salsalady
eXtreme Business
CHICKEN PICCATA!
The goods-
OK, here's one of my quirks. I HATE that tendon that's in chicken tenders when I'm cooking with raw chicken tenders. I dunno why, but it grosses me out. So I take it out.
Using a very strong fork, slip the tines on either side of the tendon.
Grip the tendon tightly with one hand, (I pinch between the thumb nail and index finger), work the fork down along the tendon, removing it from the meat.
Cover the chicken meat with parchment paper, wax paper or cling wrap. Using a meat mallet, framing hammer or heavy can, pound the meat to about 1/4" thick.
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veggie prep
the yellow squash was looking a little sad. Quick trim with the peeler, good to go!
Shallots, zucchini, yellow squash, butter, garlic S&P, fresh tomato, parm
Saute shallots with butter and garlic first to get it happy, then add the squashes. Top with parmesan on the plate.
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Side note- I put 2 cloves of garlic, cut into quarters, in the butter/oil mix to be used for frying the cutlets. As the oil heated, the cloves browned up a little and infused the oil. Before adding the chicken, I took the quarters out and set aside. When cooking the veggies, I added those roasted garlic pieces to the veg saute, and it added a really nice roasted garlic flavor to the veggies.
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Season the cutlets with S&P, dredge in flour and pan fry in olive oil and butter.
Mine were pretty thin and they cooked fast, so they didn't get as brown as some pictured online. Remove from the pan and keep warm. I put them on a lined plate in the oven for about 10 minutes.
Add a dash of white wine, splash of lemon juice, 2 Tbsp capers, 1 1/2 c chicken broth with 1 tsp corn starch mixed in, simmer until the sauce thickens just a bit then add about a cup of heavy cream.
Nekkid chicken breastesses
Dressed chicken breastesses, on a bed of pasta drenched with sauce.
Edit- usually this is made with whole chicken breasts that are butterflied then pounded. The last breasts we used for the chicken parmesan were pretty big and by the time they were cut and pounded, it was like 3/4 of a platter. Back in the day, the restaurant used pre-portioned 5 oz breasts which when pounded, were a manageable size. Using the chicken tenders brought the portion size back down to normal, something we could actually eat in a serving. Although this plate definitely topped off the tank and hit the max carb button on the diabetes. Once every 10 years, it's worth it.
I'm sorry for the fuzzy pictures. My phone lens is really scratched, so I've been trying to use the Kindle camera. It seems like it's on telephoto, and I can't figure out how to un-zoom it.
Oh, well, the chicken piccata was freaking awesome, so I don't care about the pics!
The goods-
OK, here's one of my quirks. I HATE that tendon that's in chicken tenders when I'm cooking with raw chicken tenders. I dunno why, but it grosses me out. So I take it out.
Using a very strong fork, slip the tines on either side of the tendon.
Grip the tendon tightly with one hand, (I pinch between the thumb nail and index finger), work the fork down along the tendon, removing it from the meat.
Cover the chicken meat with parchment paper, wax paper or cling wrap. Using a meat mallet, framing hammer or heavy can, pound the meat to about 1/4" thick.
----------------------------------
veggie prep
the yellow squash was looking a little sad. Quick trim with the peeler, good to go!
Shallots, zucchini, yellow squash, butter, garlic S&P, fresh tomato, parm
Saute shallots with butter and garlic first to get it happy, then add the squashes. Top with parmesan on the plate.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Side note- I put 2 cloves of garlic, cut into quarters, in the butter/oil mix to be used for frying the cutlets. As the oil heated, the cloves browned up a little and infused the oil. Before adding the chicken, I took the quarters out and set aside. When cooking the veggies, I added those roasted garlic pieces to the veg saute, and it added a really nice roasted garlic flavor to the veggies.
_______________________________________
Season the cutlets with S&P, dredge in flour and pan fry in olive oil and butter.
Mine were pretty thin and they cooked fast, so they didn't get as brown as some pictured online. Remove from the pan and keep warm. I put them on a lined plate in the oven for about 10 minutes.
Add a dash of white wine, splash of lemon juice, 2 Tbsp capers, 1 1/2 c chicken broth with 1 tsp corn starch mixed in, simmer until the sauce thickens just a bit then add about a cup of heavy cream.
Nekkid chicken breastesses
Dressed chicken breastesses, on a bed of pasta drenched with sauce.
Edit- usually this is made with whole chicken breasts that are butterflied then pounded. The last breasts we used for the chicken parmesan were pretty big and by the time they were cut and pounded, it was like 3/4 of a platter. Back in the day, the restaurant used pre-portioned 5 oz breasts which when pounded, were a manageable size. Using the chicken tenders brought the portion size back down to normal, something we could actually eat in a serving. Although this plate definitely topped off the tank and hit the max carb button on the diabetes. Once every 10 years, it's worth it.
I'm sorry for the fuzzy pictures. My phone lens is really scratched, so I've been trying to use the Kindle camera. It seems like it's on telephoto, and I can't figure out how to un-zoom it.
Oh, well, the chicken piccata was freaking awesome, so I don't care about the pics!
WooHoo! WooHoo! DeRail!
