- Hi guys, welcome back to my channel.
Today, we are making creamy Tuscan chicken
tossed with some gnocchi.
And I'm telling you, it is comfort food at its best.
It makes for a perfect weeknight dinner idea
and you'll be shocked at how easy it is put together.
So for this recipe, I'm working with some chicken tenderloin
which I just think are a little bit more tender
for a recipe like this.
You just wanna cut your chicken into bite size pieces
and then season it with salt and pepper.
You wanna toss your chicken
with a little bit of corn starch.
So I have about two tablespoons of corn starch here.
You could use flour if you prefer,
but I find that the corn starch
just seems to work a little bit better
and it won't burn in the pan
the way that flour can sometimes.
Just make sure that all the chicken is coated.
You do not need to have this on parchment paper,
It was just on the parchment paper
because I was shooting recipe for my vlog
and it looked a little bit better
but really you can do this in a bowl.
Then you wanna get yourself a large non-stick pan.
So I am working with a 12-inch pan,
heated up to a medium high flame.
And then I like to use a combination of oil and butter.
So first we're gonna do the oil
just so that the butter doesn't burn, about a tablespoon.
And then I'm also gonna use a tablespoon of butter
just for a little flavor.
So once your butter and oil starts to sizzle like this,
then you can add your chicken
and resist the temptation of taking the bowl
and pouring it into the pan like that
because then you're gonna get
all of that leftover corn starch.
I've done that at times when I'm really gonna hurry
and it doesn't work out so well.
So do take the time to actually take the chicken
out of the bowl and place it in.
Once the chicken starts to look like this,
nice and golden brown, you can go ahead and flip it.
At this point, you're not looking to actually cook
the chicken through, we're gonna do that in a later stage.
So you really just need probably another minute
or two on the other side.
Once your chicken is looking good,
then you can go ahead and transfer it to a plate to rest
and then we're gonna work on the sauce.
Then you wanna deglaze your pan with a third of a cup
of dry white wine, like a Chardonnay or a Sauvignon Blanc.
If you don't drink, that's okay,
you can add the same amount of chicken broth
in the next step.
And just take your wooden spoon
and kind of clean up all of the brown bits
that are at the bottom of the pan.
That's where all the flavor is.
So you wanna make sure you get that
and you also want the wine to reduce down by about a third.
Then you're gonna add a cup and a half of chicken broth
and if you're not using the wine,
then you would just add another third of a cup
of chicken broth to your mixture.
And then we're going to add a cup of sun-dried tomatoes.
I get the kind that are already sliced,
Trader Joe's brand,
just because it'll save you from having to cup them
and do make sure that they're drained too.
So I drain these before I put them in
but there's still a little bit of oil in the bottom.
So I just kind of like spoon them out
just to make sure we don't add too much oil
back into this mixture.
Then to punch up the flavor of the tomatoes,
I also like to add just a table spoon
of tomato paste as well.
Put that in there.
And then for a little bit more flavor,
I'm going to add a teaspoon of Italian seasoning.
If you don't have that, you could use any combination
of dried basil, dried oregano, dried parsley
or a little bit of all three.
And then for some more flavor,
we're also gonna add two cloves of mint garlic.
Now I know there are some people
who don't share my enthusiasm for garlic
and you maybe just wanna pair that down to one.
I just think it adds a lot of flavor.
I find with something like this
where there's so many different ingredients
I don't find that you really taste it to be garlicky,
you just taste it to be really flavorful.
So that's why I do too close.
So our sauce is almost there.
You can see it's still pretty runny at this stage.
So in order to make it really creamy and delicious,
we're going to make a slurry.
And a slurry is super simple to do,
all it is two tablespoons of very cold water
to two tablespoons of corn starch.
Now the secret with getting a slurry to work is two things.
One, your cold water has to be very cold
so we got that covered.
And then the corn starch gets mixed into the water.
I like to mix it in with a fork so that it doesn't clump.
And here's the other secret to getting a slurry to work.
The mixture that you're trying to thicken has to be boiling.
So you can see right here, we have got a nice boil going.
And when I put this in,
it's gonna start to thicken right away.
And if you're using a non-stick pan,
do use a teflon whisk
just so that you don't scratch your surface.
So you see it's so much thicker
and that's going to make a really nice sauce
when we go to toss it with gnocchi.
At this stage, I would just turn down your flame
so that it doesn't become too thick
because the more heat,
the more thickening is going to happen.
And if that happens, you can thin it
with just a little bit more chicken stock, not a problem.
See, that'll just mellow right out.
Then at this stage, we're going to add two cups
a fresh baby spinach, just to get a little nutrition
into our decadent pasta sauce here.
And it'll just wilt right down.
No one will ever know what's in there.
So if you have little kids,
they'll just gobble it right up
because it wilts down pretty quickly.
You can turn off your flame,
move your skillet over on your cooktop
because the spinach will continue to wilt
just in the warmth of the sauce,
and then you can get on with boiling your gnocchi.
So creamy Tuscan chicken can either be eaten on its own.
It's absolutely delicious that way,
but I find it's really best served with something starchy,
like pasta or mashed potatoes.
So one of my favorite pastas to serve it with is gnocchi
and you can go out and just buy the store-bought gnocchi,
and then you just want very gingerly drop it
in the boiling water that has been salted.
And another reason why I love gnocchi
is it cooks really quickly,
five to eight minutes and it'll be done.
You'll know that it's done
when it starts to rise to the surface
and it's tender when you pierce it with a fork.
So to finish our sauce, we're gonna add our chicken back in.
There we go.
Just so that it can cook all the way through.
So just a few minutes or so.
And also just to make sure that you're coating the chicken
with all of this delicious sauce.
If you wanted to thin your sauce a little bit further,
you could add more chicken broth
or you could add a little bit of the starchy pasta water.
That also is quite good.
I like to do that because the pasta water is hot
and the starchiness won't allow it to thin out too much.
This would be a delicious dinner, just like this,
especially if you're trying to be dairy free
but if you do eat dairy,
I do like to add two more things.
One is a little bit of heavy cream
so you can add a tablespoon or two of the heavy cream.
So the heavy cream will bring the tomato flavor
down a little bit,
so if you wanna preserve a really strong tomatoey flavor,
I would probably just add one tablespoon.
Then the other thing we're gonna add is a little bit
of freshly grated Parmesan cheese.
This is really to taste.
So however much you like,
I usually do about a quarter or a third of a cup.
All right, now the moment we have been waiting
for, the gnocchi.
I love the spider strainer because then you don't have to go
to the sink to drain it in the colander.
I also find that gnocchi be kind of fragile
once they're cooked.
And by putting them in the colander,
sometimes they can get a little mushy,
so that's why I like the spider strainer.
Just toss this beautiful sauce with your gnocchi
until it's all covered.
At this stage, it is a good idea to taste it.
So I have my little tasting spoon
on the end of my wooden spoon.
I love this thing, so great.
(light upbeat music)
That's so yummy.
I might just add a little bit of pepper.
I think that's really good.
And in fact, if you wanna give this a little bit of heat
and just kick up the flavor a notch,
I would also add some red pepper flakes,
that's also really good.
With the tomatoes and into creamy gnocchi.
And there you have it,
dinner is ready in less than probably 30 minutes.
I hope you guys give this one a try
and let me know what you think.
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All right, you guys we'll see you back here next time.
Go in, bye.