Cheese Crespelles with Chicken

So a crespelle is just a crepe, an Italian crepe. Matthew and I went to Olive Garden about a month ago and he had probably the best dish we have ever had from there. It was the 5 cheese crespelle with chicken (or sausauge). The following week I was anxious to have it again but without the budget set back. I looked up a recipe and kind of combined four of them and this it what I came up with and let me tell you, if you like cheese, you will LOVE this. Sorry, no photos but the next time I do make this I will add a photo.

For the Crespelle batter:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 large eggs, beaten
1 tablespoon melted unsalted butter
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons whole milk

In a bowl whisk together all the ingredients to form a smooth, thin batter. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before proceeding. Heat a small skillet and when it's hot, brush it lightly with butter. It is important to do this step in between each crespelle so that it doesn't stick (and who doesn't love a little extra butter). Ladle about 1/3 cup of batter into pan and roll it around to spread out evenly. When the top begins to look 'dry' turn over and cook just a little longer. This yields about 6.

For the filling:
1 C fresh spinach, washed, stems removed and finely chopped
1 C part skim ricotta cheese
1 C mascarpone cheese (I found mine at Winco but look below for a substitute)
1/2 C grated asiago cheese
1/2 C grated parmesan cheese
2 large eggs, slightly beaten
3/4 t salt
1/2 t ground black pepper

Combine all together and set aside.

For the bechamel sauce:
4 tablespoons butter
6 tablespoons flour
1 3/4 cups milk
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
Pinch freshly grated nutmeg

In a saucepan, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour until smooth and continue to cook for 3 minutes, being careful not to brown. Slowly whisk in the cold milk, and cook, stirring, until the sauce comes to a boil and thickens, about 2 minutes. Continue cooking until the floury taste is gone, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

Lastly for the chicken:

Basically however you like to cook up some chicken in a skillet. I used chicken breasts cut into strips and coated lightly with equal parts olive oil and lemon juice and then sprinkled with pepper. Brown them up and your done.

Preheat the oven to 375 and lightly grease a 9x13 baking dish. Spread a little sauce over the bottom of the pan.
Take each crepe and divide the filling evenly on them and roll up like a burrito tucking all sides in and lay seam side down in the dish. Place chicken on top and pour remaining sauce over top and bake for 20 minutes and just golden.

Mascarpone substitute- this is an Italian cream cheese that is even more heavenly than our cream cheese. So what you do is take an 8 oz. pkg of cream cheese (softened) add 1/4 C heavy whipping cream and 2 T butter. I have used both the real deal and this and either way things taste great.

Dannielle

Tiny Spicy Chicken

Our own food blog- I'm so excited!

Chicken wings or cut up chicken breasts
1/4 C chicken stock
garlic salt
beaten eggs
cornstarch
1/4 to 1/2 C sugar
1/2 to 3/4 C white vinegar
3-4 T catsup
1 t soy sauce
salt
2-3 T ground chili paste (at any asian market and most likely in the asian section of bigger grocery stores
Sprinkle chicken with garlic salt and let sit for one hour. Dip chicken into eggs and then into cornstarch. Brown in vegetable oil until golden brown and place in 9x13 inch pan. Cover with sauce and bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour turning about every 15 minutes.

To make sauce:
Cobine sugar, vinegar, catsup, soy sauce, dash of salt, and ground chili paste to taste (a littel goes a long way) and 1/4 C chicken stock in saucepan. Heat until sugar dissolves and pour over chicken.

I got this out of the Logan Eleventh Ward cookbook. This was the ward that we lived in while we were going to school. I love it because of its obvious deliciousness and also because I have always been such a measurer and this was one of the first recipes that, because of its lack of exact measurements, forced me to actually cook to taste. I think that LDS ward cookbooks are a treasure to the culinary world that have been as yet sadly untapped. chuckle

Jana