Chicken Piccata

I’ll be absolutely honest. It was the name of this recipe that hooked me, not the easy instructions or the luscious picture of the finished product (to be perfectly un-humble, I think my pic beats out the one on the Tasty Kitchen Blog). Chicken Piccata. Doesn’t it just roll off of your tongue like you’re some worldly, dignified chef who has a mastery of all things? Maybe that’s just my kitchen naïveté showing itself again.

This recipe was not only easy but one that made my kitchen smell great. I got to take out some stress with the pounding of the chicken and the dancing around my kitchen with my flour-filled ziplock bag (see below), and our dinner dishes were practically licked clean at the end.

Ingredients:
Butter
Olive Oil
¼ cups Whole Wheat Flour
2 pieces Chicken Breast
Garlic powder
½ cups Chicken Broth
2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice.
(The original recipe called for garlic cloves, but I only had powder in the house. It also called for capers, which I think would have added in well, but as I said, this recipe was awesome as I made it).

Pound your chicken breasts until they are of uniform thinness. This can be done, of course, with a meat hammer, but as mine apparently ran away from its drawer, the same effect can be reached by putting the chicken inside a gallon sized ziplock bag and pounding away with a can of soup. I highly recommend this on a stressful day.

Next, melt butter and a little olive oil in a large sauté pan. I’ve started eye-balling these things, but it was roughly a tablespoon of butter. Spoon a few tablespoons of flour into the ziplock back with one of the chicken pieces. Shake it or dance around the kitchen with it in your hands (making sure the ziplock is well sealed!). Stop dancing (shaking) once the chicken is well coated.

Then sauté chicken piece in the oil and butter for roughly 3 minutes on both sides. Repeat the dance with your other chicken breast, adding more butter and oil to the pan and more flour to the ziplock. When finished, cover your chicken breasts on a nearby plate.

Add garlic to the remaining butter and oil in the pan, adding more olive oil if necessary. Saute briefly until you can smell the garlic. Add chicken broth, whisking it into the mixture. Again, sauté for about 2 minutes. When the sauce starts to thicken, whisk in a little bit more butter and squeeze in lemon juice. If you had capers, you would also add them here.

Add back in the chicken pieces, and let them heat up in the pan for a few minutes until they are cooked fully. Sprinkle on parmesian, salt, and pepper to taste.

Happy cooking!

-KSP

(Click here for printable recipe)