Valentine’s Day is on a Tuesday this year, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make a special dinner in less than 30 minutes.

This champagne chicken is exactly that. In fact, we’ve enjoyed it twice already!

The chicken is pounded thin making it quick to cook.

In fact, the longest part of the cooking process is boiling water for the accompanying angel hair pasta. The lightly breaded and fried chicken is topped with a champagne mushroom sauce.

Yes, I said mushrooms! I actually quite enjoyed the mushrooms in this dish. (Same with the Marsala ravioli… maybe I’m coming around!)

Champagne Chicken

Ingredients:

• 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts, butterflied and pounded to 1/4″ thickness
• 1/4 C + 2 tbsp flour, divided use
• 2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp butter
• 8 oz cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 1/2 C champagne
• 3/4 C heavy cream
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• cooked angel hair pasta, for serving

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees F.
2. In a wide shallow bowl, combine 1/4 C flour, Parmesan, S+P.
3. Season the pounded chicken with S+P. Dredge in the flour.
4. Heat olive oil and butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Working in batches, cook chicken 3 minutes on each side. Place chicken in the preheated oven to keep warm.
5. Add the mushrooms to the same skillet and sprinkle with the remaining flour. Cook, stirring often, for 1 minute. Deglaze the pan with the champagne, scraping the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Reduce by half. Add in the heavy cream and red pepper flakes. Season to taste with S+P, and cook until thickened.
6. Serve chicken over angel hair pasta and top with the champagne-mushroom sauce.
7. Option to garnish with parsley or tarragon.

*This recipe is adapted from Tara at http://tarasmulticulturaltable.com/champagne-chicken/*