Chicken Piccata - Easy week night dinner!

Chicken Piccata means chicken prick, as in poked with a spear, because of the intense sharp sauce. This recipe I got from Chef John and his Food Wishes blog and Youtube channel. I wanted dinner to be ready by 6:30pm, so I started gathering my ingredients around 5:15pm, and I had dinner out on the table right on time! Of course, if you are making a larger amount or are not as familiar with mise en place (everything in it's place, gathering all your ingredients and being ready to go) it may take a bit longer. Most other recipes I saw showed it would take roughly 40 mins of cook time and 15 mins of prep.

I used 3 roughly 6oz each, boneless, skinless chicken breasts, so I doubled the sauce in Chef Johns recipe, because Chris and I also have a sauce rule: Always double it, because there needs to be extra sauce. This way we can dip bread in it, or use it to reheat leftovers, we would rather have a bit too much sauce than not enough. I gathered the white wine, chicken broth, lemon juice, parsley, capers, seasonings and flour. Next I timed the fat on the chicken and pounded it out almost a quarter inch thick. I used cayenne, salt, pepper and garlic powder to season the chicken generously. Using a paper plate with some flour sprinkled on it, I coated the each piece of chicken, keeping the flour out to sprinkle additional flour as I ran low. Using a paper plate made for easy clean up, and limited the amount of flour so I had less waste.

In a cast iron pan, over medium high heat I put enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan, I let that get hot before placing each piece of chicken away from me (so not to splash myself with hot oil) and it sizzled and bubbled a little, so I know that oil was not to hot, but hot enough. I let the chicken go about 4 minutes per side, flipped about 4 times as my chicken was a bit thick, but I wanted to brown the outside and not burn it. I used a thermometer to ensure the chicken was done, removed it from the pan, and set in the microwave to keep warm.

The capers went into the pan next, I smashed a few to help release some of the flavors, cooked about 30 seconds, and added the white wine to deglaze the pan. The deglaze helps lift off the chicken remnants in the pan, as it will add flavor to the sauce. That cooked about 2 minutes, I looked for the wine to reduce by about half. The butter was already cut into quarter inch pieces and kept it in the fridge so it would stay cold. The lemon juice and chicken broth were added in, then, as I stirred the sauce I added the butter, continuing to stir till all the butter was incorporated, allowing it to emulsify so it wouldn't separate. The parsley was added, then I put the chicken back in and spooned some sauce over top and let that on low for a few minutes while I finished cooking the noodles I had boiling next to it and the asparagus baking in the oven. I pulled everything off and out of the stove and oven, and placed it on the dinner table. Everyone was thrilled!

It was a Wednesday night and I wasn't working, but I still feel like if I would have been home from work around 5 I could have had this on the table by 6:30. You could use other meats as well, I saw Chef John use Salmon, but without the flour coating. This dish could also be served with mashed potatoes or rice instead of the egg noddles I used.

Ingredients:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

All purpose flour as needed

4 Tblsp Olive oil

2 Tblsp of Capers (I used about 3 because we really like capers)

1 c. White wine (I used Chardonnay as that is what I had on hand)

1/2 c. Lemon Juice

1/2 c. water or chicken stock (I used a bouillon cube in hot water)

6 Tblsp cold, unsalted butter (cut in 1/4 in slices, again, I kept this in a bowl, chilled in the fridge till I needed it)

2 Tblsp chopped parsley