Chicken, Mushroom and Polenta Lasagna

So, I'm REALLY excited about this new recipe because it uses polenta. If you're like me, you grew up on potatoes, rice and pasta for starches. But when I went to culinary school I was introduced to a whole new world of starches and polenta was one of them. The possibilities w/ polenta are numerous which is what makes it soo fun to work with.




As I'm sure you've started to discover, it's hard for me to make a recipe w/out making some additions/changes. So, I'm going to give you the original recipe and then write my changes in red. This way you have the option as to how you want to make it. I will start off by saying that the recipe starts w/ you making your own marinara sauce, however, I opted to use a 2 lb. 13 oz container of store bought spaghetti sauce.



Ingredients:

6 large tomatoes, diced (omited)
6 large tomatoes, pureed (omited)
6 cloves garlic, minced (omited)
1/2 c. chopped fresh basil (omited)
1/4 c. chopped fresh oregano (omited)
2 T honey (omited)

salt and pepper to taste
10 cremini mushrooms, sliced (I used a carton of regular sliced mushrooms)
1/4 large onion, finely chopped
2 T olive oil
1 lb skinless, boneless chicken breast, cubed
2 (16oz) tubes polenta, cut into 1/4" thick slices (I made my own polenta)

4 oz pesto sauce
1 c. shredded Mozzarella cheese


Directions:


Preheat oven to 375 degrees


In a saucepan, combine diced tomatoes, pureed tomatoes, garlic, basil, oregano, honey, salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat for 45 minutes, allowing to thicken. Stir in mushrooms and onions. Cook for 15 minutes. (my version: sweat onions and mushrooms in saucepan over low heat...about 2-3 minutes. Open pre-bought spaghetti sauce and pour over onions and mushrooms. Bring to a boil)


Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat and partially cook the chicken on all sides until no longer pink on the outside. remove and set aside. In the same skillet, sear the polenta pieces in the remaining olive oil until the outsides are crispy. (I did add some poultry season to my chicken to give it some extra flavor)


Cover the bottom of a casserole dish w/ half of the polenta slices. Thinly spread about half of the pesto over the polenta. Then cover the polent w/ 1/2 of chicken, 1/2 tomato sauce and 1/2 of cheese. Repeat the layering of polenta, pesto, chicken and sauce


Bake in Preheated over for 25 minutes. Remove and top w/ the remaining mozzarella cheese. Return to oven, uncovered, until cheese is melted, about 5 minutes.

Like I mentioned above, I made my own polenta for this recipe. What's cool about making your own, is that you can make it any flavor that you want. For this recipe, I made a spinach, mozzarella, garlic polenta and this is how I made it:

3 c. chicken stock

1 c. cornmeal

1 bag of spinach

1 T minced garlic

1/4 c. shredded mozzarella

Bring chicken stock to a boil, then slowly stir in cornmeal and stir constantly until it comes to a boil.

While waiting on your chicken stock to boil, cook spinach in saute pan w/ garlic.

Once spinach has cooked and polenta is boiling, add spinach mixture and cheese to the polenta.

Pour the polenta on a greased cooking sheet and spread into a rectanble about 1/4" thick. Place in refrigerator for a few hours to let it set. Once set, cut polenta into 12 squares. I used 6 squares per layer.

Making polenta really isn't that difficult and the pros to making your own polenta is that you can make it any flavored you want to. I've never used the store bought stuff and quite honestly didn't even know they sold pre-made polenta until I saw this recipe. My mom said she's seen it on the aisle w/ all the pasta fixins.