A simple main course that comes together in 20-30 minutes. To make it a little more luxuriant, start by chopping 3-4 slices of bacon and rendering it in the skillet, using the fat to cook the chicken and adding the bacon pieces to the final dish.
1 pound chicken breast, sliced into paillards (scallopine) and/or tenderloins
Flour to coat
2 Tbsp vodka
¼ cup chicken broth
¾ cup heavy cream
2 Tbsp fresh strained lemon juice
3 Tbsp chopped oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes
2 tsp chopped fresh parsley
1. Preheat the oven to 200°.
2. Heat about 2 Tbsp of olive or vegetable oil in a large skillet.
3. Pat the chicken paillards dry. Season with salt and pepper and dredge in the flour, shaking off any excess. Working in batches, pan-fry them for roughly two minutes per side until browned on the outside and just barely cooked through. Hold them in the oven while you prepare the sauce.
4. Drain any remaining fat from the pan and turn off the heat. Deglaze the pan with the vodka, scraping quickly to dissolve any fond, and then add the chicken broth (before the pan goes dry) and boil until reduced by about half.
5. Add the lemon juice, tomatoes, and cream and heat through. Return the chicken to the pan, spooning the sauce over the meat. Top with parsley, season with salt and pepper, and serve with pasta or rice.
What size do you scallop the chicken into? Also, how thin do you typically pound it out?
Good questions. I’ll usually take a whole boneless breast, split it down the middle and remove that nasty bit in the center (I assume that’s a tendon), and then lay each half flat and, depending on how thick it is, cut two or three flat pieces, staying parallel to the board as much as possible. Then I’ll pound out the thicker end just enough to create uniform pieces. This isn’t like veal, where you’re going for 1/4″ thickness or less to keep it tender.
If you don’t want to cut at all, just leave the breast halves whole, flour and sear both sides for about 90-120 seconds, and then cook through with another five minutes or so in a 350° oven.
Keith,
Do you brine your chicken? I know you brine pork, which I do as well. However, in my limited experience with brining, the difference seems much more noticeable in pork than chicken.
I’ve also read that you shouldn’t brine kosher chicken since it has to be salted and rinsed before packaging, which is essentially a brine already.
Keith, are you not doing game updates on the espn blog as in the past?
JK: I haven’t done those since 2006. I’ll have some LCS preview stuff this week, but I’m off to the AFL tomorrow.
Chris: I’ll brine chicken that I’m roasting, but not scallopine or chicken that I’m braising. You’re correct about kosher chicken, which is already brined.
Keith – you ever make it to the Salt Lake area? Can’t imagine there’s much scouting to do here, but if you ever do there are some surprisingly good places to eat.
Keith – I’d love to hear your thoughts on Lackey’s bitter comments after the game. Also: seeing as how the Angels were able to tie the game after taking two bases on balls, do you think the they finally wise up that their offensive approach maybe needs to be changed?
Keith – What part of the suicide squeeze offended you the most? The fact that it was so predictible? The lefty hitter? Aybar’s low K%? All of the above?
To the end of luxuriance, instead of using bacon (which I did not have) I mixed in some goat cheese with the sauce at the end, which was a really nice touch. I also highly recommend this dish with whole grain Israeli cous cous. The last time I was at Trader Joe’s, I was surprised they didn’t have it, as was the employee I asked – much to my pleasant surprise, the next time I came for my shopping, it was prominently displayed.
Made this last night to “plus” reviews from the wife. Bacon was an excellent addition.