Snowed in.
Love the view from our front window this morning? Northern Michigan was blessed with a Winter Storm Warning at 10pm last night; between 6am yesterday and 6am this morning, The Weather Channel says we received a foot of snow. I’m about ready to send our plow guy flowers for the great job they’ve done with our driveway this year.
With all the cold, snowy weather we’ve been having lately, I’ve found myself really craving some citrusy, summery, ‘light’-tasting dishes for dinner (minus this past week when I came down with a wicked chest cold and didn’t really want to eat anything except noodle soup).
As you probably know already, I’m a tad obsessed with the free-range, organic chicken breast that is available at our local organic co-op, so that explains all the chicken dishes we’ve been consuming (and you’ve been reading about) lately. I feel I can truly taste a difference…but then again, maybe that’s just the cold meds talking.
This dish – a favorite from the Giada cookbook that I have – hit the spot dead-on.
Chicken Piccata
adapted from Giada De Laurentiis
- 1 lb. chicken breast, cut into halves
- salt & pepper, to taste
- 2-3 tbsp flour, for coating
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (I supplemented with the bottled since I ran out of lemons!)
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- 1/4 cup capers, drained
- dried parsley
- In a gallon-sized freezer bag, add the chicken breasts and the flour. Toss around to coat the chicken. Shake off the excess flour.
- Heat a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil; wait about 1-2 minutes for the oil to heat up.
- To the skillet, add the chicken. When it starts to brown, turn each piece over. Remove and set aside on a bowl or plate.
- Turn the heat down to low and add the lemon juice, stock, and capers. Bring the mixture to a boil, deglazing the pan as you go. Let it simmer for about 5 minutes.
- Return the chicken breast back to the skillet and simmer for 5 more minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Remove from heat and sprinkle with parsley.
As you can see, we served this with some fresh asparagus, orecchiette pasta, and garlic bread. Overall it is a very easy dish to make – I made it on a Monday evening after going for a run at the gym! It really satisfied that light, citrusy taste that I was looking for.
You can easily substitute veal or pork, if that’s what you’d rather use. I think, however, I’m going to stick with my fancypants organic chicken for now 🙂
The Spicy Simmer 