Chicken Scallopine With Hazelnut Cream Sauce

Two of my close friends came over a couple weeks ago for good food and girl talk. Sometimes the time can get away from us between work, boyfriends, family, etc., and it's nice when we have a chance to just veg out and catch up. (And you can tell the time got away from me with getting the blog post up in a timely fashion.) We didn't want to deal with a noisy restaurant, and I love to cook anyways, so I invited the girls over for a new chicken dish and some butternut and spaghetti squash.

They brought some bread and cheese (a savory lemon goat cheese), and we snacked on that and pita chips and hummus while the squash roasted. I left the spaghetti squash plain so that could be the healthy part of our meal (although I did see one of my friends pour the cream sauce from the chicken over hers) and filled the cavities in the halved butternut squash with butter and brown sugar. (If I had any maple syrup, I would have poured that in as well.)

When the squash was nearly done, I started on the chicken. I lowered the oven temp to keep the squash warm, and after I sauteed the chicken, I put that in a dish in the oven to keep the squash company. I had toasted my hazelnuts ahead of time to speed things up. I like making recipes that have some do-ahead parts, so I don't have to spend the entire time my friends are visiting in front of the stove. (It also helps to have your chicken flattened and prepared ahead.)

To the pan I sauteed the chicken in, I added shallots, wine, and cream, and finally the hazelnuts. I poured the warm, luscious sauce over the chicken and set everything on the coffee table. We sat around filling our plates and talking about our lives. My friends were impressed with the meal, and it's nice when something that simple can be so fulfilling.

To end our meal, we had two leftover cakes to choose from: the whipped caramel cream one and the chocolate peanut butter ganache one -- and we all had some of both!