Chicken prosciutto! with boneless, skinless chicken breasts with butter toasted sage, wrapped in prosciutto.
The first time I had this chicken prosciutto dish it was prepared by my friends Fritz and Leigh Anna who had found a recipe for it in a Dean & DeLuca cookbook.
It’s a lot like a saltimbocca, but made with chicken cutlets instead of veal. The cutlets are layered with a butter fried sage leaf and wrapped in thin prosciutto. Then they are dipped in beaten egg, fried briefly, topped with fontina cheese, and broiled.
Such a lovely presentation! Perfect for entertaining.
Chicken Prosciutto Recipe
- Prep time: 15 minutes
- Cook time: 25 minutes
- Yield: Serves 6-8
Ingredients
- 2 lbs chicken cutlets
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
- 8-12 whole fresh sage leaves
- 1/2 pound very thinly sliced prosciutto
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 8 thin slices Italian Fontina cheese (about 2 oz)
Sauce:
- 1 cup dry white wine (like a Sauvignon blanc)
- 1 Tbsp minced fresh sage
- 1/2 stick unsalted butter, chilled
Method
1 Pound chicken cutlets to 1/8-inch thickness: Put the chicken cutlets between two sheets of plastic wrap or wax paper and pound to an even thickness of about 1/8-inch. Sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper.
2 Fry sage leaves in butter: Melt butter in a large sauté pan on medium heat. Once the butter starts to foam, add the sage leaves to the pan and cook them for a minute or two, turning them half way through the cooking. Remove them from the pan.
3 Place one or two fried sage leaves on each chicken cutlet and wrap with a thin layer of prosciutto.
4 Dip cutlets in beaten egg, cook in pan: Prepare a shallow bowl with the beaten eggs. Check that the foaming butter in the pan is golden and not browned. (If it has browned too much, start over with new butter, melting it until it foams.)
Working in batches so that you don’t crowd the pan, dip each prosciutto-wrapped chicken cutlet in beaten egg and place it in the pan.
Cook them for a couple minutes on each side, until just cooked through. Remove from the pan.
5 Cover with slice of cheese, then broil: Preheat the oven broiler. Arrange the chicken cutlets on a baking sheet and cover each cutlet with a slice of cheese. Place under the broiler just until the cheese melts, about a minute.
6 While the chicken is under the broiler make the sauce: Pour out the butter from the pan. Increase the heat to high and add the wine to the pan, deglazing the pan. Boil the wine until it has reduced almost by half.
Add the minced sage and cook for a minute longer. Stir in the chilled butter.
Pour the sauce around the chicken cutlets to serve.
Adapted by a recipe in the Dean & DeLuca Cookbook.
