Chicken Florentine with Crispy Rapini

About

Serve your chicken a la florentine style! This dish is inspired by Florence, Italy. Traditional chicken florentine consists of chicken breasts that have been lightly breaded and fried in olive oil. The chicken is served with florentine sauce, which includes flavors of white wine, cream, and a bed of spinach. To make this a complete meal, you’ll enjoy your Keto chicken florentine with a side dish of green rapini. The rapini is sauteed and becomes crispy once you add ground pork rinds to them. Serve this dish with fresh lemon slices to squeeze the juice over everything! You can use this Keto recipe for your meal prepping. The chicken florentine and rapini will stay quality-fresh in your refrigerator for up to 3 days. You can microwave all the meal components together when it’s time to eat.

What Is Rapini?

You may know rapini by its other name: broccoli rabe. They’re one and the same! Rapini is a Mediterranean, leafy green vegetable that looks very similar to broccoli. The heads of rapini look very much like broccoli heads, but the rapini heads are actually small flower buds! Yes, the buds, leaves, and stems of rapini are all edible. However, if you don’t want to eat any blooming rapini buds, you can cut them off. Rapini can be quite bitter, so make sure to always cook it with a lot of salt, butter or olive oil, and lemon juice.

Do I Have To Use Pork Rinds?

If you don’t like pork rinds or don’t want to buy them to use a small amount, you can substitute them with a couple of other options. The best swap for pork rinds would be very fine bacon bits. If you want to avoid pork, grated parmesan cheese or finely chopped pecans could add the crispy element to your rapini. However, keep in mind that pork rinds or bacon would add fat macros to your diet, while parmesan cheese or nuts won’t provide quite as much.

Ingredients

6 oz chicken breast boneless skinless raw
⅛ teaspoon salt
⅛ teaspoon black pepper
⅛ teaspoon onion powder
¼ teaspoon italian seasoning
1 tablespoon paleo baking flour
1 teaspoon olive or extra virgin olive oil
½ teaspoon lemon juice
2 oz spinach
2 teaspoon olive or extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon butter, unsalted
½ teaspoon, chopped garlic
½ teaspoon white wine vinegar
2 tablespoon chicken broth
2 fl oz cream heavy whipping
4 oz broccoli raab, raw
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon olive or extra virgin olive oil
¼ ounce fried pork skins
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Instructions

Arrange a 3-oz chicken breast per serving on a cutting board. If necessary, pound the chicken flat to about ½-inch thick. Pat the chicken breasts dry with a paper towel. Then season the breasts with salt, pepper, onion powder, and Italian seasoning. Spread your flour out on a plate, and lightly dredge the chicken in flour. Make sure to shake off any excess flour before continuing.
Drizzle the first amount of olive oil in a pan and heat over medium-high heat on your stove. Once the oil is hot, transfer the dredged chicken to the pan. Cook the chicken on both sides for about 4 minutes per side, until the outside of the chicken has turned golden brown. When you flip the chicken over to cook the second side, squeeze the lemon juice in the pan to infuse the chicken. Transfer the chicken aside to cool on a serving dish for later.
To make the spinach florentine, chop the spinach and toss it in a large pan or shallow pot with the second amount of olive oil. Cook the spinach over low heat until it fully cooks down. Set this aside for a little later. In another pan or small pot (you can use the pan you cooked your chicken in), melt the butter over low heat and add in garlic and the white wine vinegar. Once the garlic becomes fragrant in the butter, pour in the chicken broth.
Turn the heat up on the chicken broth to a simmer. Pour the cream in, stir to combine, and cover the saucepan with a lid. Let the florentine sauce bubble down for a few minutes until it’s a little thicker. Then, add the cooked spinach to the sauce. Stir the sauce together and let it simmer openly until it reduces and thickens around the spinach. Pour the finished florentine sauce over the chicken breasts.
Now, you can quickly put together the crispy rapini. Fill a pot with water and bring it to a boil on your stove. Cut any long stems away from the rapini, and add the rapini to the boiling water. Let the rapini boil for just 3 minutes or until the stem is al dente. After boiling, drain all the water out of the pot. Let the rapini in the pot and return it to your stove.
Douse the rapini in salt and the final amount of olive oil. Cook the rapini over medium heat until any excess water evaporates and the rapini gains a very light golden edge. Don’t stir the rapini too rapidly so it doesn’t come completely apart. Turn off the stove heat and stir ground pork rinds into the rapini (for reference, ¼ ounce of ground pork rinds is approximately 1 tablespoon). Serve the crispy rapini with the chicken florentine. Squeeze the final amount of lemon juice over the rapini.