Recipe: Chicken with Pears, Spinach and Blue Cheese

I don't spend my days thinking about pears.  Well, there was that poached pear with chocolate sauce on the cruise ship that one time.  Since pears come into season in the fall the good people at Cooking Light educated me (read here for your own education).   As they say, knowledge is power.    When I was at the store I decided I'd use my new found education and buy a pear different than the standard Anjou.   I bought a few Comice pears - both for this recipe and for snacking.   This is a great recipe for a weeknight, it took less than a half an hour and was a great accompaniment to the Sing Off. 

The original recipe came from Whole Foods.

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 medium white onion, diced
1 small shallot sliced (not in the original recipe, but I like them, so why not?)
4 to 6 cups spinach (in defiance I used baby spinach, again because that's what I like)
2 tablespoons apple cider
2 ripe pears sliced
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
blue cheese crumbles to taste

Preheat oven to 375.  Generously season each chicken breast with salt and pepper.   In a large skilled heat 1 tablespoon oil and sear breasts 2 to 3 minutes on each side until lightly golden.   Using a medium to large baking pan (I used my standard 13x9 with cooking spray) bake chicken in the oven until cooked through, about 15 minutes.

While chicken is cooking, heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large pan over medium heat and saute onion and shallot until just softened, 2 to 3 minutes.   Add spinach and toss until wilted.  Season with salt and pepper and transfer to the plates.   Wipe out pan and heat remaining tablespoon oil with cider.   Add pears and gently heat until warm.  Stir in parsley.  Arrange cooked chicken on spinach.  Top with warmed pear slices and blue cheese crumbles (the original recipe called for 2 tablespoons per breast, I just sprinkled it on, but I'm pretty sure that it wasn't anywhere near that).    Enjoy while watching a capella singers.  

Happy Wine Choice:  I admit, I was sucked in by the smiley face on the bottle.  Project Happiness Syrah

And in case you didn't know....I want your sole!  This October (and early November) I'm participating in the Soles 4 Souls Flippin' Good Deeds Challenge. For more information about the challenge and how you (wherever you are) and your shoes can get involved to help others, please click here. Bottom line, it's encouraging bloggers and their readers to donate their used shoes for a good cause.  If you've got a few pairs of shoes, you can ship them here or drop them off here.   To make sure that I get credit for the challenge, please email this form directly to Soles 4 Souls.   That being said, I am going to try and incorporate shoes in every post I do this month. So here goes....


Coming home straight from Zumba at the gym, I was rockin' my gym shoes while I was making this recipe for dinner.