Sunday, March 14, 2010

Three Cheese Chicken Saltimbocca with a Black Cherry Rum Marinade


Doesn't that sound wonderful... And it was!


Traditionally, Satimbocca is marinated in wine.  Well, when in Rome ...Ummmm The US Virgin Islands, use rum.  And the Cruzan Black Cherry made a great marinade.  But I am ahead of myself...


I was inspired to work on this recipe from my blog buddies... Carla and Michael from their RECIPEADDICTS blog.  They wrote in their blog a terrific tried and true Chicken Saltimbocca recipe.  I started my research and found similar recipes, and got ideas about what I could do with ingredients and inspiration I had on hand...


A little of the inspiration came from the rum I have on hand.  Cheaper than wine, and more... well, more Caribbean.  I also had a small amount of Spaghetti sauce and spaghetti on hand, so serving this on a bed of spaghetti with a little sauce covering the chicken made sense to me.


And finally, I did not have enough Parmesan cheese to do the recipe as posted.  So I added a bit of Provolone and finally a bit of Blue Cheese!  Saltimbocca (or Saltinbocca as it is sometimes spelled) is Italian for JUMPS IN THE MOUTH.   With the different cheeses, the rum marinade and the marinara sauce, my version jumped and did back flips in my mouth.  Great presentation and a great taste...


Here's what I did...  


2 large Chicken Breasts, pounded to evenly flat
6 slices Prosciutto Ham
Fresh Spinach to cover (about a cup)
1/3rd cup each Provolone, Parmesan and Blue Cheese
Salt and Pepper to taste


1/2 cup CRUZAN Black Cheery Rum
1 cup Chicken Stock


1/2 cup Marinara Sauce
Parmesan Cheese to garnish


Don't leave home with out it... Your meat pounding mallet.  Unfortunately, I did leave home without mine.  I have a heavy glass - glass in my cabinet, so the bottom of that glass is what I used.  Worked great.


Then I layered the ham, spinach and cheese on the chicken.


then I rolled the chicken and secured with toothpicks.


  I put the chicken in a bread pan (plastic bag would not work to marinade in as the toothpicks will puncture).  The bread pan was tight enough so that the marinade was not wasted, I poured in the rum first and topped with the chicken stock to cover.


A little plastic wrap to cover the pan and I let this sit in the fridge for 3 hours.


After that time, I put in a backing dish, and covered with a little marinara sauce that I had sweetened with a couple TBS of the Black Cherry Rum (why not)


Rather than frying, I baked this for @40 minutes at 350 degrees.  Internal temperature reached 165 degrees.


I made a little spaghetti and used the remaining sauce to coat...






 


Pretty and VERY tasty!
...

19 comments:

  1. Have I mentioned that you are the rum master? I swear I've never seen so many amazing and intriguing uses of it before.

    This looks absolutely fantastic.

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  2. Woah! That is one heck of a dish! Three cheeses? Heaven! You sure are cooking and eating well. :)

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  3. That looks good and sounds absolutely gorgeous! Looks like you are really taking to the island ingredients!

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  4. This sounds so good - I love chicken dishes like this! Nice post!

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  5. Looked and sounded "over the top"!!

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  6. Wow Dave, that looks so good! I've never had that kind of chicken dish before, thanks for the idea!

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  7. Exactly, who needs just one cheese in a dish, lol?

    I like your spin on this classic.

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  8. It really is pretty and it sounds delicious. Re: Frozen Yogurt. You don't need an ice cream maker. I do mine without one. It takes some time but it can be done. I don't have room for an ice cream freezer, so I rely on ingenuity :-).

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  9. You are turning into a regular rum-meister. Have you ever cooked with it before paradise? This looks incredible! Love that high tech meat mallet. Great post.

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  10. So, you're saying, Rum is basically good for everything!

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  11. So... Dave no good white wine in the BAEUTIFUL V.I. ??? LOL. I love your spin-offs on the typical recipes. I wish I had more of an imagination than I do. You are so amazing and very much like Michael, hence the cook from the cuff with the ingredients you have available at the time. I love it. PS-Thanks for the mention of our blog-even though you blew us out of the water ;D

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  12. That looks mouth watering delicious! Love the spinache inside and the rum sounds like a "very good" addition!

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  13. Super Wow... Dave

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  14. Looks just amazing! The more cheese the better :)

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  15. This would "do backflips in your mouth"! It looks and sounds amazing. I'm loving your rum applications lately. Great food, Dave!

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  16. I'm all about improvising too! This looks awesome!

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  17. This chicken looks incredible! Love that all the goodies are rolled up into one.

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  18. Love the when in Rome attitude and since RUM is my favorite I will be trying this VERY soon. I'll have to see if I can find back cheery rum here. YUM, yum, yum!

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