D: I was given free reign to choose the recipe (largely because Steph was busy this weekend), so, wanting to get into the Alton cookbook, I chose that. We’re going with Chicken Picatta, since it sounded freakin delicious. Breaded chicken in a wine and mushroom sauce, how can you go wrong?
Ingredients:##
- 3 oz white wine
- 4 oz chicken broth
- 1 lemon, sliced into 8 wafer-thin slices
- 1/2 lemon, juiced (1 1/2TBsp juice)
- 8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- 2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper, more for serving
- 1 C AP flour
- 3 TBsp unsalted butter (we used closer to 4.5)
- 2 TBsp olive oil
- 8 oz white button mushrooms, sliced
- 3 TBsp capers, drained but not rinsed
- 2 TBsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
Directions:##
- Combine the white wine, broth, and lemon juice, set aside
- Season the thighs with 1tsp of salt & pepper
- Place the flour in a large freezer bag (or a few)
- Seal and shake to coat, open partially and flatten with a meat mallet until it’s approximately 1/4in thickened, remote and plate, repeating with the others
- Place a large straight-sided frying pan (with a lid) on high heat for 1 minute
- Add 1TBsp each of butter and olive oil, let heat through, and add 4 of the thighs; cook for 90 seconds, then flip and cook for 90
- Remove the chicken from the pan, add another 1 TBsp of oil and butter, cook the remaining 4
- Remove the chicken, add mushrooms and tsp salt, stir for 2 minutes until golden (we added another TBsp of butter and olive oil here, as our pan was dry)
- Push mushrooms to the outside of the pan, cook the capers in the middle for ~ a minute
- Add the chicken back to the pan, reduce the heat to low, distribute the lemon slices across the tops of the chicken and add the broth mixture
- Cover the pan with a lid and let it braise for 5-7 minutes until tender
- Remove the chicken, discarding the lemon, to a plate; crank the heat until high and add the remaining butter
- Boil gently, stirring constantly until it reaches sauce consistency (I added a tbsp or so of flour since ours was a bit runny and I’m impatient)
- Pour the sauce over the chicken (including mushrooms and capers of course), add some more pepper and top with parsley
Verdict:##
D: Tender, moist and delicious. We did add some extra butter and a little flour to help the sauce come along. Great, I’ll definitely be making it again. It would be a good recipe to knock out when people come over; super cheap since it uses chicken thighs (good god Chicken Breasts are expensive these days) and tastes great. I’d highly recommend it, would very much make it again. A note that we added roasted carrots as a side, since the recipe is only for the chicken portion of the meal.