Thursday Yummies - Chicken Florentine Artichoke Bake

In an effort to have more variety in my post topics and simplify things when The Girl starts school, I am instituting a bit of a schedule for myself.

I have decided to call the Thursday installment Thursday Yummies.  I plan to feature a recipe I have made recently that is simple, uses ingredients that are easy to find and turned out well when I made it. No untested recipes here!

Most of these recipes will be things you can prepare ahead of time during the day or even the night before. The kids will be headed back to school soon and I know that having things that can simply be popped in the oven at dinner time are terrific.

So today, I bring to you Chicken Florentine Artichoke Bake*.



See how pretty it turned out!



I made this the other night and it was superb. For my batch, I used Barilla Plus pasta, mozzarella cheese, fresh spinach and dried bread crumbs because that's what I had on hand. Well, that and I was too lazy to get out the food processor and make bread crumbs.

Ingredients:

8 ounces dried farfalle (bow-tie) pasta

1 tablespoon butter (you could use margarine but I think that might be a sin)

1/3 cup rough chopped onion (about 1 small onion)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 clove garlic (minced)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
2 cups cooked chicken (see step 2 if you are starting with raw chicken)
2 cups shredded Monterey Jack or Mozzarella cheese (8 ounces)
1 14oz can artichoke hearts, drained and quartered
1 10oz package frozen spinach (thawed & drained) or 3 big hand fulls of fresh
1/2 cup oil-packed sun dried tomatoes (drained and chopped)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup soft bread crumbs
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 tablespoon butter (melted)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Cook pasta to package directions and drain. Meanwhile, in a medium skillet melt one tablespoon of butter on medium heat. Add the onion, cook for 2 minutes and then add the garlic. Cook for about 2 minutes more making sure not to burn the garlic. Burned garlic is nasty. Remove from the pan and set aside

2. If you started with raw chicken (like I did), add some more butter and a little olive oil to the pan over medium-high heat. Season the chicken liberally with salt, pepper, basil, oregano and garlic powder. Sear the chicken well on both sides then reduce the heat to medium until the chicken is just barely cooked. It will cook more in the oven.

3. In a large bowl, combine the beaten eggs, milk, basil, oregano, salt, crushed red pepper flakes, and black pepper. Stir in the cooked onion, chicken, Monterey or Mozzarella cheese, artichoke hearts, spinach, dried tomatoes and half of the Parmesan cheese. Stir in the cooked pasta. Spoon into a 9x13 baking pan.

**Note** If you are making this earlier in the day to cook later make sure the chicken, onions and garlic are cool before adding them to the mixture. Then you can stick the whole pan in the fridge until you are ready to cook. If you do this, give the mixture a stir before putting it in the oven. You will probably need to add some more milk and/or Mozzarella cheese if it looks dry.

4. Cover with foil. Bake for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small bowl combine the bread crumbs, paprika, remaining Parmesan cheese and melted butter. Sprinkle over the pasta mixture. Bake, uncovered about 10 minutes more or until heated through and crumbs are golden brown.

Makes 6-8 servings

*Recipe courtesy of the 9x13 The Perfect Fit Dish published by Meredith Print Advantage