It’s a dreadful fact of life that we must feed ourselves everyday. I love cooking and it’s rarely a chore to me, but even I will occasionally find myself astonished by how a meal that took me hours to make will be devoured in less than ten minutes. Feeding ourselves and others not only require resources, time, and planning, but now we must also be very vigilant about what we eat. We are constantly told that something is bad for us, and then next thing you know, you’re off gluten, butter, beans, and coffee. And that only making the planning much harder and the grocery bill much higher. Well, lucky for us, at least we now we get to live in an age when there’s machines that will do most of the work for us and we don’t have to worry about inconvenient things like hunting for our food. And then we can read articles and educate ourselves, and still choose to eat carbs and fat for dinner – not gluten though, this one is gluten free! I’ve been making this weeknight dinner a lot lately. It’s a full meal: protein, carbs, and a salad. And it can be made in about 30 minutes.
Yes, I usually – and shamelessly – have a bag of frozen fries in the freezer. Is it ideal? Healthy? Advisable? No! But when all you want is a nice meal that’s quick and easy, overthinking the ingredients in a package of frozen fries will not help you at all. Scrubbing, peeling, and cutting potatoes is an option, but it’s also time and effort you could be spending on something else. Say, a movie or a bath or playing with the kids. So when I make this dinner, I start with the frozen fries.
If I want it real quick, I use the air fryer and do it in batches and it’s done in no time. But sometimes, I just pop them in the oven and by the time they’re done, so is the salad and the chicken.
How to Make Chicken Piccata
While the fries are cooking, I move on to the chicken. Chicken piccata might sound like something too complicated to make, but it’s quite easy. All you need to do is butterfly the chicken breasts, pound them (this is the fun part), and then give them a nice coating of (I used oat here) flour.
Then you pan fried them and make the sauce in the same pan. While the sauce is simmering away, there’s enough time to make a quick salad: cut a head of lettuce into thin strips and add to a medium bowl. Season with abundant olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Trust me, it’s so simple, but bright and tangy, and a perfect pair to the rich piccata sauce and the fries.
And look at that, a weeknight dinner is born and served. I usually avoid chicken breasts, because the thighs are more flavorful and I end up favoring them. But every time I make chicken piccata and I pound those chicken breasts thin and I drown them in that buttery sauce, I remember how delightful they can be, too.
One tip I have to mention is, when making the sauce, make sure to cook over medium to low heat, and keep an eye on it. It reduces quite a bit, and if that’s how you like it, perfect! But if you’re a sauce person like me, add more chicken broth as needed and keep the heat lower so that it doesn’t reduce too much. I always end up with less sauce than I want, but it’s so rich and flavorful that it doesn’t really matter in the end.
If you make this delightful chicken piccata, fries, salad weeknight dinner, let me know in the comments!
My Go-To Weeknight Dinner Lately - Chicken Piccata
4
servings10
minutes20
minutesIngredients
4 chicken breasts
1/2 cup flour (I used oat)
4 tbsp butter
2 tbsp grated parmesan
2 tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
2 tbsp capers, drained
1/2 lemon, juiced
salt and black pepper
fresh parsley
Directions
Butterfly the chicken breasts: place the chicken breast on a cutting board. With one hand on the chicken breast, carefully insert the knife into the middle of the thickest part and cut horizontally. Cut almost way the through to the other side. Open it like a book.
Place a sheet of plastic wrap over the meat and pound with the smooth side of a mallet until meat is 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick. Repeat this process for each one. Season with salt and pepper.
Mix the flour and parmesan in a shallow bowl. Coat each piece of the chicken in the flour, and shake off any excess. Discard the flour when finished dredging.
Heat the olive oil and 2 tbsp of butter a large skillet set over medium-high. Add half of the chicken and cook until golden brown and cooked through, about 3-4 minutes per side. Repeat with the remaining chicken, adding more butter and oil to the skillet as needed. Transfer the chicken to a serving platter.
Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in the stock and simmer over medium until the liquid is reduced by half, 4-5 minutes. Reduce heat to low, then stir in remaining butter, capers, and, lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.
Pour sauce over chicken or transfer chicken back to skillet. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.
