Tuscan Chicken

Tuscan Chicken is a hearty Italian inspired dish of seasoned chicken, tomatoes, beans and fresh mushrooms served with flair!
This dish serves 4 easily as is without additional sides. If you need to stretch it a bit to serve 6 simple add another 1/2 pound of chicken or serve with a side of steamed rice or salad.

You’ll Need:
1/2 tsp Fennel Seeds
1 tsp Basil leaves
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp rosemary leaves
1/2 tsp Oregano Leaves
1/2 tsp black pepper (coarse ground)

2 Tbs Olive Oil
1 1/2 lb Boneless skinless chicken, cut into chunks
1 medium onion, cut into wedges
1 can cannellini ORother white beans, drained & rinsed
1 can diced tomatoes (undrained) – about 14 oz
1/4 c. red wine OR (1/8 cup red COOKING Wine AND 1/8 c.water)
1 tsp salt (if using red cooking wine, omit the salt)
6 oz fresh spinach leaves
Handful of mushrooms, wash, patted dry, sliced (optional)

Heat the oil in a large skillet until good and hot and add the chicken until lightly brown, add onion and continue cooking until well chicken is well browned and nearly cooked through, about 8 minutes total. Add fennel seed, cook 1 minute stirring well.

Stir in tomatoes, beans (if using them), red wine and all the remaining spices, bringing the mixture to a boil over medium/high heat. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer 3 minutes.

Add Spinach and mushroom slices, cover and cook just until spinach is wilted and mushrooms are hot, about 2 minutes.

Sometimes people become overwhelmed with a recipe if it contains more than 3 or 4 ingredients. This recipe is quite simple – our teen sons frequently cook it to impress their young lady friends that visit. If you’re on a low carb diet, omit the beans and add additional sliced mushrooms & spinach leaves in their place & voila, instant dirt cheap Low carb dish.

I’m not much of a wine drinker and I rarely have red wine in the house, so we keep a red cooking wine on hand- which has entirely too much salt in it- so Instead I generally use 1/8th cup red cooking wine AND 1/8th c. water in place of the red wine.