Starting the day with an egg and ending with an easy chicken dinner

In honor of the IHCC chicken/egg theme, I made an adaptation of Jamie Oliver's rich/green grits.  The rich grits recipe involves using shrimp with the sausage but eggs are easier, local, less expensive, and just seem more breakfasty.  I did the shrimp version last week for dinner and it was very good too.

The final product was good but I ran into several bumps along the way.  Initially I wanted to poach the eggs but the pods kept turning upside down (they've worked before, I may have been using a different pot or a harder boil?).  Without many eggs to spare I resorted to frying instead.  Then, right as everything was needing to come together, the blender decided to lock up and it had to be dismantled to retrieve the kale and garlic mixture. 

For the green grits you just cook some kale and garlic separately with oil (or drippings from sausage) and water until tender then blend and add to cooked grits with a handful of grated cheddar.   I used jalapenos and cilantro instead of parsley with the sausage (which I crumbled instead of forming it into balls).  The spice really seemed to compliment the pork, egg and kale combination.

With the chicken I regained some of my confidence.  It was a fast and super easy recipe that I will definitely have to bring back as a week night regular.  You just toss together:

• sliced leeks (about 1 to 2 per breast)
• a glug of oil and pat of butter
• half a glass of white wine
• salt, pepper and thyme

Then place the mixture on a foil-lined tray, creating a bed for the chicken breasts.  Wrap each skinless, boneless breast in pancetta (this part reminded me a little of Lady Gaga's meat dress, pancetta would have been a much more flattering material in my opinion)  and line them up on top of the leeks.  Drizzle with olive oil and top with sprigs of thyme.  Bake at 400 until the chicken is done.

I served it on top of spaghetti with a little bit of butter, lemon juice and parsley.  The leeks absorbed a lot of flavor, next time I will definitely double the amount!