Sometimes a recipe can be a bit of a surprise when it turns out to be pretty easy to make and then tastes really too as well. Well, those of you who are already accomplished chefs probably find many things easy that I find difficult but this Lemon Butter Chicken was downright delicious and pretty easy to make. Besides, anytime you can actually use a hammer when cooking it is also a relaxing dish to make!
Unless you consider fresh lemons to be an exotic ingredient, everything in this is pretty straightforward:
- 4 (5 oz) chicken breasts
- Salt and ground black pepper
- 1/3 up all-purpose flour
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 4 tbs butter
- 1 1/2 tsp minced garlic
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 3 Tbs lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp fresh lemon zest
- 1 1/2 Tbs minced parsley
To start off I was able to work out a week's worth of tension by pounding the chicken breasts until they were about 1/3 of an inch thick. I've learned this past year to place the chicken breasts between a couple layers of heavy plastic wrap, it works great. I also now have this cool cooking hammer from my sweetie -- apparently she didn't appreciate me pounding the chicken using her frying pan last time since it ended up with a loose handle...
Once the chicken was the right thickness, I sprinkled both sides with salt and pepper and then dredged them in flour one at a time (pretty fancy word for flopping them around in a plate full of flour until they were coated evenly). The olive oil was heated in a skillet over medium-high heat together with a tablespoon of the butter. If you remember from one of my early posts, Julia taught me that using the combined oil and butter lets the temperature be higher without burning the butter. Another option would be to first clarify the butter to remove the milk solids -- adding the oil is an easier and quicker way to get the same result while also having the butter flavor.
Each of the chicken breasts were seared in the hot pan until golden brown on the bottom and then flipped to brown the other side and finish cooking. The chicken is done when the internal temperature is 165 degrees if you're using a handy meat thermometer. When you're experienced, you can also tell if the chicken is done by pressing on it. Think about how rock hard an overcooked piece of chicken is compared to how soft and mushy a raw piece is -- then cook until its about halfway between the two extremes of firmness. In this case, it ended up taking about 4-5 minutes for each side of the chicken.
When the chicken was done I set it aside on a platter while I concentrated on the sauce. Using the same skillet with any of the leftover oil and butter, I reduced the heat to medium and began adding the sauce ingredients. First the garlic was added and sauteed for about 20 seconds and then I added the chicken broth. With the broth in the pan I was able to scrape up any of the flavorful brown bits from the bottom of the pan and then poured in the lemon juice. This part of making the sauce is always fun as it reduces (by about 1/2 for this sauce) and the steam from the pan and, in this case, filled the kitchen with a wonderful lemony aroma. .
Once the sauce had reduced by about half I added in the fresh lemon zest and remaining butter. Once everything was stirred together and thoroughly mixed it was ready to serve! See, I told you it was easy!
I sliced the cooked chicken breasts and poured sauce over the top. Extra sauce was served in a small bowl to be added as desired. Observation: It must not have tasted too bad because the extra sauce was pretty much used up and we have verrrrrrry few leftovers
The buttery lemon flavor was very tasty -- not overpowering but a very nice lemony flavor. It could be served over pasta or rice but for this particular dinner we ended up serving it together with roasted asparagus, creamed corn, and mashed potatoes. There you have it! Now, go find a hammer and start cooking!
Bon Apetit!
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