My first cooking success – Chicken Rosemary

When I met my husband Meakin I couldn’t cook. Oh, that’s not quite true. I could hard boil an egg (put egg in cold water, bring to a boil, cover, remove from heat, drain twelve minutes later, rinse in cold water and peel) and I could make a good crusty cheese toast in toaster oven (lightly toast bread, cover with good sharp Cheddar, broil until bubbly), but I couldn’t make the gourmet meals he was accustomed to. Meakin told me, “You can obviously read because you’ve worked on your masters, so buy a cookbook, pick a recipe and give it a try. If it doesn’t work, I’ll take you out to eat.” It sounded like a good deal to me, so I found a recipe for Chicken Rosemary. Not counting the salt and pepper, it contained five ingredients and I recognized each one.

We’ve been married forty years this November and I’ve only had to take him up on the offer to eat out a couple of times because of a recipe disaster. An awful version of Millionaire Chicken comes to mind, but now that I look back at the recipe, I don’t know what I could have done with it to make it taste that awful, but it did.

Here’s an updated version of my first culinary success – Chicken Rosemary. Instead of using a whole, cut up chicken, I’ve used boneless, skinless chicken breasts. We grow rosemary in our herb garden, so there’s no need to buy the dried kind. I’ve also added sautéed mushrooms to jazz it up a bit. As a side dish, toss some asparagus and grape tomatoes with little bit of extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper and roast in a 400 degree oven about 8 minutes, or until the tomatoes just start to burst.

Chicken Rosemary

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed of all visible fat

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

8 ounces thickly sliced white button mushrooms

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed

1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary or 1 teaspoon dried

1/3 cup dry Marsala wine

Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper and set aside. In a non-stick skillet add two tablespoons of olive oil and sauté the mushrooms over medium high heat until they are brown and have given up their liquid. Season to taste with salt and pepper and set aside.

To the same skillet add the remaining two tablespoons of olive oil and sauté the chicken over medium-high heat until nicely browned on both sides. Sprinkle the chicken with the chopped rosemary and slowly add the Marsala. Cover and simmer over low heat for about 20 minutes, or until the chicken is tender and reaches 160 degrees on a meat thermometer. If necessary, add more Marsala to prevent burning. Serve very hot. Also good served over rice.

Yield: 2 servings