Top | Sara Jane's family favorites

Chicken Picatta

(recipe, Sara Jane)

Ingredients

  1. Chicken breasts, pounded thin
  2. Seasoned flour, to dredge the chicken in (I like it with powdered garlic and onion, paprika and fresh ground pepper)
  3. Olive oil and butter, in a pan, heating up till the butter foams
  4. Half a glass of white wine
  5. Juice of half a lemon
  6. Several big spoonfuls of capers (mmm, capers)

Steps

  1. Pound the chicken breasts thin so they will cook quickly. This can be wonderful stress relief after a long day. Dredge them in the flour to lightly coat and set aside while you get the pan heating up.
  2. Pour enough olive oil into the pan to cover most of the bottom, and add about a tablespoon of butter. Turn the heat on medium high. When the butter froths, but before it starts to brown, add the chicken to the pan.
  3. Most important step in the recipe: walk away for three minutes and have a glass of that nice white wine.
  4. After three minutes, the chicken should be nicely brown on the bottom (I suppose I could up my molecular biology cred by talking about the Maillard reaction here, but this is comfort food, really) and look slightly wet on the top. Flip the chicken over, and walk away for another three minutes. Have some more wine if that’s what it takes!
  5. When the chicken is nicely brown on both sides and firm to the touch, remove to a plate. Deglaze the pan with half a cup of white wine and the lemon juice, stirring to get all those delicious brown bits into the sauce. Reduce it to maybe half or a third the volume. Add the capers, then the chicken back into the pan, and gently flip it around to coat.
  6. Kick back and enjoy. Make sure you get plenty of capers, I’d say about 2-3 per bite of chicken is about ideal.