Since our ill-fated trip to The Villa Restaurant a couple of weeks ago I've been craving chicken piccata. REAL chicken piccata. Not the crud they served that was made with salt and balsamic vinegar. I wanted lemon juice and white wine and capers. As luck would have it, we ran errands Sunday afternoon and one of the magazines I got through while we were driving around was another old Cuisine at Home. Unbelievable. There was a recipe for chicken piccata. I didn't even have to hunt for one. I also found a great recipe for glazed potatoes in the latest edition of Everyday Food. Those would be perfect along with some asparagus.
Actually, I'd planned on making one of the recipes I found from my Secret Recipe Club blog but it took too long so asparagus was the substitute. If you want to see the Secret Recipe Club post, please check back next Monday :-)
By the time we'd spent about five hours in the office, then took leftovers over to Mom, bought some seeds at The Garden Center, trudged through Sam's Club and picked up the last few items at Marsh, it was well after 5 pm. I still needed to spend a couple of hours finishing a financial plan for next week. And, prepping for a couple more reviews. Yup, it was about 7:30 by the time I finally headed to the kitchen to fix dinner. i was pretty darned glad it was a relatively quick and easy meal.
What did we think? This made up for the horrid dinner two weeks ago. The chicken was moist and tender and very flavorful. The potatoes were great. Just a hint of sweetness and very tender. And, the asparagus made a perfect dipstick for the last of the piccata sauce. Best of all? We had leftovers for lunch!
Chicken Piccata
Ingredients:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 c flour
2 T olive oil
1 t garlic, finely minced
1/4 c white wine
1/2 c chicken broth
2 T lemon juice
2 sliced lemons
1-2 T capers
2 T butter
1/4 c chopped fresh parsley
Directions:
Cut the chicken breasts into cutlets. I actually cut them into cutlets (cutting the breast into half so you have two very thin cutlets) then cut those in half. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Dust the chicken with flour.
When the oil is shimmering, add the chicken to the skillet. Saute until it's a bit brown then turn.
Remove the chicken from the pan and add the garlic. Deglaze with the white wine. Once the wine has almost cooked away and the garlic is browned,
add the chicken broth, lemon juice, capers and lemon slices.
At this point, I thickened the sauce with a bit of cornstarch mixed with chicken broth. Add the butter and melt it into the sauce. Add the cutlets and pour the sauce over them. Sprinkle with chopped fresh parsley.
adapted from Cuisine at Home
Glazed Fingerling Potatoes
Ingredients:
1 lb small fingerling potatoes
2 T unsalted butter
1 1/2 c water
salt and pepper
3 T honey
2 T cider vinegar
1 T butter
1 t fresh thyme leaves
Directions:
Use a skillet for this dish. Combine the potatoes, two tablespoons of butter, the water, salt and pepper in a medium skillet. Make sure the potatoes are in one layer. Cook the potatoes until they're tender. It'll take about 15 minutes. Once the potatoes are fork tender, increase the heat to boil off most of the water. Once the water has pretty much evaporated, add the honey, vinegar, one tablespoon of butter and thyme.
Continue to cook until a glaze has formed. Remove from the heat and allow the potatoes to cool for a couple of minutes prior to serving.
adapted from Everyday Food
