Weight Loss Surgery Cookbook

158 Part II: Now You’re Cooking! Healthy and Hearty Dishes

Chicken in Mushroom

Wine Sauce with Pasta

Fennel, a white or pale-green bulb with stalks of feathery green leaves, is often used in

Mediterranean cooking and has a slight anise or licorice taste. You can find it in the

fresh produce section at the grocery store. Stored in the crisper drawer in your fridge,

it usually keeps for about three or four days, so don’t buy it too far ahead of time.

Stage: Regular foods

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 25 minutes

Yield: 4 servings (1 cup each)

1 teaspoon butter

(^1) ⁄ 4 pound mushrooms, quartered
(^1) ⁄ 2 cup dry red wine, divided
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
(^1) ⁄ 2 teaspoon salt
(^1) ⁄ 4 teaspoon black pepper
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut
into 4-ounce pieces
2 tablespoons olive oil
(^1) ⁄ 2 cup diced onion
1 cup thinly sliced fennel bulb (discard bottom
inch of bulb)
1 clove garlic, minced
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
(^1) ⁄ 4 pound whole-wheat angel hair pasta
1 Melt butter in a medium sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and
sauté, stirring frequently. When the mushrooms soften and give off liquid, reduce heat
to medium and cook until liquid evaporates.
2 Stir in^1 ⁄ 4 cup of the wine. Increase the heat to high and boil until most of the wine
evaporates. Remove mushrooms from the pan and set them aside.
3 Combine the flour, salt, and pepper on a plate. Dredge each piece of chicken in the flour
mixture and shake off the excess.
4 Wipe out the sauté pan. Add olive oil to sauté pan and heat over medium-high heat.
When oil is hot, turn the heat down to medium and add the chicken. Brown the chicken
on both sides, about 3 minutes a side. Remove chicken from the pan and set aside.