Chicken Piccata

Let me show you how a butterfly chicken breast. This is what it looks like when you buy
a whole chicken breast and what I want to do is just slice right through the middle of it
here. And again, put your palm down in the middle of the breast and start slicing. Now
when you open it up, it’s still attached at the bottom and what’s butterflying is because it
looks like a butterfly, but for this dish, I’m actually going to separate them, great. I want
to season with a little of salt. A little bit of black freshly ground black pepper.

We’re going to dredge them in some all-purpose flour, just a light coating. The flour acts
as a barrier between the fat in the pan and the moisture in the chicken breast, Alright,
now I’m going to clean my board. We’ll start out with the medium high heat and I’m
going to add extra virgin olive oil. Oil can be heated to a higher temperature than fats like
butter. So I’m going to add some oil and then a couple of tablespoons of butter.

The butter gives that rich flavor, so together. The combination is going to be perfect. As
soon as the butter melts, you know that the fat is at the right temperature to cook your
chicken. You don’t want it smoking, you want to light sizzle. The chicken breast takes
about four or five minutes and it’s great because I’ve sliced them till they’re thin, they
cook quickly. I’m going to start with using a cup of chicken stock. And I’m just using
canned chicken stock to make it quick and easy. I like to use the low sodium chicken
stock, so I don’t have to worry about having my flavor being too salty.

And what I like to do with my chicken stock is I like to put it in a little plastic bag. Seal it
and throw in the freezer and then next I need a cup of chicken stock. I’ve got it ready to
go. So, here we go, we’ll throw that in the freezer and I need my lemon and lemon,
chicken stock and capers is a classic Piccata topping. I’m going to add about a third of a
cup so this whole lemon. For my last ingredient, I’m going to add capers. They have a
wonderful tangy flavor and you want to make sure that whether you use salted capers or
capers pickled in vinegar that you rinsed them off and just a handful. We’ll throw that
into our sauce. We take a look at our chicken breast.

Just scrape up all the bits off the bottom and this is known as deglazing a pan. If you’ve
ever heard that term, this is what it is. And you can use any liquid to deglaze a pan. You
can use water, you can wine, you can stock and it just helps you scrape up all those little
bits. So, we’re going to add our chicken back in to our sauce and the flour of the chicken
will also help thicken the sauce, so that’s another reason you want to add the chicken
back in.

I’m going to add another two tablespoons of soft butter and the soft butter is going to
thicken the sauce again and give it that rich taste. I just want it to melt slowly with the
heat of the sauce. And now, just pour the sauce right over the chicken.