Chicken a la chianti

Melanie came over last night and we cooked together. She brought wonderful whole wheat penne and fresh cherry tomatoes from her garden. While I was working on the chicken, she made a tomato salad with basil, parsley, balsamic vinegar, olive oil and salt and pepper. We tossed the whole wheat penne with a little reserved pasta water, low fat ricotta, chopped cooked bacon, steamed peas, a little salt, pepper and garlic powder. We ate this with my improvisational chicken which I am calling Chicken a la Chianti.

Chicken a la chianti
Makes 6 small servings
Ingredients:
3 large skinless boneless chicken breasts
3 slices bacon
2 large shallots sliced
8 oz baby bella or crimini mushrooms
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary chopped (or use 1 1/2 tsp dried)
5 basil leaves chiffonade
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup chicken broth (I used 1 cup of water heated and broke up a bouillion cube in it)
1 tbsp crushed or minced garlic
1 cup chianti
1/4 cup heavy cream
3 tbsp cornstarch dissolved in 2 tbsp water (OPTIONAL)

Instructions:
Place breasts in a large ziploc and pound to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut each breast in half and toss in olive oil to coat. Stir in 1/2 of the rosemary and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill chicken 5 minutes per side over medium high heat in a grill pan or on the grill and set aside.

In large saute pan, cook bacon. Remove bacon and reserve for another use (we mixed it into the pasta we had on the side). Over medium heat, add mushrooms and shallots. Sprinkle with pepper and mix in remaining rosemary. Saute for about 4 minutes. Add in crushed garlic and stir well.
Turn heat up to med-high and slowly add the wine, stirring constantly to de-glaze the pan. Next add chicken stock and bring just to a boil. Add 1/2 tsp of salt and stir. Add chicken back to the pan, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.Flip chicken breasts and simmer another 6 minutes. Add cream, salt and pepper to taste, and continue to cook over med-low heat another 5 minutes. Mix in basil just before serving.Depending on how thick you'd like the sauce, it can be done now, or you can add in the dissolved corn starch, stir, and cook another 3 minutes over medium heat to make extra creamy (more like gravy). That's what we did.