The recipe involved pounding out the breasts into paillards (thin slices), which I’m a big fan of. This allows the breasts cook quickly and stay moist. Pancetta is sauteed, then the chicken, and the dressing gets a quick warm-up in the pan. That’s it! Assemble with chicken, blue cheese, arugula, figs and pancetta. A sweet vinaigrette is drizzled on top,
I’ve had a lifelong fear of figs. I blame it on my Swedish grandmother who lovingly baked sweets that she wanted her precious only young grandaughter to try. Among these treats were cookies with fresh fig filling. Though I loved grandma and appreciated her spoiling me endlessly, I couldn’t stand the texture of the fig cookies. Grandma was hurt. Whenever I didn’t eat what she made, she was hurt. So I ate them anyways and pretended that I liked them. Yuck. And I haven’t touched figs since… until I made this recipe. When we lived in San Diego, we had the good fortune of having a Farmer’s Market near our house that was open every day (Chino Farms). It was one of those good ones too… where they grow all of their own food right there and put out whatever is ripe that day. I was there one time to pick up some of their famous Chino Corn when I spied a small basket of fresh figs. Hmmmm, I thought. Perhaps I’ll give them a try. Mind you, it had been a good 30 years since I’d had figs. So I carted home my basket of freshly picked figs and browsed cookbooks. Tyler’s Ultimate had a recipe that looked like a must-try: Chicken Paillard with Fresh Fig Salad and Blue Cheese. I was very surprised to find that I love this recipe so much. I especially enjoyed the bites that involved figs. It’s hard to believe that I’ve shunned them for so long. I would make this recipe again in a heartbeat. Though it sounds fancy, it’s so simple and completely delicious. My fig phobia has turned into fig obsession. Bring on the fig recipes! Just no fig cookies, please. If you’re looking for more recipes that use figs, you might also like to try my Caramel Fig Loaf or this Grilled Fig Bruschetta. Fresh Figs with Gorgonzola and Prosciutto are super delicious too. And I can’t wait to try these Bacon Wrapped Figs and this Fig Prosciutto Pizza!
