Thursday, January 04, 2007

Tarty Yummy Lemony Goodness

I was a wee bit suprised tonight when I went to Giant to get leeks for dinner. HA...no I wasn't. Giant not having a critical ingredient for my planned dinner. But all is well, I had a back-up in my mind. No Chicken with Leeks, but yes to Chicken Piccata.

The chicken piccata is pretty darn easy to make. A few ingredients and you'll be down in about 10 minutes. You do want to make sure all your ingredients are prepped in advance, because once you get started, this does move along pretty quick.

Chicken Piccata

2-3 TB olive oil
4 thin chicken cutlets
1/3 cup flour
salt/pepper
1 shallot, finely diced
1 cup chicken broth
juice of one lemon
2 tsp capers, rinsed
1 TB chopped parsley
2-3 TB unsalted butter

Rice for serving...from you brand new rice maker!!! (love it!) Noodles are good as well, but I actually prefer this with rice.

Have all your ingredients prepared in advance. And have your rice cooker cooking your rice!

1). In a medium skillet, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. When the oil is hot, season the chicken with salt & pepper and then lightly coat with flour. Shake to remove excess. Carefully lay the chicken in the hot pan. Cook until golden brown and delicious on both sides!

G.B.&D! You flour the chicken to help the browning process and the little bits of flour that come off in the cooking will help the sauce thicken a touch later one.

2) When the chicken is done, remove to a plate. Toss the shallots into the pan and allow to soften, about 1 minute. Deglaze the pan with chicken broth. Scrape up all the bits in the pan. Turn the heat to high. Allow to reduce by 1/2.

Shallots smell so good when cooking!

3) When the broth has reduced by half, add the lemon juice, capers and 3/4's of the chopped parsley. Allow this to reduced by 1/2. Remove from the heat and swirl the butter into the sauce.

Give a quick taste at this point. See if you need any extra salt/pepper. The capers are generally plenty salty.

4) Plate up. Spoon the sauce over the chicken and the rice. Garnish with the remaining parsley.

Yum!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

A piccata is a joy forever. Is there anything better than chicken piccata? Well, maybe veal piccata...

Anonymous said...

Mmmm... Capers!! Nearly everything is better with capers! :)

Anonymous said...

Oh yay! You got a rice cooker! Best invention ever! :)