Chicken Piccata

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I had pictures. I was going to do a lovely Thanksgiving edition with not one, but two dishes. I made a lovely spinach gratin as well as roasted butternut squash for Thanksgiving dinner. The process was lovingly documented. Then, with one slip of the finger, my camera's memory card was erased leaving me quite despondent. I could have cooked during the long holiday weekend. Instead, I chose to sulk and watch Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York back-to-back.

But I was back in the kitchen last night and tried out a recipe I had been meaning to make for a long time: Chicken Piccata.

I love chicken piccata. The sauce has a nice crisp taste and if there is cream in the sauce, it tastes rather luxurious and silky. Considering that the ingredients are inexpensive, you get a lot for your money and can easily entertain with this recipe.

Ina's recipe for chicken piccata particularly appealed to me because it does not include capers. Whatttttt?! I know! Capers are always in piccata! That's just craziness! Well, Ina doesn't put them in her piccata. And since I am not fond of capers, I went with it.

Here are the ingredients - pretty basic stuff. I'll tell you right here that I didn't fully follow the directions. The recipe in the book called for regular chicken breasts that you flatten. I opted for the 30 Minute Meal timesaver and bought thin-sliced chicken cutlets. I know I'm getting less chicken that way, but the time and effort saved is well worth it for me.



Here's a shot of the pristine dredging and breading station before the flour is everywhere, egg is dripping and breadcrumbs are clumpy.



When I took a cooking class a few years ago, the instructor told us that we really only wanted a fine coating of flour. It was very important to get rid of the excess flour, so she recommended "spanking" the flour off. I am not joking. She showed us by lightly spanking the chicken breast she was holding. It works. The excess flour fell off and the chicken had a really delicate dusting. It works better than just shaking the excess flour off. So yes, I spank my meats.

I also wanted to mention that I have quit using regular breadcrumbs for the most part. Ina's recipe calls for regular breadcrumbs, so that is what I used, but in all other instances I now use panko. Now panko is nothing new to me since I am Japanese. However, its suddenly become the darling of Food Network chefs. They all pronounce it
"paan-ko" or "pank-o." Given, it does look like the word "pancake" so I can understand, but it still hurts the ear. Its "pahnko." Anyway, I now use panko in all the places I used to use breadcrumbs - all breaded meats, meatloaf, and gratin tops. I find that it's just lighter and browns better.

Here is the chicken browning in the saute pan. It will finish cooking in the oven. I have to watch this carefully as I'm prone to burning breading.



The finished chicken. The oven has made the breadcrumbs very crunchy. Yay!



Time to make the sauce. This sauce is very quick and easy to make. I think it really only takes about 5 minutes. All the ingredients go into the pan. Ina says to add the juiced lemon rinds to sauce to infuse more lemon taste. I'm a little scared. Ina really likes her citrus. This could be really strong.



I'm just noticing that in my pictures, the lemon rinds look rather ... nipply. Anyway, the sauce reduces and I take it off the heat and add some butter to thicken it. Here is the finished sauce:



Here is the finished product plated. I think it looks rather good! I don't garnish it with lemon slices, but the drizzled sauce over the top and the parsley it quite presentable. Good enough for dinner anyway!



The Review
Excellent! I am so in love with this dish, I really am. I thought adding the lemon rind would make the sauce over powering, but it didn't. It's very good. Adding some half and half or cream would make it sooo good and very wicked delicious. Finishing the chicken in the over was a good choice. It wasn't overcooked and the coating was very crunchy. I still think it would have been better with the panko, but cannot say that the regular breadcrumbs weren't tasty. I served the chicken with some mashed potatoes and a salad. Joel, who is not crazy about lemon-flavored foods, was happy with the recipe and said that he would happily eat it again. Very good recipe and I highly recommend it.

Saffron Risotto with Butternut Squash

I love butternut squash. I love risotto. Mix 'em up, add some heat and you've got a lovely meal.

First up, gather all those ingredients together:


I love risotto because it's very versatile. You can stick in some frozen peas, leftover red or white wine, chicken and it still comes out delicious. I especially love butternut squash, so this recipe was something I knew I'd like.

The first step is to roast the squash. I know Ina enjoys roasting her vegetables and I tend to agree. Roasting the vegetables really brings out the sweetness and magically makes it taste better Don't ask me how - I think it has to do with caramelized sugars blah blah.

Here's the squash before it goes in the oven. Pay no attention to the rather poor knife skills. They're pretty much all the same size though.


About 40-45 minutes later, here is the roasted squash. I must tell you. I could eat this right out of the pan -- and I have. The squash has a little but of olive oil, salt and pepper on it and it's really delicious. Squash isn't very popular in Hawaii, so I didn't have it until I came to college. All those years, wasted!



Next up, risotto! Now, Ina's recipe calls for pancetta. Gotta confess: I'm not that big on pancetta. I feel like I should like it, but whenever I have it, I miss the smokey flavor of regular old bacon. Not that I'd turn it away, but I use bacon in my cooking instead. Ina also mentions that if you can't find pancetta, bacon is perfectly fine to use, so I feel like I've stuck to the recipe. God, whenever you can add some bacon into a dish is a good day.

Here's the shallots and bacon sauteing in some butter and olive oil. I can't hear you right now arteries.


And throw in the rice, wine and stock.


Confession: I don't stir my risotto constantly. Honestly, I've stood there stirring it for 25 minutes straight and I've stirred it every 7 minutes or so to prevent the rice from sticking. It doesn't seem to make a whole lot of difference in the end product. Since I'm usually making a salad or cleaning up dishes while something is on the stove, I'm happy I don't have to pay it such close attention.

Rachel Ray mentioned a few times on 30 Minute Meals that risotto takes about 22 minutes give or take to cook. She's right. Mine always ends up taking about 25 minutes. Here it is. The saffron has turned it a light yellow, despite my pot and lighting making it look a bit green.


Finish it off the heat with a little bit of cheese and there you go:


The review:
Very good! The squash is lovely and a good texture. It's very soft, but not soft enough so that it falls apart and tastes like babyfood. The saffron adds a nice color to the risotto, but I can't really taste it. The bacon is nice of course. I really don't know if I'd like the dish as much if it had pancetta in it. I think the smokey, salty bacon pairs well with the sweet squash. Joel liked it as well and went back for seconds, a sure sign that he likes it.

Anyway, it's a good start!