Ireland #4

Tonight’s dinner is using one of the wonderful recipes from The Irish Spirit, and combining it with a true traditional Irish side, boxty. The chicken is stuffed with Cashel Blue cheese, an Irish blue cheese. There is also Irish whiskey in the sauce. I was able to find many varieties of Irish Whiskey at the liquor store, but any variety will do. I was also able to find Irish blue cheese at Kroger. Buying imported ingredients, as well as multiple kinds of alcohol sure has run up this week's grocery budget! But, the food has been excellent, and it's only the beginning!
Boxty is a traditional Irish potato pancake. The consistency is different from others because it contains mashed potatoes as well as grated potato. This makes the cake a little denser; it almost reminds me of fried mashed potatoes, as I’m used to my mom’s German potato pancakes, made of only grated potato. I wanted another vegetable besides the mushrooms in the sauce, so I just steamed some green beans.

Chicken Cashel Blue, Boxty, Green Beans

Chicken Cashel Blue:
4 chicken breasts, butterflied
4 oz. Cashel Blue Cheese
½ cup flour
1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp. milk
½ cup breadcrumbs
2 tbsp. canola oil (omitted)
2 tbsp. olive oil
3 tbsp. minced shallot
6 oz. white mushrooms
2 tbsp. Irish whiskey
¼ cup half and half (I used fat free)
Salt and pepper


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cut cheese into 4 pieces; stuff one in each chicken breast
Dredge the chicken in the flour; dip in egg wash, then in breadcrumbs.
Heat a large skillet to medium and add canola oil (I used olive oil). Cook the chicken for 5 minutes on each side, transfer to a casserole dish and bake for 10 minutes while preparing the sauce.
In another skillet over medium, add olive oil and the shallot and mushrooms. Cook for 5 minutes until soft but not browned. Add the whiskey and cook for 3 minutes. Add the half and half, season with salt and pepper.
Place chicken on a plate and spoon the sauce over top.


Recipe taken from
The Irish Spirit, Margaret M. Johnson. Chronicle Books: San Francisco, 2006.




Boxty
1 cup raw potato, grated
1 ½ cups cooked mashed potatoes
½ cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
½ tsp. pepper
1 egg1 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons Kerrygold Irish butter


Grate the potato into a bowl, and pour the buttermilk over it to keep it from turning brown. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Beat the egg in a mixing bowl. Add the sifted dry ingredients, grated potato, buttermilk and mashed potato, and mix well. The mixture should be the consistency of thick pancake batter. Add more buttermilk or sifted flour as needed. Melt the butter on a griddle over medium heat. Drop spoonfuls of the batter onto the griddle. Brown cakes on both sides.
(Traditional Recipe, no source)