Chicken Valdostana

Okay guys (and gals), it’s official. I am totally obsessed with recreating restaurant dishes at home. Next one up, Chicken Valdostana.

Do you follow me on Facebook? The other day, after I shared my recipe for Whole Wheat Pasta Aglio e Olio, I put out the question “what is your favorite restaurant dish”. I got a few great ideas to get me started. A few of you said Saltimbocca is your favorite. It’s definitely one of mine too. Chicken Valdostana, is very similar to Saltimbocca. As far as I can tell the only difference is that Chicken Valdostana has a layer of fontina cheese.

I have seen Saltimbocca recipes with cheese, but generally mozzarella. Honestly, I don’t know if the two names are interchangeable, but I know that at a restaurant I go to, they call this dish Chicken Valdostana, so I will too.

You can expect to see a price tag of about $22-$24 at a restaurant, for one person. I made 5 servings and it cost me approximately $18. Do that math. Yep, way cheaper to make at home!

Don’t be scared of preparing this. It looks sophisticated and difficult, but it’s very simple actually. All that’s involved is a quick dusting of flour on the chicken, brown it, top with cheese and wrap in prosciutto. The sauce is a simple white wine and chicken stock reduction. If for some reason you don’t have wine lying around the house, you can use all chicken stock, but wine is better.

The chicken is best served over an herbed pasta. I wasn’t feeling great today, having a major flare up of my RA, so I cheated and used a box of Pasta Roni. I hate to admit it, but I like having these on hand for situations like this. If you aren’t into the Pasta Roni thing, just cook up some pasta and add some chopped herbs, salt and pepper and you’re good to go. The only thing my Chicken Valdostana seems to be missing is mushrooms. I’ve seen it mostly served with mushrooms, but I was fresh out of mushrooms. If you want to add in the mushrooms, toss them in the pan just before the wine/stock and cook for 3 minutes.

Oh, I kind of skipped right past the fact that you might not be familiar with Fontina cheese. If you haven’t used Fontina before, here’s the scoop: It’s an Italian cow’s milk cheese. It’s super creamy, a bit nutty and it melts awesomely.

Have you ever ordered Chicken Valdostana in a restaurant? If so, how much did you pay for it?

Ingredients

• 5 Chicken Cutlets (thin, boneless chicken breasts)
• 1/4 C flour, seasoned with salt and pepper
• 2 T butter, divided
• 1 T olive oil
• 1/2 C white wine
• 1/2 C chicken stock
• 4 oz Fontina cheese, sliced
• 5 slices prosciutto

Instructions

1. Lightly dust chicken with flour.
2. Heat 1 T butter and oil in large skillet over medium/high heat. Place chicken in skillet and brown on both sides. Do this in batches to avoid overcrowding the pan. Remove chicken from pan and set aside.
3. Place skillet back onto burner, stir in wine and stock, scraping up the bits from the bottom of the pan. Reduce by about half.
4. While wine/stock is cooking, place cheese over each piece of chicken and then wrap each piece in prosciutto.
5. Once wine/stock is reduced, stir in remaining T of butter. Add wrapped chicken back to pan, cover and simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 5 minutes.
6. Serve over pasta and spoon pan sauce over each piece of chicken.

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