Balsamic Chicken Couscous and Spinach

I followed the recipe in the book, which did differ somewhat from the recipe that is online at the Food Network website.

I pounded the chicken breasts to a 1/2 inch thickness and then cooked them until almost completely cooked. Of course, I also seasoned them before cooking, which the online recipe missed totally (that is pretty poor, Food Network). I removed them from the pan, added some more oil and then the garlic and spinach. Once the spinach was wilted, I removed it from the pan and set aside. Then I added the vinegar, chicken stock and tomatoes to the pan and allowed it to reduce. I also added the chicken back into the sauce while it was reducing to make sure it was cooked through and warm. This probably helped impart some additional flavor into the chicken breasts themselves.

Since I had extra tomatoes from the sauce, I dumped them into the couscous, which I cooked in some homemade chicken stock. I used toasted couscous from the bulk section at Whole Foods, because I could not locate any whole wheat couscous.

This is definitely a quick meal, especially if you have the couscous ready beforehand. Unfortunately for me, anytime I make spinach I have to spend like 10 extra minutes picking the stems off of the leaves. For some reason, husband despises spinach stems and requires his spinach to be stemless. I oblige this because I love him, not because I agree with his ridiculous anti-stem sentiments.

This was a solid meal, but it was not my favorite. I know some people felt the dish was bland, but I actually thought it was pretty tasty. My sauce had just a hint of the tangy balsamic vinegar and I was actually pleased with how garlicky and flavorful my spinach turned out. The couscous was also pretty good and I think that the addition of the extra tomatoes really helped to make it a part of the dish instead of just a starchy after thought on the plate.

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