Food, Wine and Creative Musings: Lemon Chicken

Everyone has that one recipe that you fall back to. You know that one recipe that has become your signature dish, the one that when you can’t think of what to make you make that one dish. The one that you don’t even have to pull out the recipe card for any more because you’ve made it so many times. The one you still love to make and eat. Mine is Lemon chicken. I can’t even remember where or how I first came across this recipe but it’s so simple and easy to make. I’ve made this recipe so many ways depending on what I have on hand and no matter which way I make it, it comes out great.

The main ingredients are skinless boneless chicken breast, flour, lemons, chicken broth, Olive oil and butter.
The variations would include white wine, chicken bouillon, lemon zest, lemon juice in a bottle, lemon flavored olive oil, and roux.

I always begin with flattening the chicken breast. It not only evens out the cooking time among the breast but is also speeds up the cooking time. The side benefit if you had a hard day you can get the stress out by whacking those breasts flat. Yup I like this part LOL

I heat up my cast iron pan, I love using my cast iron pan for this but truth be told I just love using my iron pots and pans period ; ) I use a combination of olive oil and butter. I would use only butter because of the flavor but I found using the olive oil with the butter, the butter doesn’t burn. It might not be true but it works this way for me.

I then coat the breasts with flour that has been salted and peppered and brown them in the olive oil butter mixture. Once they are cook though or just cooked through I take them out and set aside.

At this point is where you use all sorts of things chicken broth, water and chicken bouillon just water or white wine a combo, you get the idea. Depending how much sauce you want depends on how much you put in. Along with this you add lemon something lemon flavored get the idea… to taste more tart more lemon less tart less lemon. The last time I made this I use Lemon juice and zest oh my god it was so good. The zest just kicked it up a notch without adding to much tartness. Yum!

To thicken the sauce I mainly use just flour but you will have to cook it for at least 5 min to cook the flour. I also love using roux which is equal parts of butter (there that butter again lol) and flour cooked till lightly brown at least for me that is how I tell it’s done. Put a little of this in and you have thickened sauce in no time. You can also use cornstarch in a pinch.

Once the sauce is put together I put the chicken back in and any dripping from the plate for no more than a minute and your done and it’s time to eat!!