Chicken Breast with Shiitake Mushrooms

Costco had these dried shiitake mushrooms, reasonably cheap.  The obvious thing to do with them was to put them over some chicken:

• 1 skinless boneless chicken breast
• Handful of dried shiitake mushrooms
• white wine
• couple of dashes balsamic vinegar^[1]
• Olive oil, preferably extra-virgin
• 2 cloves garlic, mashed and chopped
• Couple of pinches of Herbes de Provence
• Pepper or other seasoning, to taste

Soak the mushrooms in the wine and balsamic vinegar for 10-20 minutes. ^[2]

Slice the chicken breast in two "the hard way", making two cutlets^[3]. Put in a microwave-safe dish with a tight-fitting lid. Thinly coat with olive oil and add garlic & herbs^[4]. Add some of the wine/balsamic mixture. Spread the mushrooms evenly over the cutlets.

Put the lid on tightly and microwave for 2.5 minutes, or until the cutlets are done.^[5]

Notes

1. If I were doing it again, I'd leave the balsamic vinegar out of the mushroom marinade and put it directly onto the chicken.  Or, perhaps, I'd substitute juice of half a lime.
2. They'll hydrate faster if you microwave them for ~20 seconds. Go easy on this; the idea is to get them warm, not to cook them.
3. This way of slicing chicken breasts is also called "butterflying".  If you want to be fancy, you can cover the breast cutlets with plastic wrap and pound them out to a uniform thickness; I usually don't bother.  I don't have a special chicken-pounding hammer; I use a cast iron skillet.
4. Go easy on the seasonings.  The lid is on tight to keep flavors from escaping; herbs will be a lot stronger than you expect.
5. If I wanted to get fancy and take longer, I'd wrap them in foil or parchment paper and cook in a 375 degree oven for 20 minutes or so instead of microwaving.

Ogg the Caveman's Recipe for Mammoth Stew

Season to taste
Cook until done