Chicken Scaloppini with Wine, Mushroom and Green Olives

This recipe is the first recipe I made when I decided I wanted to really start cooking. It's a Rachael Ray recipe, and super easy to make. I've made it a handful of times over the years and have modified it to my taste.  The girls who were over for last night's pumpkin carving certainly didn't have any issues with my modifications. In fact, the general consensus was "YUM!"

I also made a new cocktail last night.  Emeril's Ruby Red Rocket Cocktail. It was so darn good.  It has a slight taste of a Cosmo, but not as sweet since it uses grapefruit.  I'll post that recipe separate and you can find it here.

Anyhow, here's the recipe with my notes of changes with it. Enjoy.

Photo courtesy of Food Network

Veal Scaloppini with Wine, Mushroom and Green Olives
Recipe by Rachael Ray
Serves 4
JW Note: My first change is I use chicken. I'm not a veal fan, so I substitute it with chicken.

• 3/4 pound linguini
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, 4 turns of the pan, plus some for drizzling
• 3 slices pancetta or bacon, chopped
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 16 crimini mushrooms or button mushrooms, chopped
• 1 pound veal scaloppini, cut into 1-inch strips [JW Notes: 1 lb chicken tenders or breasts, cut into bite size pieces]
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 16 pitted, large green olives, coarsely chopped
• A handful chopped flat-leaf Italian parsley
• 1 tablespoon butter, cut into pieces
• 1/3 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Romano, a couple of handfuls

JW Notes:

My additional ingredients

1/4c heavy cream

1 c chicken broth or stock

Place pasta water on to boil and cook linguini 8 minutes, to al dente in salted water. Drain and reserve. Keep warm.

Preheat a large, heavy skillet over medium to medium high heat. Add 1 turn of the pan or 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil and the pancetta or bacon. Cook pancetta or bacon 1 to 2 minutes alone, then add onions and cook another 2 or 3 minutes. Add mushrooms to the pan and cook together with the onions 3 to 5 minutes. [JW note: I add the garlic in here too. If I add it in the following step I ALWAYS burn it.]

Season veal strips with salt and pepper. [JW Note: I don't use a second skillet. I take the mushroom mix out and put it in a bowl and just use the same skillet. Mostly because I hate doing dishes.] In a second skillet preheated over medium high heat, add 1 1/2 turns of extra-virgin olive oil and 1 clove smashed garlic. [JW note: see note above about where I add the garlic.] Quick-fry half of the veal searing each side of the strips 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer cooked veal strips and garlic to a plate and repeat.

Add all of the cooked strips and garlic to the onions and mushrooms then add wine to the pan and lift up all of the drippings. [JW note: I add the mushroom mixture back to the pan where I was cooking my chicken.] Cook wine down to evaporate the alcohol about 2 to 3 minutes. [JW note: I add a cup of broth here and let that simmer down for about 10 minutes. I like more liquid with my pasta than this recipe allows.  Once the chicken broth cooks down, I add the olives and parsley to the mixture, then add the heavy cream.  I cook it until it thickens.]

Stir olives and parsley into veal and mushrooms. Serve portions of veal, mushrooms and green olives on a bed of hot linguini tossed with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil, butter and grated cheese.

[JW notes: I usually mix the sauce with the pasta.  Last night I added the cheese in with the pasta instead of on top and OMG it was sooo good. Try it.]