Tonight I discovered a new favorite recipe. It’s super simple and really has no business being so delicious! I love canned artichoke hearts and wanted to include them in tonight’s entrée, so I found a great recipe on AllRecipes.com and modified it slightly.

I served it with a spinach risotto made from some leftover spinach, chicken broth and, obviously, rice. Today was probably the spinach’s last day to be usable, so it was necessary to find a way to use it. It was a strange combo at first, but the flavors worked surprisingly well together. Your basic risotto recipe, found in any number of cookbooks, will work. But what I’m interested in sharing is the artichoke chicken recipe. You can bet this will be served at a dinner party soon!

INGREDIENTS

• 4 split chicken breast halves
• 1 can artichoke hearts, chopped
• 3/4 cup of half mayonnaise, half sour cream (orig. recipe calls for all mayo, but this was PERFECT
• 3/4 grated parmesan (for gods’ sake, please get fresh grated and don’t use the stuff in a green can
• 3 cloves garlic, pressed or crushed
• Garlic salt, shallot pepper and herbs

Preheat oven to 375º. Mix parmesan, mayo & sour cream, garlic and artichoke hearts together in a bowl.
Set aside. You can choose whether to use the whole breast or to cut it in pieces; I cut the breasts in pieces. Lay breasts in a single layer in a baking pan. Sprinkle with garlic salt, shallot pepper and herbs to taste. cover with artichoke mixture.

Bake for 30–40 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.