Chicken Breasts with Bacon, Cream and Peas*

Recipe background:  For the first time in my life, because of me having a stiff neck that had been getting "more stiff" over a period of five years, I was going to a chiropractor (I called him my "chiro-cracker").  ANYHOW,... on his desk, I saw the Cooking Light magazine and found it to be interesting.  Shortly after that, when our little foster girl brought home one of those dreaded wonderful fund-raising brochures, I decided I really did NOT need to buy anymore gadget'y gadgets because I already have the ones I wanted/use.   After I noticed there were magazine subscription options in the brochures, I went with that and ordered my own subscription to this Cooking Light magazine.  In my very first issue, I saw this recipe and decided I just had to try it...

I liked the end result of this recipe, but 

will admit I did not care for how many 

different "steps" of preparation are listed.  

Before the meal was finished, one of my 

guests asked for this recipe... so,

here it is!

Serves 4  (I think this could serve six!)

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1 and 1/2 ounces pancetta, chopped (I substituted with about 1/4 cup of bacon pieces)
• 4  (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (I cut each of these into half, and ended up with 8 pieces)
• 3/8 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup dry white wine (I used 1/2 chicken stock/broth, instead)
• 1 cup low-sodium chicken stock/broth (such as Swanson brand)
• 2 tablespoons mascarpone cheese (I used same amount of cream cheese)
• 2 tablespoons water
• 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup frozen green peas, thawed

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat a large skillet over medium heat.  Add oil to pan; swirl to coat.  Add garlic; cook only 2 minutes, stirring frequently to PREVENT scorching/burning.
2. Remove garlic from pan with slotted spoon; set garlic aside.  
3. Increase heat to medium-high.  Add pancetta (or bacon pieces) to the same pan and saute for about 4 minutes or until crisp.  Remove meat from pan with a slotted spoon; set meat aside.
4. Sprinkle chicken pieces with salt and pepper; saute in same pan for 4 minutes on each side.  Remove chicken from pan.  
5. Add wine to same pan (I used chicken broth/stock); bring to a boil, scraping pan to loosen browned bits.
6. Cook until the liquid almost evaporates (about 3 minutes).  
7. Return chicken to same pan.  Add the last one cup of chicken stock/broth.  Reduce heat to medium, cover, and cook chicken for 6 minutes or until chicken is done.  Remove chicken from pan.
8. Add mascarpone (I used cream cheese, cut into tiny pieces) to same pan, stirring with a whisk until smooth.  Combine water and flour, stirring with a whisk.  Add flour mixture to this pan; bring to a boil.  Cook 2 minutes to thicken and cook the "flour taste" away. 
9. Stir in the set aside pancetta OR bacon, the set aside garlic, and the peas.  Cook 1 minute.  
10. Serve sauce over chicken.  (If you would want a thicker sauce, you could, before serving, add one can Cream of Chicken soup to it-- but, if doing that, I'd dilute it with at least 1/2 soup can of milk.)

Something I did differently:  I followed the recipe as I typed it up, but then, as you can see in the SECOND picture from the top of this posting, I put the pieces into a 9x13-inch baking dish and then covered it with foil before putting it into the oven for about 25-30 minutes at 350-degrees.  The downside of that was... the tiny peas "aged" (and shriveled) a bit.    : (

Above:  Shown with the sauce/peas/bacon also 

spread over a piece of toasty garlic bread.

* Cooking Light, March/2014, page 89.