C is for Chicken
This is partly inspired from the CAP classes, but mostly the fact that I love chicken. Many people have unpleasant memories of bland, overcooked chicken, or spiritless steamed chicken. This has a lot to do with misunderstandings of salmonella, and lack of proper equipment. Poultry needs to be heated to 165 degrees. This does not mean cook it until it reaches 165 degrees. Carry over cooking will increase the temperature of your chicken by 5 degrees in about 5 minutes. Use a thermometer to determine the temp.
There are many different cuts of chicken you can get at your local market. Thighs, breasts, drumsticks, roasters, quarters, boneless, bone in, sausages, ground, the list goes on and on. Each type of cut has its purposes, one of the most commonly used cut is the boneless-skinless chicken breasts. These are typically huge cuts of low fat protein. You may have noticed the giant chicken breasts in the meat section, still partially frozen, almost bulging out of the package. well, there is some science behind this.
The chickens are bread to be larger. Tysons average size chicken has gone up 4 pounds in the last 40 years. this may not seem like a lot, but in my lifetime, I have seen a standard pack of chicken breasts go from 4 per pack to 3 per pack. the standard weight of a pack of boneless skinless chicken breasts is 28 ounces. When I was a kid (80's), that equated to 7 ounces a chicken breast. Today, the breasts average 9.3 ounces each. A serving of chicken considered to be half a chicken breast, then they state it should weigh 3 ounces. Well, they need to look at what the average American is eating. Many will eat one or two of these and think nothing of it.
you can still find those "normal sized" chicken breasts at many markets. Some are featured at places like Whole Foods and Fresh Market, otherwise, you may need to look for the organic and cage free chicken breasts. they will typically cost a dollar more per pound, but you can purchase them in smaller packages, and get 4 per pack. Fresh Market and Whole Foods offers their chicken breasts butterflied. These are smaller, and tend to be a more manageable size when plated.
The organic breasts are less likely to be injected or vacuum tumbled with chicken flavor, but check the label first.
These processes increases the water content of the chicken, and increases the weight of the product. This is one reason it is hard to marinate chicken, they are already saturated with water. The injections help prevent the chicken from drying out, but they artificially inflate the weight, and hamper the chicken's ability to act like the protein you purchased.
One of the key aspects to cooking chicken is keeping it juicy. This is easy to do if you cook it properly. Once it is overcooked, there is little you can do to rescue it. There are two common ways to prevent overcooking. High heat and roasting. Most people are afraid of high heat cooking. You have to pay attention to your pans or it will escape, then you burn the meat, dry it out, and set off your fire alarms :D But there is a plus side -- it cooks in almost no time, looks really good, tastes great, and prepares your pan for a wonderful array of possibilities.
Pan seared chicken cutlets with a White wine rosemary lemon sauce.Measure everything out ahead of time (do not mix wet ingredients)
Mise en place
The sauce will be punchy, so sample it while you are making it, the butter will help mellow some of the flavors, but the acidity of the lemon and wine will still be strong. There should be little need to add salt to the sauce, the chicken will have left some of it's salt in the pan, but check it anyways.
Do not use a nonstick pan!
- 1 large or 2 small chicken breasts (enough to serve 2 (1/4 pound per person))
- Canola Oil
- Salt
- Pepper
- 1/3 cup Dry White Wine
- 1/3 cup Chicken stock or low sodium chicken broth
- lemon
- sprig of fresh rosemary
- 3 Tbsp butter (cold)
- 4 thin lemon slices
- rosemary oil
Take the chicken breasts and split them so you have two cuts the same thickness. Rub them down with oil, dust one side with salt and pepper.
Heat 1 tsp oil (on high, or medium high) until it starts to smoke. Add the chicken to the pan, salt side down. Cook until they are halfway done. Keep the pan shaking to a minimum. Flip the chicken and cook on the other side. have a clean plate and some aluminum foil ready. When chicken is done, remove from pan and tent with foil.
Add the lemon slices to the pan and quickly sear both sides. The goal is to get some color on them before the fond in the pan burns. Remove them from the pan and add the wine. Scrape the bottom of the pan with your tongs to release any stuck on goodies. As the wine reduces, add the chicken stock and the sprig of rosemary. Remove the rosemary when the majority of liquid is gone. Continue reducing until the liquid is almost gone (about a tablespoon). Remove the pan from heat and the juice from the quarter a lemon. Move the chicken to warm serving plates, slicing if you need to (on the resting plate), add the reserved juices to the sauce.
Add cold butter 1 tbsp at a time to the pan. Swirl the pan around to emulsify the butter into the sauce. The remaining heat will melt the butter. Continue one Tbsp at a time. Spoon over chicken and serve.
Garnish with rosemary, lemon slices, and few drops of rosemary oil.
This goes very well with Parmesan mashed potatoes, and you could finish this meal with some bread and a roasted relish of tomato and sweet corn.
This goes very well with Parmesan mashed potatoes, and you could finish this meal with some bread and a roasted relish of tomato and sweet corn.
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