Even chefs have leftovers. In fact, Artichoke Hart virtually lives off them. Once Al and the team have finished for the evening, he’ll often skip down to the huge fridge and drag out anything in plastic containers, or covered in surface wrap. This one is made up of a few straggler perogies, a small baggie of pre-cooked chicken, and a quarter roll of polenta. With a couple of salad dressing bottles under his arm, he carried his treasure to the prep table to create a perfect one-person gourmet dinner.

INGREDIENTS

Five or six pieces of pre-cooked chicken (1/2″  slices or squares)
4-5 perogies (type doesn’t matter but this one is potato-filled)
remainder of package of rolled Polenta
1 tbsn sesame seed oil
2 tbsn olive oil
1 cocktail tomatoe
2 tbsn prepared pesto
1 tbn balsamic glaze

METHOD

1. Place sesame oil in small pan and fry up chicken pieces.
2. Simultaneously, add olive oil to another pan and sear perogies.
3. Meanwhile, heat up cast iron pan. Slice polenta rounds–about 1/8″ thick. When pan is very hot, drop slices in.
4. Add perogies into pan with chicken pieces. Add 2 tbsp each of salad dressing (Arthur used Kraft(R) Honey Mustard, and a Presidents Choice(R) Vadalia Onion). Spread all together and let simmer.
5. Flip polenta rounds once slightly browned (about 2 min)
6. chop tomato finelyPlace perogie/chicken mixture on plate. Place polenta rounds on plate, topped with tomato and pesto. Finish presentation with balsamic glaze for dipping.

This and other recipes occasionally pop up in the Artichoke Hart series (available here), or the London Cartwright series (available here). Both chefs are fictional… the dishes are not.