Welcome to the Blog today. We’re going to be doing some cooking. Recently I did a blog on a table setting and included a picture of the meal we were eating. It showed a cake, which a friend made and brought for dinner, and a main dish of Chicken Piccata. I had some requests for the recipe but had to wait to make it again so I could take some pictures to post. So here it is. My version of Chicken Piccata.
Ingredients
Chicken Breasts, ( I use two large ones for four people) trimmed, fat removed and cut in half horizontally.
1/4 to 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground pepper
1-2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
zest from 1 lemon
Juice from 1 lemon
1 tablespoon capers or more, if you like them.
Take one package of chicken breasts, clean and remove fat. Then cut them in half horizontally so you have four fairly equal pieces of chicken. Using the flat side of a meat mallet, pound the chicken to about 1/4 inch in thickness. If you don’t have a meat mallet, you can use a rolling pin. Hand your meat mallet to someone who needs to release a little tension. It works great.
Zest and juice one lemon. Set aside zest and juice for later.
Take a 1 gallon size plastic bag and add 1/4 to 1/3 cup flour to the bag. Add 1 teaspoon salt and one teaspoon pepper to the bag with the flour. Shake gently to distribute salt and pepper. Add chicken to the bag. Seal the bag and toss until all sides of the chicken are covered in flour. Set aside.
Over medium to medium-high heat add olive oil and butter to a pan large enough to accommodate all four pieces of chicken.
When oil and butter are sizzling add flour-coated chicken to the pan. Allow to cook without disturbing the chicken until you can see that the sides of the chicken are getting done. Chicken should move easily in the pan without sticking when it is ready to turn to the other side, 5-8 minutes. Flip the chicken to the other side and cook about the same amount of time. Chicken should move easily in the pan when it is browned. You may have to turn down the heat a bit on the second side to prevent too much browning. Chicken is done at 165 degrees.
Transfer the chicken from the pan to a plate. Turn the heat down to medium.
Add the lemon juice, lemon zest and capers to the pan. Using a wooden spoon get all the browned bits loosened from the bottom of the pan and incorporated into the sauce. Sometimes I add a couple of tablespoons of white wine to the sauce as well.
Pour the sauce over the chicken and serve. The sauce is very quick so you don’t have to keep the chicken in the oven to keep it hot. As you can see, we like lots of capers.
This is a quick, easy recipe that tastes great. Hope you give it a try. Enjoy!