Recipe of the Week: Chicken Florentine Casserole

This week's recipe comes from All Recipes. It is for Chicken Florentine Casserole. Personally I'd leave out the mushrooms, as my husband and I aren't too fond of the vegetable (except of course as an ingredient in cream of mushroom soup.) I'd also suggest adding angel hair pasta. Users of the All Recipes sites have made some other suggestions about the recipe that you may want to read as well.

Anyway, I don't really eat spinach, but I love Spinach Dip, and one day when I went to each lunch with my mom at her resturant, she was having Chicken Florentine. The item was not something that was on the menu, but she told it could be made quite easily, topping a piece of grilled chicken with spinach dip; it was made even better by mixing some spinach dip with some pasta, and placing the chicken on top. I decided to try it, and I loved it. Last week I decided to search for a spinach dip recipe as well as a recipe for chicken florentine. This was seemed to be one of the easiest and most appetizing of all the ones that I found, so here it is. I hope you like it!

INGREDIENTS
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1/4 cup butter
3 teaspoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1/2 cup half-and-half
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 (13.5 ounce) cans spinach, drained
4 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced
2/3 cup bacon bits
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Place the chicken breast halves on a baking sheet; bake 20 to 30 minutes, until no longer pink and juices run clear. Remove from heat, and set aside.

Increase the oven temperature to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stirring constantly, mix in the garlic, lemon juice, cream of mushroom soup, Italian seasoning, half-and-half, and Parmesan cheese.
Arrange the spinach over the bottom of a 9x9 inch baking dish. Cover the spinach with the mushrooms. Pour half the mixture from the saucepan over the mushrooms. Arrange chicken breasts in the dish, and cover with the remaining sauce mixture. Sprinkle with bacon bits, and top with mozzarella cheese.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes in the 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) oven, until bubbly and lightly browned.