Chicken Piccata

TODAY IS FRIDAY. 

In our house, Friday means that certain people come home from certain long work trips and we get the weekend together!

YAY. 

Also, Friday could mean chicken piccata.  You know, crispy chicken pan-friend with caper dijon sauce and greens and pasta or bread or WHATEVER.  SO STINKING GOOD.  So stinking easy, too!  This is nice and fancy for a weekend but you can make it FAST.  For rizzle.  

We don't cook with a ton of chicken because it's just kind of....meh....to me, so when I do I want it to be super duper good.  Anything with capers and a crust on it pretty much fits that bill, so let's get right to it!

You need chicken, butter, flour, cornstarch, chicken stock, salt, capers, and arugula for serving.  And a garlic clove, which is not in this picture.  I serve this with plain pasta to sop up the sauce, but bread or rice or quinoa would work beautifully too.  Whatever you like!

While you boil pasta or cook whatever starch (if you're doing on) you're going to use, we'll make the chicken.  It cooks really quickly because you only use HALF a chicken breast (cut on the flat edges to get 2 thin pieces per breast) per person (unless you want more, then make more), so the thin slices cook in about 4 minutes per side.  Then, we make a quick pan sauce from the drippings, and BOOM.  Chicken piccata.  

For the record, my store calls what I'm talking about "thin-cut" chicken breasts.  You can CLEARLY cut the chicken in half yourself, but if you want to avoid raw chicken work, that's what you're looking for in the store!  First, preheat a pan to medium-high heat with the butter.  Add 1 tablespoon of light-colored oil too so the butter doesn't burn.  We're looking for foam but not much brown in the butter at first. 

While the pan heats, make the dredge.  Add ½ cup flour, 1 tablespoon cornstarch, and 1 teaspoon salt to a dish and mix it quickly with a fork or your fingers. 

Then, dredge the chicken!  Press it into the flour mixture on one side...

...then another. 

When the butter is foamy and hot, add the chicken to the pan - it should sizzle right away.  If it doesn't, turn the heat up a bit.  

While the chicken cooks on the first side, grab the garlic clove you'll use for the sauce.

Mash it with the side of your knife gently, then take off the peel. 

And mince that bad boy!  We want a mild garlic flavor - nothing too intense since the rest of the dish is pretty light. 

When the chicken is browned on the first side and opaque at the edges (so that you can see it's cooking), flip it over and check out the golden crust!  YUM.  

Let the chicken finish cooking through for another minute or two, then remove the chicken from the pan.  At this point, the sauce will only take another 3 minutes or so, so I just tossed (underhand) the chicken on plates - it was still plenty hot when I was ready to eat!  If you're not going to eat for awhile, though, place the chicken on a cooking rack inside a baking sheet in the oven at 200F and the chicken will stay warm and crispy for awhile.  See?  Problem solving. 

Onto the sauce!  Turn the heat down to medium-low or low so the butter doesn't brown much more.  It should be pretty dark already!  Sprinkle the flour into the pan drippings - we want less flour than drippings. 

Then, use a whisk to work the flour into the butter for one minute. 

Squirt in the mustard, and whisk that in too. 

When the mustard and flour are combined into the butter, add the garlic and stir it into the mixture for one minute. 

Now, add the chicken stock!  Start with a half cup and whisk for one minute, then add more if the sauce gets too thick.  

Let the sauce bubble gently, and keep adding stock to your preference based on how thick you like your gravy.  

Right before serving, stir in the capers and taste the sauce - add some salt if you'd like. 

Now, to serve.  We've got two methods we can use.  First, you can place a piece of chicken on a plate and top it with some sauce and arugula.  Pretty!  Fresh!

OR, you can make a bed of arugula and place the chicken on top of it...

....then spoon some sauce over the whole mess.  

The chicken-over-arugula lands you with wilted arugula, which is lovely, and the arugula-over-chicken method feels more like salad over chicken.  They're both excellent, so try it both ways!

Not to tell you what to do, but this is REALLY good with a bit of plain pasta, some extra capers, and some cold white wine.  LOOK I USED A BOTTLE!  It cost $3.49 and was delicious.  No joke. 

This is a REALLY fast and delicious dish.  You can cook the chicken and sauce in the time it takes to boil water for pasta and cook it though so....24 minutes max?  It's totally worth it, and looks fancy.  

Have a wonderful weekend!  I'll be emotionally conflicted between wanting to lay around with my fiancee and forcing him to do 9,328 house and wedding-related tasks because we're getting married in TWENTY TWO DAYS.  Hurray!

OH AND!  This is at Weekend Potluck too.  Head over and find some other great weekend recipes to try!