The Germ of an Idea (ATK No. 6)

Inspirational song: Magic Chicken (The Aquabats)

I need to make some notes. I was fiddling around in the kitchen, and I appear to have created a sauce that absolutely must be made again one day soon. Since the football game on Saturday, when I wore myself out in the sun at high altitude, I have been craving chicken with a rich, salty pan sauce. Tonight was the first time in months that I missed bread, because it would have been lovely to scrape up every last drop from my plate. Instead, there is a happy little red-headed dog who agrees with me that this recipe was a keeper. If you're still clinging to 20th century thinking, that fat is the enemy, then this is not for you. If you're ready to eat food that will make you full and happy, and feed your cells, then this might just be what pulls you into my world.

I started with some of the basic moves that would have been my family's favorite chicken and broccoli with cream sauce made with canned soup, in my former life. I don't use cream of soup anymore, because of both its ingredients and its container. I don't miss it, and it was ridiculously easy to replace it with something much better. I needed to use up some cucumbers and tomatoes, so I had a Greek salad instead of cooking a vegetable to go with the chicken. I would love to get suggestions on what sounds good to go with it, either cooked in the same pan, or as a side. I feel like perhaps some sort of savory greens would be right. Maybe chard, kale, or spinach.

Here's what I did for just one person. It was pretty simple.

I put about a half tablespoon each of butter and olive oil in a small skillet, over medium heat. I browned both sides of a chicken breast, and then poured in enough chicken stock to deglaze the pan, maybe a third of a cup, or a half. I used a large soup spoon to scoop out a couple heaping spoonfuls of cottage cheese, and grated in an ounce or so each of two tangy cheeses I had, Swiss and a Spanish one I'd never had before, called Iberico. I drizzled in enough heavy cream to make it look beige. (Side note: you might be thinking, oh, heavy cream, too much fat. Trust me, you do NOT want to use anything lighter, even half and half. I have curdled milk and half and half in things like this, and it's just not as much fun to eat.) I smashed one clove of garlic and threw it in whole (minus skin), and seasoned the sauce with ground coriander, lots of marjoram, and a little salt. Covered, I let it simmer on low for not quite a half an hour. The sauce was a tiny bit runny, so I chopped up the chicken, and poured the sauce over the top. That's it. No stopping for pictures, I ate it all as quickly as I could. I was hungry, and it was that good.

So what should I do? Where does this go? It's a great start, but I feel like it is just the beginning.