Creamy Tomato and Spinach Chicken

Recipe:

Ingredient Notes:

• Chicken fillet. You can substitute the breast with boneless chicken thighs—they are guaranteed to stay juicy. Other great options include pork tenderloin or turkey fillet.
• Bell peppers. I use a mix of red and yellow peppers for this recipe. You can stick to just red if you prefer, but I wouldn’t recommend using only yellow; they tend to be less sweet and have a less intense flavor, which might make the dish feel a bit flat.
  Roasting the peppers beforehand adds a distinct, sweet, caramelized flavor that you simply can’t achieve by pan-frying.
• Spinach. Fresh spinach is best, but frozen works well during the off-season. If using frozen, look for whole-leaf spinach rather than chopped. Check the packaging carefully to ensure you’re getting whole leaves!
• Onion. I used red onion here to add a pop of color, but a standard yellow onion (brown onion) will work perfectly fine.
• Cream. The ideal choice is heavy cream (30–35% fat). You only need a small amount to add silkiness and a “velvet” finish to the tomato base. You can use 20% cream, but you’ll need a bit more of it, which will result in a thinner sauce.
• Tomatoes. Canned whole peeled tomatoes (or crushed) in their own juice are the perfect year-round base. Look for tins where the ingredients are just tomatoes and juice (salt and citric acid are also fine).
  Note: Avoid marinated tomatoes from glass jars that contain vinegar and sugar – they are not suitable for this sauce.

Let’s start cooking!

Place the peppers in a baking dish and put them in a preheated oven at 220 °C (425 °F). Bake for about 15 minutes until blackened. Remove them and place them in a bag or a tightly sealed container. Leave for 10 minutes.

Then peel them, removing the stem and seeds.

Cut the onion into strips. Remove the stems from the spinach. Cut the chicken fillets into 2 thin cutlets each. Season with salt.

Heat 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a frying pan over a high heat. Brown the chicken fillets on both sides for 2 minutes per side until almost cooked through.

Transfer to a plate.

Heat 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a saucepan, add the onion and sauté for 2-3 minutes, stirring continuously.

Add the bell pepper and finely chopped garlic and cook for 1 minute.

Add the crushed tomatoes, along with the juice.

Simmer uncovered for about 7 minutes. Season with salt and sugar to taste. Add the spinach.

Cook, stirring continuously, until the spinach has wilted and softened. Pour in the cream and stir.

Add the chicken to the sauce and bring to the boil.

Simmer over a low heat for 2-3 minutes.

Remove from the heat and serve. It’s perfect with mashed potatoes. 🙂

Enjoy!

This Creamy Tomato and Spinach Chicken recipe was checked, prepared and approved by Chef Tatyana Nazaruk - author of FlavorIt.com.
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