This recipe is really very much like Granny’s southern fried chicken, at least the way I make it.
I started experimenting with this sometime in the late 70’s after having had it served to me in restaurants. It has become a favorite at our house for birthdays or any special occasion where the kids are asked to name what they want cooked for dinner. (Except, that is, for Megan who doesn’t eat mushrooms.)
INGREDIENTS:
8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
salt, pepper, paprika, onion salt
1 cup of flour
4 sandwich-sized slices of ham
4 small slices of swiss cheese
bacon fat or lard
10 medium mushrooms
2 cups of half and half
PROCEDURE:
- Wash the mushrooms and slice them thinly. Cook them in a little bacon fat, drain, and set aside.
- Lay the slices of cheese on top of the ham and cut them in half so that you have 8 oblong slices of ham and cheese about two inches by four inches each.
- Using a small, sharp knife make a lengthwise slit about half way through each chicken breast.
You don’t want to cut all the way through, just enough to create a little pocket to stuff in the ham and cheese and then wrap the chicken back securely around it. (This is the only hard part of the recipe, and it takes practice and experimentation to learn to do it right. Don’t be discouraged. If all else fails, use the hacked up chicken pieces to make Linguine Pollanara.)
- Add the seasonings to the flour in a large pie pan. Roll your stuffed chicken pieces thoroughly in the flour mixture, set on a plate, and set in the ‘fridge for at least half an hour. This ‘sets’ the pieces and makes them much easier to cook without falling apart.
- Add bacon fat or lard to a large frying pan until it is about 1/2 inch deep, and heat. Yes, I really want you to use bacon fat (which you save in a crock from when you cook bacon) and/or lard (which you buy in the grocery store in a blue package that looks like a pound of butter, but you will have to ask them where they hide it). Yes, you could do this with olive oil, but
it will not taste the same. Since you only do it occassionally, do it right.
- Take out the stuffed birds and one-by-one dip them again in the flour then put directly into the hot fat. Fry them about six minutes on each side. Don’t worry if some cheese drizzles out. Set the birds to drain on paper towels. Then lay them out neatly on a serving platter and keep warm.
- Pour off as much as possible of the fat, leaving just the crusty bits on the bottom. Use a spatula to scrape the pan and leave everything loose. Return the pan to the heat.
Now add a tablespoon of the leftover seasoned flour and stir it into the pan drippings. Then pour in the half and half all at once. Stir briskly with a whisk over low heat as the sauce thickens. Add the mushrooms, and continue stirring until they are heated through.
- Pour the sauce over the cooked birds, and serve immediately. This goes well with noodles or rice as a side dish.