat.

So, first a little bit about how I make a new thing for the first time. I go up online and scan several recipes to get an idea of how the dish should come together and then I kind of wing it from there.

The Pesto.

3 cups packed, basil

1/4 cup of virgin olive oil

2 cloves of garlic (probably too much for most folks, I love garlic, one is probably good)

1/2 cup walnuts (pine nuts are the traditional add, but I’m not a big fan, nor do I have any)

2 teaspoons of lemon juice

1/2 cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese ( I actually used 3/4 cup, I like my pesto a little cheesy)

Some salt, pepper and a garam masala (just a couple shakes)

This is definitely a food processor kind of deal, load everything but the basil, chop it up by pulsing it and then add the basil and repeat until it’s well mixed together. If you want it creamier, add more olive oil. You could do this by hand, but it would be a ton of work and would be a bit chunkier I’m sure.

The Chicken Pesto

Chicken Cutlets – I used about five cutlets since this was a test mission. Also, while most people use chicken breasts, I used boneless skinless thighs, I just think they taste better and they’re cheaper.

Pesto

1 scallion

1/4 red pepper

Mozzarella Cheese

Parmesan Cheese

fresh basil leaves

sliced tomatoes

Use a casserole dish, oil the pan. Take the chicken and flatten it. By flatten the chicken it could mean a couple of things. I just flayed out the chick into thing flat slices, but particularly if you’re using chicken breasts you could flatten and tenderize them using a meat mallet. Place the chicken in the casserole dish, chop the red pepper and the scallion and scatter them across the chicken. Spoon the pesto onto the dish and spread it around so it covers all of the chicken. Cover with an equal amount of sliced Mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Place in a pre-heated 375 degree oven for about 35 minutes. Pull out, place basil and tomato slices on top. I used golden cherry tomatoes from the garden, but any tomato should work. Place the dish back in the oven, shut off the heat and leave the door cracked open for about 5 minutes. You’re just trying to warm the tomatoes at this point, you could even place the basil leaves after this step. Then, let it cool a little and chow down. Happy eating my friends. ~ Rev Kane