Chicken & Asparagus in White Wine Sauce with Twice-Baked Parmesan Potatoes

Last night's dinner was simple, yet very tasty! I made Chicken and Asparagus in White Wine Sauce from the Cooking Light 2008 cookbook. It was so simple, I was afraid it wouldn't have that much flavor, but I actually LOVED the mild, buttery flavor of the chicken.

Chicken and Asparagus in White Wine Sauce

Ingredients

4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (I used two and just sliced them in half horizontally to make four thin breast slices)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour (about 2 1/4 ounces)
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound asparagus spears, trimmed
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Preparation

Place each chicken breast half between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap; pound to 1/4-inch thickness using a meat mallet or small heavy skillet. (I skipped this step since I had cut the breasts in half, making them 1/4-inch thick already.) Sprinkle chicken breasts evenly with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Melt butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Place flour in a shallow dish. Dredge chicken in flour. Add chicken to pan; cook 3 minutes on each side or until done. Remove chicken from pan; keep warm. Add wine, broth, and garlic to pan, scraping pan to loosen browned bits; cook 2 minutes. Add asparagus; cover and cook 3 minutes or until asparagus is crisp-tender. Remove from heat; stir in parsley and juice. Serve asparagus and sauce with chicken.

Yield

4 servings (serving size: 1 chicken breast half, about 5 asparagus spears, and about 2 tablespoons sauce)

Nutritional Information

CALORIES 289(25% from fat); FAT 8g (sat 4.2g,mono 2g,poly 0.8g); PROTEIN 43g; CHOLESTEROL 114mg; CALCIUM 59mg; SODIUM 648mg; FIBER 2.8g; IRON 4.3mg; CARBOHYDRATE 10.5g
Barbara Seelig-Brown , Cooking Light, OCTOBER 2007 Stress Free Cooking

Twice-Baked Parmesan Potatoes

My menu originally said to buy pre-made mashed potatoes and just flavor them, but that sounded like cheating to me, so I planned to make my own mashed potatoes. Once I realized how simple the chicken was, I decided to church up my potatoes a bit. I baked them at 400 degrees for an hour. I let them cool a bit, then cut a slot out of the top and hollowed them out, making little potato canoes.

The inside of the potatoes were SO soft and perfect - I can't believe I haven't baked potatoes in SO long! I mashed them with butter, Parmesan cheese, fresh chives, salt & pepper, and buttermilk, since it was the only dairy product I had available for moisture. Once the mashed potato mixture was ready, I refilled the potato canoes with the mashed potatoes, and topped them with a bit of Parmesan cheese. I put them under the broiler for about 5 minutes, until the cheese was melted and golden. Voila - I had perfect twice-baked potatoes!

This meal was SO easy and SO yummy. I'm definitely making it again!!!

Dexter really liked the chicken, too.