Spago's - Canadian Restaurant

This was really fun- we drove to Canada to get some mussels from this restaurant, all the while Anna kept telling us that it was the chicken that she liked the best. The mussels were fabulous....especially the ones in the red sauce but Anna said that the sauce wasn't right; just a little too thick. The flavor was fabulous though!
But the chicken was a whole 'nother story!! I never order chicken in a restaurant. It just never works because most chefs over cook chicken....it's just the way of the world. But Anna was insistent that we try it. When we arrived at the restaurant Marc discreetly pointed out the head chef. A red-headed woman with a slight build running the coal-fired stove in the back of the dining area. After the mussels, bread and pizza - all of which was very good, the chicken arrived. It looked like a good chicken Parmesan with mushrooms to the untrained eye but it was so much more! We took one bite and Gary and I began to moan! It was incredible. Probably the best chicken I've very eaten out!! About half way through I talked Gary into going to talk to the chef to see if he could get any information out of her.... He got the technique for cooking the chicken but not the sauce. Marc talked me into going up there with Anna to see if we could get any information about the sauce. We took pictures with her Anna spoke Italian with her the whole time. She found out that Chet's husband was from the same area in Italy as where Anna was born. Chef never gave out the recipe for the sauce. In fact she didn't tell the whole truth about it in the midst of the conversation- it was obviously a guarded secret. Anna and Marc explained that this was a common occurrence within the Italian community. Many people don't share their recipes, even with close relatives. They told us a story about a good friend whose mother never gave her own daughter a recipe and for years the daughter kept trying to make the product without success. She finally realized years late that the mother had withheld some ingredients ON PURPOSE!! Wow!! The mother was scamming her own daughter for years so that her version of the recipe tasted better. So the red-headed chef lied to us to protect her incredible chicken recipe....I can totally understand why!
Anna gave me some Panna (cooked cream) and I'm going to attempt to make it when I get home.

Maybe I'm just a little too cocky but I just dont think the recipe was that difficult. Until I get home here is the Red-headed Chef's chicken recipe without tweaking:

8 oz.Panna
3 T. Butter
1 cup chicken broth
2 tsp. tomato paste
2 chicken breasts
Italian bread crumbs
Flour
2 Eggs, beaten
1 cup fresh, sliced button mushrooms
Mix the bread crumbs and flour together. Dip the chicken breasts in the egg wash and then the bread crumbs. Fry quickly in heated EVOO on both sides and finish cooking in the oven. Meanwhile, make the sauce by melting the butter and spooning in the tomatoe sauce (I may need to use a little flour at this point- whisked in and cooked for just a minute or two). Pou in the chicken broth, stir and cook the sauce until thickened. Add in the mushrooms and allow them to cook but not too long. (You don't want the moisture from the mushrooms to make the sauce too thin.) Pour the Panna into the sauce and stir until warm. Plate the chicken and pour the sauce on top. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and serve immediately. We'll see if this doesn't work but I think I'm close!