Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Lemon Caper Chicken: Picatta Without the Pounding

Because really, who wouldn't prefer a juicy chicken breast over a pounded-flat cutlet?

I have never really understood the point of pounding a perfectly good cut of meat into a flattened piece of jerky. Sure, it will cook in 2-3 minutes per side, but it's a FLAT PIECE OF MEAT! You have literally beaten the plumpness and juiciness out of it. Really, no thank you.
Keep your schnitzel to yourself.
So for this I pat two boneless skinless chicken breasts dry (always important) and then seasoned them with salt, ground savory, and a little sweet paprika. I then dusted them with flour. (Really, it's much tastier to season them before the flour, rather than seasoning your flour. You need SO MUCH MORE seasoning if you're mixing it with the flour...) Cook in olive oil until opaque all the way through. 
These were rather small chicken breasts, so they only took about 6 minutes on the first side and 4 1/2 on the second.

Once you have removed the chicken breasts to rest it is time for the sauce.
Add another glug or two of olive oil to your pan and add 1 diced shallot. Cook until translucent.
Then add 1-2 cloves of garlic, minced/grated, maybe a teaspoon of flour, and cook an additional 30 seconds to bring it all together.
Next add 1/4 cup white wine, 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice, and roughly 1/4 cup of chicken stock.
Add salt to season, about a teaspoon of fresh chopped thyme, and roughly 2 TBSP of drained capers.

Bring this mixture to a simmer and reduce down to a thick, velvety sauce. (Optional finishing touch of a pat of butter to make the sauce extra indulgent.)
It should be a bit salty from the capers, a bit bright from the lemon, and a bit rich from the wine and stock.

I served mine with some pan-roasted carrots (just searched my site for the recipe and did not find it... apparently I need to work on that!) and a leek and white bean purée.
It was delicious.

Also, it was fairly quick cooking, which is a good thing to consider when the weather has been as close, muggy, humid, and downright pouring-rain wet as it has been in NYC the last few days.
And guess what?
There's ANOTHER tornado watch in effect for this evening!
WTF weather patterns?
The East Coast gets hurricanes.
The middle of the country gets tornados.
The West Coast gets earthquakes, brush fires, and mudslides.
Quit messing with the system!
Fingers crossed my next post does not come to you from Kansas.

1 comment:

Chuck said...

I am printing this post and hitting that for sure! Sounds uber tasty.