Sautéed Chicken Breasts with Fennel and Rosemary

Wow. I haven’t used chicken in a recipe in over a month. I think it is time to finally give poultry it’s time in the limelight. I received one bulb of fennel in my CSA share and thought this recipe from Food & Wine sounded like a perfect use of the ingredient. As a plus, I had all of the ingredients already in my kitchen, with the exception of the chicken.

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium high heat in a saute pan. Add the chopped fennel, 1 teaspoon rosemary and 1/4 teaspoon salt.

Cook until the fennel is a golden brown color, about 12 minutes. Add the broth and bring to a boil.

Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer until the fennel turns soft, about 3 minutes. Remove the fennel and liquid from the pan and reserve.

Clean out the pan and add 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat.  Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper. Add the chicken to the saute pan and top with the remaining 1 teaspoon rosemary. Cook on one side until brown, about 5 minutes.

Turn the chicken over and cook for another 3 minutes, until almost fully cooked. Add the minced garlic and stir.

Add the fennel and cooking liquid back in and season with a bit more pepper to taste. Bring to a simmer, cover, and remove from heat. Allow to steam for 5 minutes.

Stir in the parsley and serve.

I was a little nervous to try this recipe. I really don’t like the taste of licorice (i.e. fennel). But cooked fennel has a much more muted flavor than raw fennel, or even fennel seeds. This ended up being a really delicious dinner! The rosemary, fennel and garlic were great complements; the meal had a Mediterranean feel to it that I really enjoyed. I’m happy I now have a recipe for when I come across fresh fennel! The recipe suggested serving this with polenta. I had some red potatoes from my CSA share so I decided to serve the chicken with garlic and rosemary smashed potatoes.