If I Had a Hammer: Chicken Saltimbocca

I’m often asked if Andrew likes to cook and help out in the kitchen.  The truth is that Andrew likes to eat more than cook – that is until there is a cool tool or gadget to be used.  Meat grinders, food mills, cheese graters, knives, blowtorches, this is Andrew’s kitchen domain.  If I need the tops of 20 eggs cut off and it means using the eggshell cutter, he’s mine until the task is over.

This passion for gadgets is a real boon at Christmas and birthdays.  I’m always assured a new toy for the kitchen.  It’s also a touching sign that he’s paying attention to my needs or desires.  Among the gifts that Grandma has helped him pick out for me is always something that he had made a mental note of after seeing the need when I was cooking.  Sometimes this is a sweet but self-serving gift as when he bought me the tools to make his favorite food, sushi.  More often than not, it’s because he really wants to give me the one thing he knows I want and need.

Awhile ago, we were working in the kitchen and I was pounding out something with an old wooden kitchen mallet and the head flew off.  Besides cracking Andrew up, it also sparked many questions about why I needed a mallet, how it was used, and what effect it had on meat.   Sure enough, on my next birthday I unwrapped a beautiful all-metal meat mallet.  He remembered.  He has been dying to use it ever since.

When we got home from school this afternoon, Andrew went straight to his room to do homework.  I went to the kitchen to figure out what to fix.  Monday-night suppers are almost as important as Sunday for us, if not more.  We normally fix something really good.  It’s our way of beating the Monday doldrums and letting the universe know that we are just as grateful for the start of the school week as we are for the end.   Life’s too short to hate 1/7th of it!

I had been thinking about a veal saltimbocca that we ate in Rome last year.  It was so simple and incredibly tasty.  I didn’t have veal in the fridge, but I had defrosted a couple of chicken breasts.   I pulled them out and laid them on the cutting board.  I then covered them with plastic wrap, grabbed the mallet, and started whacking away.  Within seconds Andrew was at my side.

“Dad, can I do it?”

“Don’t whack it to hard, just let….” I started.

He finished my sentence, “just let the mallet do the work.   I see how you are doing that.”

Andrew took over and soon I had two thin chicken breasts ready for further preparation.  Saltimbocca means “to jump in your mouth.”   I’m sure it gets its name from how much flavor is packed into one little bite.  This is a fantastic recipe that’s easy enough for a Monday-night family dinner and special enough for guests.   Tonight I served it with trennette pasta (a triangular tube pasta similar to penne rigate) with a homemade ricotta and spinach sauce, but that’s a story in itself.  Stay tuned.

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Chicken Saltimbocca

Here’s my version of the classic dish.  It can be doubled or quadrupled easily

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

3 or 4 thin slices prosciutto

10 to 20 sage leaves, depending on the size. (I have a sage plant with very small leaves and I use 20)

4 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon salt

Pepper

1 cup dry white wine

¼ cup marsala (optional)

¼ cup flour (I used semolina, but regular flour works perfectly fine)

Place the breasts on a cutting board and cover with plastic wrap.  Pound the chicken until it’s very thin, but not falling apart, approximately ¼ to ½ inch thick.  Remove the plastic wrap and grind pepper all over the breasts.  Cover them with the prosciutto and place 3 or 4 sage leaves on one half. Fold the chicken in half so that the prosciutto is covered.  Cover the breasts with plastic wrap again and pound out a bit to create chicken pockets.

Over a medium high flame, heat a pan large enough to hold both breasts.  Melt the butter and let it just start to brown.  Have ready a plate with the flour mixed with the salt.  Lightly dredge the breasts in the flour mixture and place the chicken in the hot pan.  Cook each side for about 3 minutes.  Remove the chicken and place it in a warm oven. Take the rest of the sage leaves and toss them in the sauté pan.  You may have to add a couple of tablespoons more of butter if there is not enough fat in the pan.  Fry the sage until crispy, about 2 to 3 minutes.  Remove the leaves and set aside.

Deglaze the pan with the white wine and add a splash of Marsala if you have it in the house.  Cook the wine until it starts to get thick and syrupy.  Don’t worry if you cook it too long.  Just add more wine and reduce again.  I had to add it three times tonight because I kept getting busy with something else and forgetting it.  It was delicious just the same.  Pour the sauce over the chicken, sprinkle with the fried sage leaves, and serve.

The chicken went fantastically with the pasta.  If you want to make your life easy, just serve it with pasta in a simple tomato sauce and a side vegetable.  Spinach or beans work really well.

Provecho