Pan Roasted Chicken Breasts with Sauteed Spinach Recipe

How to Pan Roast Chicken Breasts with Sautéed Spinach

If you are looking for a great midweek meal that only takes 30 minutes from start to finish, this pan roasted chicken breast dish with sautéed spinach is a good choice. My wife found this recipe created by Italian chef Massimo Bottura in the New York Times weekend section.

According to Chef Bottura, the recipe’s two main influences are from his native country of Italy and from the Japanese chefs who work at his restaurant. I like how he cuts the chicken breasts in half long ways and then pounds them thinly into cutlets.

We didn’t slice the breasts in half but did pound them to about ½ inch thick, and they still came out great, but next time I will halve them first.

What is Mirin?

Mirin is Japanese sweet rice wine used in much Japanese cooking and an excellent ingredient to have in your pantry to add acidity and sweetness to a dish. If you don’t have mirin, you can try substituting rice vinegar, rice wine vinegar (which we used), or little sugar to white wine or sherry vinegar with a bit of sugar added.

The recipe calls for Parmesan cheese shavings. I find the best way to produce these shavings is with a vegetable peeler.

It also calls for aged balsamic vinegar. I don’t think you need 50 or 25-year barrel-aged balsamic, but wouldn’t that be nice?

Did you know the first balsamic vinegars were sold in the United States just 40 years ago? They were brought here in 1977 by Chuck Williams, the founder of Williams-Sonoma?

Pan Roasting Technique

Please be sure to check out my post on Pan Roasting

📖 Recipe

Print Recipe

Pan Roasted Chicken Breasts with Sauteed Spinach

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time20 minutes mins

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American

Servings: 4 Servings

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon miring rice wine
• 2 inch piece fresh ginger peeled and minced
• 1 tablespoon water
• 2 chicken breasts skinless
• flour for dredging
• 2 cloves garlic peeled
• ¼ cup olive oil plus 1 tablespoon
• ½ cup Parmesan cheese shavings
• 8 cups fresh spinach
• salt & pepper to taste
• aged balsamic vinegar
• lemon wedges for serving

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 450° F. While the oven is heating, gather and prep any ingredients that need to be prepped.
• Place a saucepan over medium-high heat and add the soy sauce, honey, rice wine, ginger, and water. Stir, bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 20 seconds. Immediately remove from heat and set aside to cool.
• Place the chicken breasts flat on a cutting board and carefully cut them in half horizontally to create four cutlets.

  If you are not comfortable cutting the breasts, ask your butcher to do this for you, but you can also purchase one of those special gloves that help prevent cutting yourself.
• Flatten the chicken cutlets to ¼ inch thickness using a meat mallet or rolling pin.

  This aims to tenderize the chicken meat and ensure even cooking. In addition, I usually place the cutlet between two pieces of wax paper to lessen the post-pounding cleanup.
• Add some flour to a shallow bowl, season with salt and pepper, and dredge the chicken cutlets in the flour. Be sure to shake off any excess flour before cooking.
• Heat a large fry pan over medium heat. When hot, add ¼ cup of olive oil. When the oil’s hot, add the chicken cutlets being careful not to crowd the pan. If necessary, cook in batches.
• You’ll start by pan frying the cutlets on one side for about 3 minutes until they are golden brown.
• Add the garlic clove, flip the chicken cutlets over and cook for an additional 2 minutes.
• Remove the cutlets from the pan and transfer them to a baking dish. Pour the marinade over the chicken cutlets and then cover with Parmesan shavings.
• Place the baking dish into the oven and bake for 8 minutes or until the cheese melts and starts to brown. Don’t let the cheese burn.
• While the chicken is in the oven, wipe out the frying pan with a paper towel, and return the pan to the stove over medium-high heat. Add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil and garlic clove. As soon as the oil is hot, add the spinach and saute until the spinach wilts.

  This should take no more than a couple of minutes—season with salt and pepper to taste.
• To serve, divide the spinach between four plates, add the cutlets, and drizzle the chicken and spinach with some aged balsamic vinegar.
• Place a lemon wedge on each plate. I like a squeeze of lemon on my spinach, but if your guests don’t, it still looks nice.

Notes

We served this dish with some couscous made with corn and carrots.