SAVORY & SWEET SEARED CHICKEN

Ciao amici! It's been a little while since posting, so I thought today I'd bring you all up to date with some life events, as well as a quick, easy recipe I invented this afternoon. This past Monday marked the two year anniversary of my wife and I meeting for the first time, back in Italy. It was such a dramatic beginning to what turned out to be a dramatic relationship. Guess it set the tone. She was there on a two-week class, and had met me two days before leaving. I knew she was the one for me since the first time she walked in the bar where I used to work at the time. I asked her out for a coffee the following afternoon, we chatted for a couple of hours.  The last night, the night before she flew home, she came back to the bar and waited for me to finish my shift (3am!). We walked to a park and there I kissed her for the first time. It would have been more romantic if it hadn't been 25 degrees out, but even still, it was something out of a movie. Neither of us knew what would happen, or if we'd even stay in touch. But we did, spent eight months talking on FaceTime ... and now we're married. So glad she took a chance on this random Italian guy. 

Now, enough romantic nonsense... let's get to the CHICKEN. Few days ago my lovely wife showed me a video of a chicken recipe that was very interesting. it was made with a creamy sauce with spinach on top. So today I wanted to make that recipe but when I was in the kitchen I went to my inventing zone and I wanted to make my own twist on it, ( I usually don't like following recipes). So I looked at what I had and I started inventing.  I ended up making a really tasty sauce with a very unusual combination of ingredients. Sometimes, as an Italian who approaches food very simply, cooking with American ingredients seems a bit 

​foreign, but I'm learning to take my Italian approach and mix it with the things around me. I've also learned that I invent best when I walk into the kitchen completely unprepared, and use whatever I've got at the moment. Trying to plan ahead of time just doesn't work for me. So, here's one of my first non-Italian recipes, which turned out really delicious, and also really healthy. 

SAVORY & SWEET SEARED CHICKEN

WHAT YOU'LL NEED (serves 2):

• 2 chicken breasts (I use Nature's Promise Organic brand)
• 2/3 cup olive oil
• 1/4 stick of butter (Kerry Gold is the best!) 
• 1/2 cup red wine
• Two spoons of barbecue sauce (Preferably organic, but I like Sweet Baby Rays...I can't help it!) 
• Fresh parsley
• Salt
• Half lemon
• Half onion
• 1 cup of Cream (I use Horizon Organic) 

WHAT YOU'LL DO:

1. Prep: Slice the chicken breasts in half, lengthwise. Most chicken breasts in the US are very thick, and to cook properly need to be a bit thinner. Finely chop the onion and parsley. Set everything aside for later. 
2. Drizzle olive oil one the chicken and gently rub it in. Make sure you do that process on both sides and do the same with the salt.
3. Place a frying pan on the stove at high temperature and wait for it to be warm. Place the butter on the pan and squeeze the lemon juice once the butter is melted.
4. Lower the temperature, and add the onion to the pan. 
5. Wait for the onion to get golden brown, and slightly increase the temperature of the stove and place the chicken breasts in the pan.
6. Once the chicken starts getting slightly crispy and golden brown, add half of the cup of cream. 
7. Lower the temperature and drizzle the red wine into the pan, along with the parsley.
8. Increase the temperature and when the wine and cream starts evaporating, add the other half cup of milk and lower the temperature again (during the whole process, be careful to not let the sauce dry out completely.  If something happens and it becomes too dry, add a spoon of boiled water).
9. Add two spoonfulls of barbecue sauce and start mixing it into the cream sauce.
10. Serve the chicken with some chopped fresh parsley on top, or with a side salad with chopped tomatoes, olive oil, black pepper & salt,  and enjoy!

Let me know how yours turns out - tag me in your Facebook or Instagram posts so I can share! Be sure to follow me for more cooking ideas (and romantic updates ;)