Sunday, September 12, 2010

Sandra's Chicken Piccata


 I went to my friend Sandra's for dinner a few months ago and she told me she was serving chicken piccata.  I must have looked puzzled because my face totally gave away that I had NO clue what that was.  She seriously said "You've never heard of chicken piccata? where are you from?" lol. My reply was I did not eat a lot of Italian food in San Diego because as some of you know if you live in San Diego you pretty much eat a lot of Mexican food. My Italian food consisted of Buca di Beppo & Olive Garden and even then, I never remember seeing a "chicken piccata".  It is by far the best chicken dish...ever! I fell in love at first bite.  I love cooking but I can honestly say Italian food is not a cuisine I cook often.  I figured I'd attempt to make it as good as hers and asked for the recipe.  I was also risking my husband to throw a fit and push his plate aside.  He hates lemony chicken and let alone things he's never heard of or tasted.  capers? yeah ok. I was sure as soon as he saw those he'd think they we're peas and it would ruin the whole meal for him. I figured I would just put them in and pray he didn't ask what they we're.  For those of you who don't know, Mike is kind of like a child in the sense you can trick him and he wouldn't know the difference.  Ha Ha does that mean I trick him often? of course not. Does that mean when I serve a meal I somewhat leave out what's actually in it? Of course it DOES! 5 years ago I made a watermelon koolaid which was pink in color and he said "Ugh that better not be watermelon, I hate watermelon." and I replied "No it's strawberry kiwi." he took one sip and said "mMm this is good." I smurked to myself and let him drink the "strawberry kiwi" that whole week. At the end of the week he asked "do we have more strawberry kiwi?" I said "No, but we have watermelon." He then proceeded to say "I told you, I don't like watermelon!!"  Imagine how happy I was inside. :) I told him "Well apparently you DO because you drank the whole damn jar!!" The oven timer rang and I could smell that delectable smell all throughout the kitchen. I served up our plates and I didn't say a word about what was in them. He took one bite and excuse my language, said "This is fucking WICKED good."  Holy crap.... did my husband seriously just like a lemony chicken dish? with capers none the less??  I knew this recipe was a keeper and he is requesting it as a weekly rotation. I think I will serve this to our guests and in laws when they come over. It is that good!  Thank you Sandra for sharing your delicious recipe!! I hope you guys Enjoy it as well! but I know you will.  I followed the recipe exactly except I used 1/2 cup white wine because I didn't want a super strong wine flavor, but it wasn't strong at all and probably would've been fine using the whole 3/4 cup.

Chicken Piccata
Servngs - 2-3 people

2-3 boneless chicken breasts
2-3 Eggs - beated
Flour mixed with salt and pepper (enough to coat chicken)
3/4 cup white wine (preferably Pinot Grigio or any decent white drinking wine)
3/4 cup chicken broth
Juice from ½ of a lemon
½ cup Capers
1 stick of butter
3 tbsp. of any frying oil
Grated whole milk mozzarella cheese


 DIRECTIONS:
Slice chicken into cutlets and pound until thin.

Add 1 tbsp of butter and 2 tbsp of oil into warm frying pan

Coat chicken in flour mixture, then dip both sides into beated eggs

Add battered chicken to pan browning on both sides and adding remainder of frying oil and butter as needed to fry all of the chicken pieces. (Do not use all the butter just add ½ tbsp at a time as needed and keep the remainder of the butter aside) I cooked them for 2 minutes each side because they're already super thin so they cook up fast.

Once all chicken is fried set aside in a baking dish.
 Set oven to 300 degrees.
Do not clean frying pan. Add white wine to pan to deglaze scrapping all the brown pieces into the pan for flavor.

Once wine bubbles add remainder of butter, lemon juice, chicken broth and capers to pan. Let saute for 5-7 minutes.

Depending on how much chicken you made, you may want to add a little broth, butter, lemon juice, wine for the desired amount of sauce…just keep tasting it…you should taste all of the ingredients evenly.. Capers, make it salty so if it needs salt just add extra capers instead of salt.
Lay chicken flat in baking dish, poor sauce over chicken, add a little mozzarella cheese to each piece and bake in the oven on 300 for 10-12 minutes, (just enough time to melt the cheese but not dry out the chicken.)
Bon Appetit! I wouldn't change a thing with this recipe, it is delicious as is. :)

1 comment:

Sandra said...

You did a GREAT job. The dish looks yummy. Glad it is a keeper... hope you enjoy it for years to come. :)
- Sandra