Chicken with Mushroom Cream Sauce and Tortellini

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I had such good intentions of making this amazing.  Well, it was, just not with the tortellini.  Might have had something to do with the tortellini though.  *shrugs*  I mean…it came from Dad, had been sitting in the cabinet for a while, and was just screaming, “DO SOMETHING WITH ME besides throw me out!!”

I have this thing about NOT being able to throw perfectly good food away.  I have to save it for at least a week if not more because I don’t clean out my fridge weekly before I decide it is not fit for human consumption.  S makes fun of me.  It’s okay.  I own the fact that a whole chicken breast IS NOT going to just be tossed unless I’ve made it through the week and have had lunch every day of said week without having to buy any. Speaking of which, I should have thrown that in my lunch.  Caesar without a protein on a work day just makes me STAHVIN MAHVIN when I get home.

So, that being said, I could NOT just toss a perfectly good (or what I thought was a perfectly good bag) of ricotta and spinach tortellini without doing something with it first.  I mean, it was Barilla!  How could it NOT be good?

The chicken ROCKED!  The tortellini…sucked you know what.

Now, a word about the chicken.  We’re not organic people.  So, if you are, please refrain from the obvious “organic is better” type comments.  I just can’t afford to spend more for less right now.  Seriously, though…what is with the MONSTER breasts in packages now?  I slice them in half horizontally to make them fit for human consumption.  THEY ARE GYNORMOUS!  I’m sure it’s all those steroids they pump into chicken (bite your tongues organicans…please) but the ones I have been buying lately are almost half a pound a piece!  It’s insagn!!

WOW!  That picture is so horribly out of focus it’s not funny.  BUT the chicken looks so yummy, so I’m leaving it!  I have issues cooking chicken and meat in general.  I usually burn it until I had a “facepalm” moment…DA!  Turn down the heat!  *sigh*  Which is not easy for me to do with this stupid electric stove.  I hate electric.  I want my gas range back.  SO, that’s why I’m keeping this chicken picture because they turned out pretty…and yummy…and *drool*

Once the chicken was cooked, I added 1 T ICBNB (I Can’t Believe it’s Not Butter stick) and 2 cups of regular button mushrooms and sauteed them.  Oh, didn’t I say this is lowfat? Well, it is. This ex-heffer DOES NOT want to reach heffer status again.  Once they were good and browned, I added 1/2 cup white wine to the pan making sure to scrape up all that yummy chicken and mushroom browned goodness.

I combined 2 cans of evaporated skim milk with 1 1/2 T of flour, lowered the heat on the mushroom mixture to a moderately medium temperature, and added the slurry to the pan.  The residual heat (I’m learning to use this to my advantage in cooking now) from the medium-high setting allowed the mixture to come to a boil and then continue to simmer until thickened at the new lower heat setting . 

*pats self on back* 

I added about 1 teaspoon of dried thyme (or fresh if you have it) and continued to simmer until thickened.  I added the chicken back to the pan with their juices and simmer 5 minutes more before serving.

This is the last picture.  I didn’t do one of those gorgeous plated shots.  I was too hungry and just devoured every ounce of chicken and sauce.  I left some tortellini on the plate.  *snort*  Just couldn’t bring myself to eat them.  AND threw out whatever torts were left when dinner was finished.  I just COULD NOT bring myself to eat them.

So, my tortellini experiment was a failure and a success all at the same time.  go figure!