For St. Patrick's Day, we couldn't afford corned beef (I'm sorry to report that there was no Guinness to be had, either), but we did have cabbage in the house, and potatoes, so we went hunting for some other fare to celebrate our (admittedly somewhat distant - four generations, in my case) Irish heritage.
Roast Breast of Chicken with Cabbage and Bacon
Shockingly enough, I (mostly - my modifications are italicized) followed this recipe, which Melanie found for us on razzledazzlerecipes.com.
6 slices bacon, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch strips
2 T. canola or vegetable oil Use the fresh bacon grease in lieu of oil. It's available and it adds flavor.
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (2 breasts)
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
2 medium cloves garlic, peeled and minced
2 C. shredded green cabbage
2/3 C. homemade chicken stock or canned low-sodium broth
2 T. whipping cream or half-and-half
2 T. butter
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 375°. In a large skillet, cook the bacon over medium heat until crisp. Drain on paper towels. Pour grease from pan. There is no earthly reason not to save that bacon grease. Also, you'll use this pan later for the cabbage and onions. Make sure it's large enough. Trim the fat and tendons from the chicken breasts.
In a large ovenproof skillet set on medium-high heat, heat a tablespoon oil (bacon grease). Add chicken and brown lightly, about 2 to 3 minutes on each side. Transfer the pan to the oven and bake chicken 15 minutes, or until cooked through. I don't have a cast-iron skillet. Instead, I preheated an 8x8 glass baking dish in the oven while I was browning the chicken in the bacon pan, then added 1 Tbsp of the bacon grease to the baking dish and roasted the chicken in that.
In the pan in which the bacon was cooked, heat the remaining tablespoon oil (bacon grease) over medium heat. Saute the onions and garlic 5 minutes. Add cabbage and mix well. Add stock or broth (Use the juices from the roast chicken pan for part of this), bring to a boil, and cook, stirring frequently, until the cabbage is tender, about 10 minutes. Add cream and cook until thickened. Stir in the butter and add the bacon. Season with salt and pepper.
Slice the chicken, stir into the cabbage and serve. Baby potatoes (red or gold) make a great accompaniment. Just boil them in salted water for about the time it takes to prepare the rest of this. Check them frequently for doneness after about 30 minutes.
Melanie also made Irish Soda Bread to go with this, but the recipe is subscribers-only from America's Test Kitchen, so I wouldn't feel right posting it here. Here's a link to it, though: Skillet Soda Bread. I will say that, not having a skillet, using an ungreased 9-inch cake pan on a pizza stone gives excellent results. It was fantastic and quite simple, and just based on the description they give, someone could probably recreate it - I mean, it's a glorified biscuit, right?
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