Chicken Epire

So the other day I was walking along when it occurred to me that I couldn't remember having eaten anything green in at least a week. This seemed like maybe not such a good thing, so I dutifully purchased a bag of spinach at the store on the way home. Unfortunately, other than submerging it momentarily in boiling water and tossing it with sesame oil, soy sauce and sriracha, I don't have many ideas for what to do with spinach (feel free to email me some). So I poked around on the internet for inspiration and combined the results with a recipe for chicken and bacon that my dear friend Dunx sent me awhile ago, and voila, Chicken Epire. Because half the fun of discovery is naming. So it's eh-pee-RAY, and y'all better be rollin' them Rs to keep it sounding classy. Seriously though, this is delicious.

Chicken Epire

1 chicken breast

3 strips bacon

Some spinach

1 shallot (because I happened to have one...)

some bread crumbs

some parmesan

some (fresh) rosemary

some white wine*

*A note about cooking with white wine. I have learned the hard way that while you can get away with using bottom-of-the-barrel red wine when cooking and still come out scrumptious, cheap-ass white wine is gross. It will not taste good. Chicken Epire was made with Chateau D'Epire Savennieres 2003. It's a lovely wine, with the curious feature of smelling quite sweet and fruity, but possessing a mellow, subtle, and almost dry flavor. Thanks to Gregory Fulham at Binny's for introducing me to this one, it's fantastic.

To make:

Fry the bacon and set aside, leaving the fat in the pan (duh).

 Slice the chicken breast into medium sized escalopes. Roll in a blend of bread crumbs, grated parmesan, black pepper, garlic salt, and chopped fresh rosemary (if you don't have a rosemary plant growing in your kitchen - get one. Fresh rosemary is marvelous.). Finely chop the shallot. Place the shallot and chicken in the bacon greased pan and fry over medium heat until the chicken is cooked through. Toss in the handfuls of spinach. Pour some white wine over the top (maybe a glass worth? Probably less?) and cover. Let cook for a minute or two, or until the spinach has wilted. Remove from heat, put it onto your serving dish and crumble the bacon over the top.

I put it over pasta. I tried to arrange it so as to look pretty for y'all, so I carefully laid down the spinach, then the chicken. Then in a flash of inspiration, I sprinkled a 6 italian cheese blend on that, and then crumbled the bacon on top, and then poured the oh-so-amazing wine, bacon and chicken fat juice over the top. Oh my goodness, it was marvelous, and went very nicely with a glass of the wine. 

But to be totally honest, although it does make it look very pretty, you can probably ix-nay the spinach. I mean, it was nice, but not entirely necessary...