ENCHANTING CHICKEN—WITHOUT A WAND
The idea of chicken Florentine as a dish made from chicken, spinach, and a cheesy cream sauce appeared in print as early as 1931, when The Lowell (Mass.) Sun breathlessly described Chicken Mornay Florentine as served at the Manhattan restaurant, Divan Parisien: “They make magic passes over spinach, then cover it with breasts of chicken and a Mornay sauce.” In the “Tables for Two” column of The New Yorker, April 25, 1931, the Divan Parisien was described as “a quiet and extremely civilized restaurant with an assorted clientele. . . .” What a shame then, that one of their most popular dishes morphed to a 1960s casserole (made with frozen spinach, margarine, packaged bread crumbs, and condensed soups) and then to wedding banquet fare in the 1970s and ’80s (breasts stuffed with spinach, rolled, fried, and served with a cheesy sauce). We wanted to deconstruct the casserole, unroll the spirals, and return chicken Florentine to its earliest version: a bright, elegant, streamlined sauté with a pan sauce. No magic passes involved.
