Weeknight Dinner: Chicken Sautés
Since its inception, one of the cornerstone features at Urban Home Blog has been Weeknight Dinner. More than any other feature, Weeknight Dinner exemplifies the original intent of this blog that has blossomed to encompass more than I could have imagined at the launch: to write about homekeeping from the perspective of a city home, addressing the challenges and pleasures of creating a home in an urban environment. That is still the core mission of the blog, but if I have learned anything over the last seven years and counting, it is that, while there are aspects of homekeeping that are specific to an urban environment as there are to any location we make a home, overall, the commonalities of homekeeping far outweigh the specifics of locale.
I was a young urban professional faced with the reality of twelve hour workdays (plus train time) and from that corruption of time was born the idea of a feature, based on my own very real experiences, about making a good home cooked dinner on those nights when one has the luxury of a bit of time to do so, without consuming all of the free time and as a reward for all of the nights of take out cartons, leftover containers, and cereal bowls. I developed every Weeknight Dinner recipe in just exactly those circumstances.
For every night or string of nights we ate on the run, while I worked in Corporate America and John went to medical school followed by the punishing upside-down schedule of a medical professional, on nights when we were together, we wanted to celebrate that occurrence in and of itself. A good drink, a simple, well-prepared meal -- of all of the shared experiences of marriage, not all of them positive, these are among the richest, the most bonding, the most cumulative. At each weeknight dinner we had, we got to know each other anew, release the challenges that had built up prior, recalibrate for the next wave of activity.
As of this column, in Urban Home Blog alone, I have published about 250 recipes. Among the most popular of these are Weeknight Dinner, doubly so if you count the side dish recipes to accompany your weeknight dinner. A good weeknight dinner is simple without being boring, easy to prepare but with enough effort involved to focus the cook (or cooks) on the profound grounding and centering of the act of preparing, serving, and sharing a meal.
Weeknight dinner should be something of a treat, either as a bit of a splurge or as a meal that harkens to a tradition or culture. We have weeknight steak dinners and weeknight pasta feeds, and weeknight dinners from Native American, Chinese American, French and California cooking, to name a few. Weeknight dinner is aligned with the seasons, and one of the delights of weeknight dinner is having traditions around seasonal cooking. Even in sunny SoCal, every January we settle in for a dinner of wintry New England Clam Chowder with cream cheese and chive biscuits; every autumn, cider-braised chicken with roasted root vegetables.
Moreover, weeknight dinner teaches, expands, and solidifies a cook's repertoire of techniques and recipes. We have weeknight dinners that teach how to make a ragout and weeknight dinners that teach how to compose a main dish salad. This month's Weeknight Dinner teaches one of the most basic, and important, skills in the home cook's vocabulary of them - sautéing chicken breasts -- and utilizes that skill to prepare and serve three classic chicken sautés.
Boneless chicken breasts are a staple of weeknight dinner. That makes sense: they are low fat and high protein, relatively inexpensive, and can be prepared quickly. But almost any cook will tell you that boneless chicken breasts are a challenge to cook well, for their lack of fat and bone renders them all but tasteless, and contributes to a dry texture if mishandled. The challenge with boneless chicken breasts is preparing a dish that is simple to master and appetizing to eat. Luckily, that challenge has been met in chicken sauté, in which boneless chicken breast cutlets are flash-sautéed in hot oil and served with a simple, flavorful sauce.
Here is the master technique for sautéing boneless chicken breast cutlets, along with three recipes to serve for a satisfying go-to weeknight dinner. Serve these sautés with rice pilaf or pasta tossed with hot olive oil and garlic, and a nice salad. They will all agree with a nice glass of wine or a well-deserved cocktail.
Chicken Sautés
Try to get cruelty-free, organic boneless chicken breast cutlets. Not only should that support humane animal farming methods, but the meat will be more flavorful. Look for chicken breasts that are flesh colored while displaying no gray, yellow or excessive red discoloration or any off odor. This recipe serves two; it can be doubled.
For the chicken
I was a young urban professional faced with the reality of twelve hour workdays (plus train time) and from that corruption of time was born the idea of a feature, based on my own very real experiences, about making a good home cooked dinner on those nights when one has the luxury of a bit of time to do so, without consuming all of the free time and as a reward for all of the nights of take out cartons, leftover containers, and cereal bowls. I developed every Weeknight Dinner recipe in just exactly those circumstances.
For every night or string of nights we ate on the run, while I worked in Corporate America and John went to medical school followed by the punishing upside-down schedule of a medical professional, on nights when we were together, we wanted to celebrate that occurrence in and of itself. A good drink, a simple, well-prepared meal -- of all of the shared experiences of marriage, not all of them positive, these are among the richest, the most bonding, the most cumulative. At each weeknight dinner we had, we got to know each other anew, release the challenges that had built up prior, recalibrate for the next wave of activity.
As of this column, in Urban Home Blog alone, I have published about 250 recipes. Among the most popular of these are Weeknight Dinner, doubly so if you count the side dish recipes to accompany your weeknight dinner. A good weeknight dinner is simple without being boring, easy to prepare but with enough effort involved to focus the cook (or cooks) on the profound grounding and centering of the act of preparing, serving, and sharing a meal.
Weeknight dinner should be something of a treat, either as a bit of a splurge or as a meal that harkens to a tradition or culture. We have weeknight steak dinners and weeknight pasta feeds, and weeknight dinners from Native American, Chinese American, French and California cooking, to name a few. Weeknight dinner is aligned with the seasons, and one of the delights of weeknight dinner is having traditions around seasonal cooking. Even in sunny SoCal, every January we settle in for a dinner of wintry New England Clam Chowder with cream cheese and chive biscuits; every autumn, cider-braised chicken with roasted root vegetables.
