The Artichoke Experiment

I have to say that last night’s meal was both frightening and exciting. At least, that’s how I felt before starting to prepare it. Over the weekend, I bought two little artichokes at the local market. I had never used a full artichoke and, honestly, I had no idea what I could do with it, but they were only a dollar each so I figured I didn’t have much to lose. So I browsed FoodGawker and Pinterest and finally found this darling blog, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, & Thyme. Not only is it the cutest blog I’ve seen in a while, but it also had the perfect recipe to try out with the artichokes. Although many suggested to just bake or steam the artichokes with some seasoning and butter (which sounded delicious too), I knew that I would never get my lovely-but-picky husband to scrape the “meat” off the leaves. So the chicken stuffed artichoke recipe seemed perfect. The ingredients were simple and I already have everything I needed at home.

I won’t write the recipe down on this page as I didn’t make enough modifications from the original version. The page also has step by step instructions, which definitely saved my life (and my meal) throughout the entire process. But, really, I just think this blog is super cute and you all need to go take a look at it! So head on to the Chicken Stuffed Artichokes page and see for yourself.

I can tell you what I wish I had done differently, but that was my mistake, not the recipe’s fault. I didn’t realize (until I started eating it) that I used seasoned breadcrumbs that overpowered the flavors of the dish. I don’t know if I’ll be cooking with full artichokes again (at least for a while) but I am really glad I gave it a try. And it’s not because I didn’t like the recipe but just because if was a lot of effort (prepping the artichoke before stuffing it) and the artichokes were so small that there wasn’t much to eat off the leaves. So my future experiment might involve a bigger artichoke or artichoke hearts so I can use it in a dip or a pasta dish instead. We’ll see…