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!

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