Pan-Smoked Chicken Breast with Artichoke and Mustard Sauce

We had a very productive weekend, food-wise. Believe it or not, we have already cooked a week's worth of food. All that's left now is the eating. You'll have to wait for the other two recipes.

This was a pretty quick meal and wound up being REALLY tasty. Use good balsamic vinegar to really make the sauce sing. I didn't actually pan-smoke the chicken (as the recipe calls for) but I pan-seared them in a really hot pan (about 2 minutes per side) and finished them in the oven for 5 minutes.

The longest part of this is reducing the stock, so you might want to start with that. I served this on a bed of spinach that had been sauteed in a little olive oil and some flaked almonds thrown in towards the end. Yum.

CHICKEN
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
salt and pepper

SAUCE
10 ml vegetable oil
30 g diced shallot
600 ml Chicken Stock
30 ml Dijon mustard
4 tablespoons whole-grain mustard
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
10 cooked artichoke hearts, quartered
140 g pitted halved Kalamata olives
1 tablespoon chopped tarragon

SPINACH
a large bag of spinach, washed and dried
drizzle of olive oil
salt and pepper
1/4 cup flaked almonds

Lightly pound the chicken breasts to an even thickness. Preheat the oven to 375F.

Place the breasts on a rack in a roasting pan containing a thin layer of hardwood chips. Cover with a tight-fitting lid and place over direct heat. Smoke for 6 to 8 minutes. Remove the breasts from the pan and continue cooking on a rack in a roasting pan in a 375°F oven until they reach an internal temperature of 165F/ 74C, about 10 minutes.

(My Non Pan-Smoke Method: Season the chicken on both sides with salt and pepper. Heat a non-stick pan over high heat. When hot, add a little olive oil and then sear the chicken off for 2 minutes per side doing two breasts at a time. Put them on a baking tray and put in the oven for 5 minutes. Pull them out and let them rest for at least five minutes)

Heat the oil in a small saucepan. Add the shallot and saute until translucent. Add stock and reduce by half. Stir in the mustards and vinegar. Simmer the sauce until reduced to a sauce consistency (coats the back of a spoon). Add the remaining ingredients and heat thoroughly.

For the spinach, get a large saute pan hot over medium-high heat. Add a little oil and add the spinach. Add the salt and pepper and saute briefly. The pan should be making a lot of noise. After 30-45 seconds or so, remove the pan from the heat and continue to saute until just starting to wilt. Add the almonds and stir to combine.

Ladle a little sauce in a deep plate and top with a mound of spinach. Cut the chicken on the bias and fan out over the spinach. Top with a little more sauce and serve.