Saturday, February 06, 2010

chicken limone

When we lived in Charlestown, this was a regular meal at our house. I found it in a cookbook from one of the North End restaurants. I have since lost the pages from that cookbook, but found a version online that helped me put it back together. The unusual thing about this recipe is the chicken is dredged in flour and then put in an egg wash and then put in the sauté pan – without going back into flour or bread crumbs. It has a crispy, but very light coating.

1-2 lbs boneless chicken fillets, cut into 3-4 oz. medallions of uniform thickness
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 cup flour
1 cup butter (1 stick)
4 lemons: slice two and juice two, reserving juice
salt and pepper
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
Whisk the eggs and milk together. Spread the flour, seasoned withs alt and pepper, in a shallow dish. Heat half of the butter in a skillet over medium high heat. While the butter is getting hot, dredge the chicken in the flour, piece by piece, and then dip each one in the egg wash, and then into the sauté pan. Cook the chicken about three minutes on each side. If they are pounded thin, this will make sure they are cooked through. (You may have to do this in two batches in your sauté pan.) Transfer the chicken to a serving platter and keep warm.

Add the remaining butter to the sauté pan and increase the heat. With a wooden spoon or spatula, loosen the particles from the bottom of the pan. Add the lemon juice and the lemon slices and the parsley. Let the sauce reduce until it begins to brown and thicken a bit; pour it over the chicken and serve.

Peace,
Milton

3 Comments:

Cindy said...

Milton,

Most butter I buy is 1 stick of butter = 1/2 cup...since it's just for sauteing I doubt it matters but it did make me look again :). Would it totally ruin the taste to use some olive oil to cut down the saturated fat?

don't eat alone said...

Cindy,

You can use olive oil; the only issue is it will not emulsify into a sauce with the lemon juice the way butter will. After you saute the chicken in the oil, remove the chicken, wipe out the pan, and then use a couple of tablespoons of butter with the lemon juice and lemons -- maybe that would sort of split the difference.

Peace,
Milton

zorra said...

That's probably what I will do, too, but I came on to comment that I love the lavishness of this recipe--a cup of butter! Four lemons! All of our Meyers are gone now, so it's back to store-bought--but I'm still looking forward to making this.