Blackened Chicken with Cream Spinach

Aside from cook books, culinary magazines and passed down recipes, I also love watching cooking shows because of the dishes I could try. One of the culinary shows I always love to watch is the "My Favorite Recipes," and I really, really loved that season with Chef Gino Gonzalez co-hosting the program with Chef China Cojuanco. Anyway, one of the dishes that caught my interest was this one - the Blackened Tuna with Cream Spinach.




Blackened Chicken with Cream Spinach
{Serves 2}
Recipe Taken From: WMN.ph

Ingredients (Chicken):

• 2 Boneless chicken breasts
• 3 tbsp all purpose flour
• 1 tsp paprika picante
• 1/4 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp onion powder
• Pinch nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
• 1/2 tsp iodized salt
• 1 tbsp olive oil
  

Ingredients (Cream Spinach):

• 1 cup frozen spinach, defrosted
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp garlic, minced
• 1/2 white onion, sliced
• 1 cup Carnation Evap
• 2 tsp cornstarch diluted in 1 tbsp water
• salt and pepper
  

How to Cook:

• For the blackened chicken: mix all dry ingredients together. Rub on the chicken.
• In a very hot cast iron skillet or pan, put oil and swirl around to distribute oil. Cook chicken.
• For the Spinach: Saute onions and garlic in butter. Add spinach and saute for 1 minute.
• Pour Carnation Evap. Simmer for 2-3 minutes.
• Season with salt and pepper. Add slurry and cook for 1 minute more.
• Serve chicken on top of spinach.

I really hoped to cook it right after they aired the episode, but spinach was scarce that time, and I didn't want to get canned or packed spinach. I really wanted it fresh, so it was just this moment that I was able to do it. I cooked Blackened Tuna sometime back, and I did like the Cajun Rub, and I ought to do it to this one, too, but since I am following the recipe, I did it how they did it. Honestly, I didn't like the flour in the chicken - it made the chicken soggy, maybe because I used a regular iron griddle. It still came out good; but I think it would be much better if flour was omitted.

As for the cream spinach, it was a good pair for the chicken. It was a good way of putting something leafy, greeny to the dish, just to help balance things out. Although, as with any creamy, milky foods, having too much of the cream spinach does give the "umay" feeling.

Will I cook it again? Perhaps... but I surely will omit the flour in cooking my chicken, and I might lessen the milk and will add cheese cubes in the spinach instead.

*** Jenn ***