Caprese Chicken with Proscuitto Asparagus

I made this meal for a romantic dinner with the Dragon. It went down a treat. He loves Mediterranean  flavours and I thought this would be a fun and different meal to make him.  Caprese salad is a traditional Italian side of tomato, mozzarella and basil, sometimes drizzled with olive oil and/or balsamic vinegar. It is fresh and beautiful.  The first time I made this for my own lunch while home by myself and feeling fancy, I stuffed the chicken with boccocini, basil and cherry tomatoes.  It was good, but I thought it could be more flavourful using sun dried tomatoes and feta instead of boccocini/mozarella.  Asparagus and cured meats like proscuitto or even bacon are a match made in heaven and seemed a perfect accompaniment.  It made for a lovely candlelit dinner for two.

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts
• 2 small portions marinated persian feta, crumbled. (hard to give an amount, it depends on the size of your chicken breast)
• 4 semi dried tomatoes
• 4 basil leaves
• 6 asparagus spears
• 6 thin slices proscuitto
• Drizzle of balsamic glaze

Serves 2

Potential Spins

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees.
2. Trim the fat from your chicken breasts, then, using a small sharp knife, slice a pocket into the thickest part.

   

   I'm not going to pretend I didn't use this as a puppet and make it talk...

3. Place a basil leaf on the bottom and top of the pocket, then stuff with sun dried tomatoes and feta.  
   
   Then stick a few matchsticks through to hold the chicken breast in tact.  I like to chop the tops off so that they stick out enough for me to remove them later, but still allow me to cook the chicken in the pan without scratching it.
4. Sear the chicken on both sides in a frypan which can also go in the oven, over medium heat. You will probably need both a spatula and tongs to do the flipping.  The chicken doesn't need to be cooked all the way through at this point (see pic).

   

   This photo is with the original version I made with the cherry tomatoes and bocconcini (hiding in the back). Turns out the pic I took with sun dried tomatoes was blurry - sorry!

5. Place the frypan in the oven and bake for approximately 25 minutes, or until cooked through and moist.  Once ready, remove the matchsticks.
6. When the oven has about 7 minutes to go, snap off the woody ends of your asparagus and wrap each piece in a thin slice of proscuitto.
7. Pan fry the asparagus for about 2 minutes on each side.  It will be bright green and able to bend slightly without being floppy when it is ready.
   
8. Serve chicken and asparagus drizzled in some balsamic glaze (you can buy this from most big grocery stores nowadays).
   

Our Take Aways

This is a sweet little dish.  It was pretty easy to throw together.  I much prefer the sun dried tomato and feta version to the cherry tomato and bocconcini version - so much more flavour.  However I did have the thought that pre-marinating the chicken in some olive oil and balsamic vinegar could taste great with the cherry tomatoes etc.  Or you could serve asparagus by itself and wrap the proscuitto over the chicken as al alternative...Either way - with a nice glass of pinot noir - this is a lovely dinner.