What's on the Menu for Today?: CHICKEN FLORENTINE CASSEROLE

Hi All! I bet you were wondering what happened to me. Well, I've just been out of commission for a little while but I'm back now and I'm back with a vengeance.

For your dining enjoyment today, I have prepared a wonderful little casserole that I ran across on Kraftfoods.com. It's called a Chicken Florentine Casserole and it is YUM-O, as Rachel Ray would say. I've been very curious about the new Philadelphia Cooking Creams they've been advertising on television so I went to the website to see what all the hype was about. When I saw this recipe, I knew that it would be next on my list of kitchen experiments and I think I made a very good choice.

Special Notes: I made several revisions to this recipe that I wanted to make you aware of. First of all, the recipe calls for mozzarella cheese but I inadvertently bought parmesan cheese instead. I'll have to try it with the mozzarella cheese one day but I was very pleased with the overall taste. Secondly, I cheated a little bit on this one. Rather than using the boneless, skinless chicken breasts, I used precooked chicken. Normally, I only use precooked chicken for salads but for this new recipe, I didn’t want to take a chance on the chicken being too tough, not having brined a breast beforehand. Third, the recipe calls for Philadelphia Italian Cheese and Herb Cooking Cream but I used the plain cooking cream instead. Basically, I thought the recipe itself would be flavorful enough. Lastly, rather than using frozen spinach, I used fresh spinach instead because frozen spinach is mushy. Oh, and one other thing......I added sauteed mushrooms to my version. Mushrooms always make any dish a little more special:-)

Final Thoughts: If you're a drinker, get yourself a glass of Chardonnay. If not, a glass of iced tea will do but just make sure that you also have a big slice of buttered garlic French bread to go with it.

Chicken Florentine Casserole

Ingredients:

1 tsp oil

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces

1 clove garlic

1 tub (10 oz.) Philadelphia Italian Cheese and Herb Cooking Cream

¾ cup milk

2 cups cooked bow-tie pasta

1 pkg (10 oz.) frozen chopped spinach, thawed, drained

1 cup Kraft Shredded Low Moisture Part-Skim Mozzarella Cheese

Directions:
Heat oven to 375˚ F

Heat oil in large skillet on medium heat. Add chicken and garlic; cook and stir 6 to 7 min. or until chicken is done. Stir in all remaining ingredients.