Shredded Chicken with Sage and Polenta

This simple recipe for shredded chicken with sage and polenta is not only a flavorful comfort food supper, its a great way to use up leftover chicken. Tender chicken nestled in a bed of cheesy polenta in a delicious sage butter sauce – now that’s a winner, winner, chicken dinner!

Oh my friends, this has been a week.  It’s been the best of times and the worst of times, and while I promise I will get to the recipe for shredded chicken with sage and polenta (and if you want, you can hit that handy Jump To Recipe on the top left), here’s a summary of my saga.

First the worst of times.  The Southern daughter was all set to come up last Saturday to spend Father’s Day with her dad.  It was a beautiful day in North Carolina where she lives, it was a beautiful day in New Jersey where we live, her flight was in the middle of the day on a weekend…what could go wrong?

THIS.  This could go wrong.  581 minutes = just under ten hours late.  And of course by the time we heard that her plane had turned around and gone back to its gate, we were already at the airport.  We valiantly waited for a few hours and then we went home.  And then we went back.

We finally got her in our possession at about 12 midnight instead of 2:30pm, but at least we got her…and even though we were all pretty sleepy, the next day we got up and celebrated Father’s Day with a little Harry Potter on Broadway.

And OH MY GOODNESS.  The show is actually two shows – the first part is a matinee and the second part is an evening show.  And if you are considering going to see it, it is amazing.  The special effects, the acting, the whole extravaganza.  And I highly recommend springing for the extra bucks to get into the gorgeous Ambassador’s Lounge at the theater.

You get a whole bevy of snacks, your own entrance, your own BATHROOM, cocktails, and super friendly hosts that let you know when to get up from your cozy table so you don’t miss the start of whatever part of the show you are at.

Now that I have gotten all that off my chest, let’s talk creamy dreamy polenta with a buttery, sage-infused topping of tender chicken!

Here’s how you make Shredded Chicken with Sage and Polenta!

You start by making the polenta, which is basically cornmeal with water and a little salt.  (Or as the Southern husband likes to call it, fancy grits.)  Depending on your cornmeal, it’s going to take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes to turn from cornmeal into creamy thick polenta.

Once that magic happens, stir in a little butter and some fontina cheese until the cheese is all melty.  Yep.

While the polenta is cooking, melt a little more butter in a skillet and add first some chopped fresh sage and then some cooked shredded chicken, and stir until the chicken  is heated through.  All that’s left that this point is the assembly, which goes like this:

Ladle a puddle of polenta onto each plate.  Top with the buttery sage chicken mixture.  Drizzle whatever leftover butter you have in the skillet on top.  Hand out forks.

And we all lived happily ever after!

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