ARTICHOKE CHICKEN

TENNESSEE'S SISTER'S ARTICHOKE CHICKEN
4 boneless chicken breasts (7 ounces each - see my comments below)
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup parmesan cheese (4 ounces)
1 clove garlic, minced
Pepper, to taste
14 ounce can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped (8 ounces drained) *

Pound the chicken breasts flat and place them on a rimmed foil-lined baking sheet. Mix the remaining ingredients and spread evenly over the chicken. Bake at 375?15 minutes. Keeping the chicken on the center oven rack, turn on the broiler and broil the chicken about 5-7 minutes until the topping has browned, watching it closely so that it doesn't burn.

Makes 4 servings
Do not freeze

* Don't buy the kind pickled in brine. They should be packed in water. You'll get about 8 ounces of artichokes after draining off the liquid and the counts are based on the actual weight.

Per Serving: 523 Calories; 39g Fat; 36g Protein; 6g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 5g Net Carbs

I have to admit that I changed Tennessee's sister's recipe a bit. I wanted to use chicken breasts instead of boneless, skinless thighs so I had to adjust the baking time a bit. I also added some garlic. In hindsight, I think that thighs probably would have worked better because they can take longer baking. She baked her thighs for 40 minutes which would have given the topping a chance to brown without using the broiler. There would be no way to use breasts and not have them get overcooked by the time the topping got browned enough. My husband really liked this but I thought it was a little bland. I'd never had artichoke hearts before and wasn't terribly impressed with them. They have very little flavor and they're expensive. I think that the topping could have used more parmesan cheese to boost the flavor but the calories are already sky high as it is. The amount of topping was just right for four servings though. Any less would have been skimpy.

If you really love artichoke hearts, this recipe as originally written for chicken thighs got rave reviews at Low Carb Friends so you can pretty much disregard my meager 3-star rating. I would have marked this as suitable for Atkins Induction because the ingredients are all "legal" except that I think there is more sour cream than is allowed. Click the photo to see a close-up.

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