Healthy Chicken Florentine is a delicate ancestral dish from France. It consists of grilled chicken breast served on a spinach bed with unctuous Mornay sauce and extra grilled pine nuts.
Healthy Chicken Florentine is such a simple and comforting meal. The term florentine is French to say from Florence, Italy. This dish was brought by Italian Catherine de Médicis and her love for spinach over in France when she married Henri II. The dish is usually a protein (chicken, pork, egg, etc.) on a bed of spinach and topped with Mornay sauce (a cheesy Bechamel). Being a calorie bomb, this sauce… I didn’t make the protein swim in like most recipes for Chicken Florentine. I’ve added a bit to prevent the meal from getting too heavy; frankly, it’s sufficient!
Nutty Note
I added a few grilled pine nuts to add flavour and texture. Those are the caviar of nuts, and the price shows it too. In Catalonia, Spain, they do a tremendous traditional spinach dish with pine nuts, Espinaca a la Catalana. Those nuts or seeds are famous around the Mediterranean and always bring lots of flavour to a dish, especially if you toast them first. I recommend doing this in a pan on medium-high heat while constantly moving it until it is light brown.
Spinach
The main component for a Florentine dish: spinach! Popeye’s meal of choice! Did you know spinach is one of those few better-eaten cooked vegetables? Because it contains oxalic acid, which stops the absorption of iron and calcium but, luckily, breaks down at high temperatures.
Also, eating spinach with vitamin C (lemon, lime or orange) helps to absorb its iron. Some food combinations are beneficial to one another, like this one. So never forget a squeeze of fresh lemon in your spinach.
Mornay Sauce
I don’t understand why people are scared of Bechamel or Mornay sauces—and the terrible ‘roux’ word scares some away, too. But if you follow my instructions, you’ll see it’s simple and easy! The main idea here is Cold and Warm. Ensure you cook the flour in butter (or oil) before adding the cold milk, and cook it with a whisk until it thickens. It’s that easy!
Other French Recipes
Healthy Chicken Florentine
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breasts
- 8 cups fresh spinach
- 1 garlic clove (finely chopped)
- 2 tbsp pine nuts
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- salt and pepper
Mornay Sauce
- 200 ml cold milk
- 30 g butter
- 3 tbsp flour
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg (optional)
- 1 egg yolk
- 30 g Gruyere cheese (or aged cheddar)
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Start by roasting the pine nuts in a pan, at medium-high heat, for about 2 minutes, until light brown, and reserve.
- Season the chicken with salt and pepper, and add the breasts to a skillet in olive oil, at medium-high heat, until light brown on each side.
- Put the chicken breasts in an oven-proof container with fresh thyme branches, and cook at 180°C (350F°) for 12 minutes.
- In the same pan, deglaze with 1 tbsp of water or white wine the chicken bits from the bottom.
- Add the garlic, spinach, salt and pepper to the pan on medium-high heat until the spinach falls.
- In a small saucepan, melt the butter at medium-high heat, add the flour and mix for a minute or two (until it smells nutty).
- Add the cold milk in one shot and constantly whisk while still on medium-high heat.
- Add the nutmeg, salt, and pepper and let it get thick while whisking.
- Add the yolk and gruyere cheese to remove the heat once thicker, whisk and let cool for a minute or two.
