Chicken Bryan

It's no surprise that I love to eat. When I go to a restaurant, one of my all-time favorite dishes is Chicken Bryan at Carrabba's. I get this every time without fail. It is so delicious I crave it often. Simply stated it's a chicken breast covered in goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and a lemon butter sauce. I don't know why I haven't tried to recreate it before, but I made the attempt tonight and it was wonderful! For about the cost of one serving at the restaurant I was able to feed my entire family of four and it was every bit as good as the restaurant version. Surprisingly, this was super easy to make as well and didn't require much prep work. The recipe below is a combination of several I found online and a few of my own tweaks and feeds 4. Enjoy!

HELPFUL HINTS

1. The sauce should not be made too far in advance or it will begin to separate. Make it right before you're ready to serve.

2. I don't have alcohol in our home so I typically use cooking wine and for this recipe it substituted just fine.
3. You can buy the sun-dried tomatoes already julienned although sometimes they come in a jar or can packaged in oil. Since you don't want that extra flavoring, you can rinse them in hot water and then pat them dry.

INGREDIENTS

Basil Lemon Butter Sauce

1/2 cup butter

2 tsp minced garlic

2 tsp lemon juice

1 Tbs white wine

1/8 tsp salt

1/8 tsp white pepper

1/3 cup heavy cream

8 basil leaves, sliced

Chicken and Assembly

4 skinless chicken breasts

Vegetable oil

Salt

Freshly cracked black pepper

1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, julienned

4 slabs of Goat cheese

DIRECTIONS

Basil Lemon Butter Sauce

1. Melt butter in small saucepan over low heat.

2. Add garlic and sauté for 5 minutes.

3. Add the lemon juice and wine and cook another 5 minutes.

4. Add salt, pepper and cream and reduce heat to low.

5. Cook for 15 minutes over low heat until thick, stirring often.

Chicken

1. Preheat a barbecue grill to high.

2. Use a kitchen mallet to flatten the thick part of the breasts so they will cook evenly.

3. Rub each breast with oil, then sprinkle with salt and pepper.

4. Grill for 3-5 minutes per side or until done.

Assembly

1. When the chicken is done, place each breast on a plate.

2. Place a slice of cheese and then a pile of sun-dried tomatoes on top of each chicken breast.

3. Stir the sliced basil leaves into the sauce.

4. Spoon the sauce over the chicken and serve.

Chocolate Bundt with Snickers Glaze

This recipe comes from the Big Sur Bakery Cookbook. I made just a few minor modifications and added the Snickers bars as suggested on this post for some extra texture and flavor. The bundt is moist and heavy, yet not too sweet or rich. Combined with the Snickers glaze, it is a wonderful dessert that I will make again. This is one of those desserts that you look at as you sit down for dinner and know that you are going to have to save room for it. The recipe below yields one 10-inch Bundt and serves 12-16.

HELPFUL HINTS
1. I don't drink coffee so I used Pero, a coffee substitute and it tasted great.
2. Though I added Snickers, you could really use any candybar or you could leave it without and you'd still have a delicious cake.
3. I also floured the bundt pan after buttering it just to make sure it didn't stick.

INGREDIENTS
Cake
1 1/4 cups plus 1 Tbs brewed coffee
3/4 cup dutch-process cocoa powder
2 1/4 cups sugar.
1 1/4 tsp kosher salt
2 1/2 tsp baking soda
2 whole eggs plus 1 yolk
1 1/4 cups plus 1 Tbs buttermilk
1 cup plus 2 Tbs canola oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups, plus 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour, sifted

Glaze
6 ounce bittersweet chocolate
3/4 cup unsalted butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup sour cream at room temp
1/4 cup brewed coffee, cooled
4 snickers bars, regular size

DIRECTIONS
Cake
1. Preheat the oven to 350F with the oven rack placed in the center.
2. Butter a 10-inch Bundt pan with unsalted butter.
3. Place coffee and cocoa powder in a small saucepan.















4. Bring to a boil while whisking constantly.
5. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.
6. In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix together sugar, salt, baking soda, eggs and egg yolk on low speed until combined, about 30 seconds.















7. Add the buttermilk, oil and vanilla extract and mix it for another 30 seconds















8. Add the flour and mix on medium speed for 2 minutes.















9. Add the cooled cocoa mixture and mix on high for 3 minutes.



10. Pour the batter into the prepared Bundt pan and bake for 1 hour or until the toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean.















11. Let the cake cool down completely in the pan and then invert it onto a cooling rack.















Glaze
1. Chop the chocolate into small pieces and melt in a double broiler over simmering water.
2. Once the chocolate has melted, remove the bowl from the heat.
3. Melt the butter in a separate bowl, then whisk into the chocolate mixture.
4. Add 1 cup of the powdered sugar, whisking to combine.
5. Whisk in the sour cream.
6. Whisk in the remaining powdered sugar.
7. Add the coffee and whisk to create a glossy glaze.
8. Chop the snickers into small pieces and stir into the glaze gently, leaving extra pieces for sprinkling.















9. Cover the cake with the glaze and allow to keep at room temperature until ready to serve.