Chicken roulades with spinach and mushrooms

I made this last night and really enjoyed it. When I’ve had one of those days where nothing really worked right, I take solace in the fact that I can still throw good ingredients together and make a scrumptious dinner. What’s nice about this recipe is that it doesn’t require as much effort as you’d think and it tastes like something you’d spent $20 bucks a plate for at a restaurant.

[Ingredients]

• 4-5 Chicken breast strips (each makes 1 roulade)
• 1-2 Tbsp Safeway Select Pesto Sauce
• 1-2 Slices of provolone cheese (0ptional)
• 1 Large bunch fresh spinach (or 1 bag of fresh spinach)
• 5 Crimini mushrooms sliced.
• 1 Clove of garlic minced.
• 2 Bacon strips
• 1/4 cup of heavy cream
• 1 Tbsp white wine (optional)
• Salt
• Flour

[step 1] Place a chicken strip between two cutting boards and flatten it by pounding the top cutting board with your fist a few times. The resulting strip should be flat, but no too flat to roll up. Then using a butter knife, spread a thin layer of pesto sauce on one side of the flattened chicken strip. Cut a piece provolone cheese to size so you can wrap it up inside the chicken strip against the pesto sauce.

[step 2] Melt a 1/2 tbsp of butter in a non-stick pan and over medium high heat add the chicken roulades using some tongs. Be careful no to let them unwrap (use cooking twine to keep them rolled up (optional).

[step 3] Brown the roulades on all sides and cook until no longer pink on the inside (about 10-15 minutes).

[step 4] Meanwhile add 1tbsp extra virgin olive oil in another large pan. When the oil is just about smoking, add the mushrooms and cook for 2 minutes until they are wilted. Then add minced garlic, a couple of dashes of salt and cook for one minute more. If you’re like me, you’ll have the strips of bacon crisping in another pan nearby so that they’ll be ready for crumbling over the mushrooms right at this point, but I’ll leave that up to y’all to decide.

[step 5] Add washed spinach and a splash or two of water and cover with a large lid for 2 – 3 minutes. Don’t overcook, the spinach will go fast with the lid on.

[step 6] When your chicken roulades are nice and brown all over add a couple of dashes of flour to the pan as it’s sizzling away and cook for about 1 minute. Then add the white wine and a minute later the cream. Stir until the sauce is nice and uniform and allow to return to a gentle boil. When sauce is starting to thick up, turn off the heat, you’re done.

Enjoy.