Moreover, weeknight dinner teaches, expands, and solidifies a cook's repertoire of techniques and recipes. We have weeknight dinners that teach how to make a ragout and weeknight dinners that teach how to compose a main dish salad. This month's Weeknight Dinner teaches one of the most basic, and important, skills in the home cook's vocabulary of them - sautéing chicken breasts -- and utilizes that skill to prepare and serve three classic chicken sautés.
Boneless chicken breasts are a staple of weeknight dinner. That makes sense: they are low fat and high protein, relatively inexpensive, and can be prepared quickly. But almost any cook will tell you that boneless chicken breasts are a challenge to cook well, for their lack of fat and bone renders them all but tasteless, and contributes to a dry texture if mishandled. The challenge with boneless chicken breasts is preparing a dish that is simple to master and appetizing to eat. Luckily, that challenge has been met in chicken sauté, in which boneless chicken breast cutlets are flash-sautéed in hot oil and served with a simple, flavorful sauce.
Here is the master technique for sautéing boneless chicken breast cutlets, along with three recipes to serve for a satisfying go-to weeknight dinner. Serve these sautés with rice pilaf or pasta tossed with hot olive oil and garlic, and a nice salad. They will all agree with a nice glass of wine or a well-deserved cocktail.
Chicken Sautés
Try to get cruelty-free, organic boneless chicken breast cutlets. Not only should that support humane animal farming methods, but the meat will be more flavorful. Look for chicken breasts that are flesh colored while displaying no gray, yellow or excessive red discoloration or any off odor. This recipe serves two; it can be doubled.
For the chicken
2 boneless chicken breast cutlets, approximately 1 pound total weight
1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 tablespoons cake flour
1 teaspoon table salt
Several grinding fresh black pepper
Extra-virgin olive oil
Prepare the chicken cutlets
- Safely use a sharp paring knife to remove any skin, flecks of bone or cartilage, or deep red or gray discoloration from the chicken cutlets. If warranted, trim so that you have two chicken cutlets of equal size and thickness.
- Mix the flours, salt and several grindings of fresh black pepper in a pie plate. If additional seasonings are called for (see below), mix those into the flour mixture.
- Working one at a time, dredge both sides of each chicken cutlet in the flour mixture. Turn the cutlet several times, moving it in different directions, to coat it with as much of the flour mixture as you can. Place the floured chicken cutlets on a heat-proof plate.
- Place a sauté pan large enough to hold both chicken cutlets on the burner. Turn the burner to medium high.
- Drizzle the pan with a five count of extra-virgin olive oil.
- Once the oil is shimmering, use tongs to place the chicken cutlets in the hot oil. Work carefully to avoid splattering. Safely and gently shake the pan to ensure that the chicken cutlets are not stuck to the bottom of the pan; use the tongs to gently loosen them if they are.
- Cover the pan with a splatter screen and cook the cutlets, safely and gently shaking the pan occasionally, until cooked through and golden, approximately 4 - 6 minutes per side.
- Add a one or two-count of extra-virgin olive oil to the pan if the pan runs dry.
- Once the chicken cutlets are crispy and golden, use the tongs to gently remove them from the hot oil. Place the cutlets on the heat-proof plate and tent with aluminum foil to keep warm while you make the sauce.
Make the sauce
- Once you have removed the cutlets from the sauté pan, turn the heat to medium. It is okay if some flour mixture remains in the pan. Add a two-count of extra-virgin olive oil to the pan if the pan is running dry.
- Add the garlic / shallots to the pan if using. Sauté in the hot oil until soft and fragrant, approximately 1 minute.
- Add 1/2 tablespoon flour mixture to the pan. Use a wooden spoon or silicon spatula to stir the flour mixture until it is toasty, approximately 1 minute. It is okay if the other ingredients in the pan stick to the toasted flour.
- Turn the heat to low.
- Gently pour the liquid ingredients into the pan. Use the wooden spoon or silicon spatula to stir the sauce ingredients together, including scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan.
- Add finishing ingredients if any to the mixture in the pan. Cook the sauce until slightly thickened and very fragrant, approximately 2 minutes.
Serve the sauté
- Plate the sautéed chicken cutlets and stir any accumulated juices into the pan sauce.
- Add finishing ingredients if any to the plate.
- Gently spoon the pan sauce over the chicken cutlets.
- Serve immediately.
Chicken Saltimbocca
- Add 1 tablespoon dried rubbed sage to the flour mixture before dredging the chicken cutlets. Before adding to the hot olive oil, wrap each floured chicken breast in 1 - 2 pieces Prosciutto di Parma.
- Sauté: 1 small shallot, minced, per sauce step 2 above
- Liquid: 1/2 cup dry vermouth, 1/2 cup chicken stock
- Finishing ingredient: 1 pat unsalted butter
Chicken Piccata
- Add 1 teaspoon ground dried thyme to the flour mixture before dredging the chicken cutlets.
- Sauté: 1 small shallot and 1 clove garlic, minced, per sauce step 2 above
- Liquid: 1/3 cup dry vermouth, 1/3 cup chicken stock, 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- Finishing ingredient: 1 3-ounce jar large capers, rinsed in a wire mesh strainer
Chicken Marsala
- Add 1 teaspoon ground dried thyme to the flour mixture before dredging the chicken cutlets.
- Sauté: 1 small shallot and 1 clove garlic, minced, per sauce step 2 above
- Liquid: 1/2 cup sweet Marsala, 1/4 cup chicken stock
- Finishing ingredient: 6 ounces cleaned white button or bella mushrooms, quartered, sautéed in 1-2 pats butter until they release their juices, approximately 5 minutes
Comments
Post a Comment