Chicken with Spinach and Mushrooms in Sherry Gravy

Sorry ... do to an error on Google+, all of my photos from my earlier blogs have disappeared.  

I went to a local place for lunch last week.  On the daily lunch special was a dish listed as Chicken Venice.  It was pan seared chicken cutlets with spinach and diced tomato in a sherry sauce served over linguini.  Sounds yummy, right?  Wrong.  The chicken was bland, the tomato just was too acidic for the sherry sauce, and the linguini was way past al dente.  I couldn't help but think how good this dish could have been if a little more attention was paid to it and its flavors.  So, of course, the next day I set forth to create my own version.  I'm not sure if Chicken Venice is the correct name for this since when I looked it up, I found several different dishes, all of them different.

Maybe someone can create a clever name for my recipe.

Ingredients:

4 boneless, skinless chicken cutlets, sliced in half horizontally into thinner cutlets
4 cups of fresh baby spinach, washed (a pkg of frozen cut leaf spinach, defrosted and squeezed of excess water could be used in a pinch)
1 10oz pkg of white mushrooms, sliced
2 tablespoons of chopped garlic
1/2 cup of sherry or marsala wine
2 tablespoons of butter
3 tablespoons of cooking oil (veg, canola, etc.)
1 cup of chicken broth
8 slices of fresh mozzarella (you could use regular packaged mozzarella or any melting cheese, but the fresh mozzarella really makes a difference)
Salt and pepper to taste

Season the chicken cutlets with salt and pepper and then dredge lightly in flour (not shown).

Pan fry cutlets on medium heat until golden brown and cooked all the way through.  About 4-5 minutes each side.

Drain cooked cutlets on paper towels and set aside.

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in skillet and add the chopped  garlic (not shown.)  Sautee until the garlic softens but do not let it brown.

Add sliced mushrooms, season lightly with salt and pepper (the salt will help to draw out the water in the mushrooms) and cook until softened and the mushrooms begin to brown light around the edges.

Add sherry and chicken broth and bring to a steady simmer.

Add the other tablespoon of butter and let it melt and mix well.  This gives the sauce a smooth and shimmery consistency.

Add the chicken cutlets and heat until warmed through.  Then remove the chicken to a platter.  I served it over rigatoni, so I placed the cooked chicken on the pasta.   Top the chicken with the sliced mozzarella (not shown).

Add spinach leaves to the mushroom gravy.

Cook until the leaves begin to wilt.

Pour the hot mushroom and spinach sauce over the chicken in order to melt the mozzarella.

As I mentioned, I served this over pasta but it would be excellent with rice or roasted potatoes or just with some crusty bread to mop up all the gravy.