Wednesday Night Dinner

Normally we only have meat once a week tops in our house. This week however has been meat filled. It has a lot to do with the charcutepalooza challenge that I am involved in. It also has to do with some ideas I've been mulling over for a couple of weeks.  The week before last I made Raisin d'Etre Mustard the recipe for which I found on Local Kitchen. Since that day I've been slathering it on everything I can think of. When I was making it the recipe called for you to soak the raisins in beer for a few hours and then strain the raisins and puree them in a food processor with malt vinegar. I tasted this little concoction before I added it to the rest of the mustardy mix, and it was amazing. I was a little miffed that I was going to have to add it into the mustard and compromise the flavor that was sitting in my Cuisinart. Sometimes it's the little things you taste that inspire you to create. That night before I went to bed I had an idea.
Why not take that raisin mixture and turn it into a sauce for chicken? That is how I came up with our Wednesday night dinner.

Stuffed Breast of Chicken With Chipoltle Raisin Sauce

*Serves four*

Ingredients:

• 4 chicken breasts
• 1/4 lb. brie
• 1/2 Tbs. duck fat or bacon fat (if you don't have either of those you can just use olive oil)
• 4-5 hand fulls of fresh baby spinach
• Pinch of crushed red pepper
• Salt and pepper to taste

For the sauce:

• 3/4 cup sweet Thompson raisins
• 1 bottle of New Castle Nut Brown Ale
• 1/4 cup malt vinegar
• 1/8-1/4 tsp. dried chipoltle powder
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Heat fat of choice or oil in a skillet over moderate heat. Add spinach and red pepper flakes; saute until wilted. When the spinach is done add salt and pepper to taste.
3. Rinse and pat dry the chicken breasts. Season both sides liberally with salt and pepper. Slice a pocket down the side of each breast without going all the way through. Open each pocket and evenly divide the spinach between each chicken breast. Lay the brie on top of the spinach and close the pocket. You want there to be enough spinach and brie in the pocket while still being able to make the chicken close after you have stuffed it.
4. Cook in the oven for 30 minutes or until juices run clear.

For the sauce:

1. Put the raisins and the beer together in a small saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil and then simmer until the beer is almost completely gone. The raisins will have plumped and the beer will have reduced to a thin layer of syrup in the bottom of the pan.
2. Transfer mixture to the bowl of a food processor. Add the malt vinegar and chipoltle powder. Puree until smoothish. I like a wee bit of texture but you can make it how you like it.
3. Return sauce to pan and heat through adding the salt and pepper to taste.

Putting it all together:

When the chicken is done and has been allowed to rest for 5 minutes slice the chicken on a bias and transfer to serving plate. Spoon the sauce over the top. I served some roasted new potatoes along the side, but a good crisp salad would do nicely too. When you are ready to sit down this is what will be sitting before you: