Bring 3 cups of the chicken stock to a boil. Reserve the remaining cup for later. While it’s heating up, measure out the polenta or cornmeal. Once the stock is boiling, slowly sprinkle in the polenta or cornmeal, whisking the entire time to avoid clumps forming. Once it’s all added, turn the heat to medium low to create a light simmer and keep whisking for about a minute. Let polenta cook all of the way on medium low to low, making sure it’s lightly bubbling but not creating a mess. No need to cover it. While it cooks, make other components of dish as follows!

Prep the other ingredients. Make sure the garlic is minced, first of all. For the basil, prep it two ways: finely chop until you have about 1 tbsp, and cut another tbsp. or so into thin strips by rolling the basil leaves tightly and cutting down the roll to create thin ribbons. Set that aside for plating at the end. Pull the thyme leaves off of their stems and add about 1 tbsp. of them in with the finely chopped basil. Finally, measure out the sun dried tomatoes and chop down small. Some oil is welcome to come along, too! Put the chopped sun dried tomato in a small dish WITH the minced garlic.

Cut each large chicken breast in half. If any parts of the chicken breast are an inch or more thick, pound down a little bit to make it a bit less thick so it won’t take so long to cook all the way through. 3/4 inch thick is a great benchmark!

In a medium to large skillet, heat up the 2 tbsp. of olive oil over medium high heat. While that heats up, make sure the chicken is dry, and season both sides with salt, pepper, and a dusting of paprika.

When the skillet is hot, add the chicken spaced out. Let brown on both sides: about 3 minutes a side. It won’t be cooked yet, but remove it from the skillet - we’ll add it back in soon!

Turn the skillet down to just a tick below medium. Give it a moment to cool a bit before adding the minced garlic and the sun dried tomatoes. Sauté these together for a couple of minutes until softened and fragrant. Add the remaining cup of stock and bring to a simmer. Once that’s simmering, add the 1/3 cup of heavy cream and stir to combine.

Add the 2 tsp. of corn starch to a small dish and stir in 2 tsp. of water until a milky mixture is formed. Add this to the simmering sauce. Stir until sauce begins to thicken from this mixture. Season lightly with salt and pepper.

Once sauce is lightly simmering all together, add the chicken back in. Let cook on one side for two minutes, then turn the chicken and cook for another two minutes. Repeat this until the chicken is fully cooked, the sauce has flavored it thoroughly and flavors really develop. For appropriately thick chicken, it should take about 3 times of flipping back and forth on each side.

While the chicken cooks, finish the polenta. Once it’s fully cooked (all stock soaked in and it doesn’t taste gritty in texture), turn to low and let sit until the chicken is almost done. To finish it, add 2 tbsp. of heavy cream as well as the cup of asiago cheese. Stir until cheese is melted. Leave on low until serving.

When chicken and sauce are done, serve warm on top of a scoop of polenta and top with the fresh basil ribbons. Plating: I like to serve this one family style. Add all of the polenta to a large serving dish, add chicken on top of that and pour all remaining sauce over the chicken. Top with the fresh basil. Enjoy!