Chicken Piccatta

[dazie]

From Big Apple Pizza in Sparks, NV- the BEST BEST BEST chicken piccatta I've ever had...

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Todd's Piccatta

1 chicken breast pounded flat
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1cup chicken broth
Flour for dredging
1 lemon- juiced
2 tablespoons capers
1 lemon wedges or slices
Salt + Pepper
1/4 cup wine, I like a White Zinfandel
2 tablespoons butter (NOT margarine)


Flour and pat dry both sides of chicken breast.
Heat olive oil in pan medium high. Set chicken in pan and salt and pepper both sides. I use Sea Salt because it tastes better.
Cook both sides about 3 to 4 minutes. Take chicken breast out of pan and set a side on a warming plate.
Drain excess oil from pan, then put 1 tablespoon of fresh olive oil in pan.
Heat medium high and sauté garlic for about a minute.
Pour wine in, away from the flame, let it reduce down till it is syrupy texture.
Add chicken broth, lemon juice, butter, capers, bring to boil and put chicken breast back in pan
Cook for about 5 minutes or till juices run clear when you poke the breast with a fork.
Put lemon wedges in the dish and let it cook down.
You serve it over a bed of pasta or rice. Get some good bread and prepare to dip and enjoy.

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If you didn't want to use wine a tart apple juice would work.

[eo000]

i think i've never even had piccatta. chicken or otherwise.

[Infobahn]

I have, but the Doctor gave me something, and it cleared up.

[Gamplayerx]

I have, but it had bell peppers which I can't stand cooked.  Although this recipe doesn't.  But the spacing is very weird. 

Uh, I have nothing to contribute to this thread.  I should probably just avoid the cooking topics.

[ignom]

What if I want more than one chicken breast? Do I double everything? Is the wine necessary or is there a substitute?

Other than that, it sounds good, except I don't really like lemon or capers.

I use Sea Salt because it tastes better.

Is that your opinion, or is that actually in the recipe?

[Gamplayerx]

I like capers.  I wonder what they really are outside of the jar.

[ignom]

I like capers.  I wonder what they really are outside of the jar.

Really old peas.

[dc]

What if I want more than one chicken breast? Do I double everything? Is the wine necessary or is there a substitute?

Other than that, it sounds good, except I don't really like lemon or capers.

I use Sea Salt because it tastes better.

Is that your opinion, or is that actually in the recipe?

You can actually use pretty much anything in place of the wine.  It's just there for flavor.  You can cut it entirely, but you might want to be ready to add water or more chicken broth to keep the liquid measure up.

Sea salt or kosher salt is easier to work with because you can spread it better.  You also get a bit more of the salt flavor out of it because it does not completely dissolve into the chicken.

[dazie]

What if I want more than one chicken breast? Do I double everything? Is the wine necessary or is there a substitute?

Other than that, it sounds good, except I don't really like lemon or capers.

I use Sea Salt because it tastes better.

Is that your opinion, or is that actually in the recipe?

Go ahead and double the recipe for two, but I'd try it with one first.  This is a restaurant serving, and there is ALWAYS a ton of sauce even for only one breast.  The salt thing is in the recipe, direct from Todd.  I'd use kosher salt, mostly because that's what I have.  Sea salt is great, but can get 'spensive.

DC's right about the wine.  If you don't want to use it, go with extra broth, water, unsweetened apple juice or unsweetened white grape juice.

[dazie]

I like capers.  I wonder what they really are outside of the jar.

They're the pickled buds of some plant.  I like to think of them as either tiny pickles or tiny pickled artichokes.  Yum.

This, from http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/cropfactsheets/caper.html

Culinary Uses
Capers of commerce are immature flower buds which have been pickled in vinegar or preserved in granular salt. Semi-mature fruits (caperberries) and young shoots with small leaves may also be pickled for use as a condiment.

Capers have a sharp piquant flavor and add pungency, a peculiar aroma and saltiness to comestibles such as pasta sauces, pizza, fish, meats and salads. The flavor of caper may be described as being similar to that of mustard and black pepper. In fact, the caper strong flavor comes from mustard oil: methyl isothiocyanate (released from glucocapparin molecules) arising from crushed plant tissues .

Capers make an important contribution to the pantheon of classic Mediterranean flavors that include: olives, rucola (argula, or garden rocket), anchovies and artichokes.

Tender young shoots including immature small leaves may also be eaten as a vegetable, or pickled. More rarely, mature and semi-mature fruits are eaten as a cooked vegetable. Additionally, ash from burned caper roots has been used as a source of salt.

Medicinal Uses
Capers are said to reduce flatulence and to be anti-rheumatic in effect. In ayurvedeic medicine capers (Capers=Himsra) are recorded as hepatic stimulants and protectors, improving liver function. Capers have reported uses for arteriosclerosis, as diuretics, kidney disinfectants, vermifuges and tonics. Infusions and decoctions from caper root bark have been traditionally used for dropsy, anemia, arthritis and gout. Capers contain considerable amounts of the anti-oxidant bioflavinoid rutin.

Caper extracts and pulps have been used in cosmetics, but there has been reported contact dermatitis and sensitivity from their use.

[Gamplayerx]

Reduce flatulence?  Capers for everyone!

[dazie]

As the first dinner for the whole family in the new house, I made this recipe.  *swoon*   

It was pretty damned yummy.  I tripled it, as there were three of us eating the chicken. (Kate's a vegetarian, so she just had some pasta and salad)  Only thing I goofed was only doubling the wine and broth.  But it was still sooooo good.

See attached for proof. 

I notice that it looks really greasy in the picture, but it's actually just moist.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[ignom]

Looks good.

[BigDun]

I know that alice will hate this thread because of your adjective, but moist is good. We all need things more moist.

[dazie]

I know that alice will hate this thread because of your adjective, but moist is good. We all need things more moist.

hmm... perhaps I should have put "dewy" or "full of effluvia"

[Beefy]

That looks positively scrumptious!

[DownSouth]

Never had it.  It looks tasty.

[dazie]

That looks positively scrumptious!

If you go to DC I'll make some for you...  is that a good enough bribe?

[DownSouth]

That looks positively scrumptious!

I have this picture in my head of you saying that with a lisp in a sparkly shirt.

[Beefy]

That looks positively scrumptious!

I have this picture in my head of you saying that with a lisp in a sparkly shirt.

[nishi]

the alcohol cooks out of beer and wine in recipes - it adds flavor along with necessary liquids, like dc said.

i think any kind of grape juice tastes kind of yucky, sweetened or not - i would suggest using low-salt broth as a substitute. the fermentation of liquor, even with the alcohol cooked out, adds a richer, deeper flavor. if a recipe calls for beer, i've used non-alcoholic beer with good results.

sea salt tastes better because there are other minerals present in sea water - regular table salt is rock salt, which is mined.


from an article about salt:
<<There are several varieties of salt; some are preferred over others.

Unrefined salts from Normandy and Brittany included grey, moist sel gris, and fleur des sel, "the champagne of sea salt", off-white with lacy flakes and slight sweetness.

Maldon, (Essex) salt, harvested from the town of Maldon in England since the middle ages, is excellent.

Refined salts are pure white, but contain less minerals than natural sea salt.

Pinkish Hawaiian salt is coloured with clay containing iron oxides.

Korean bamboo salt is sea salt that is poured into bamboo cylinders which are then plugged with loess clay and roasted over burning pine resin.

Then there is pickling salt, table salt and regular refined sea salt. Kosher salt is rock salt mostly used for pickling. >>

[dazie]

I made this the other night.

Damn good stuff, very lemony though.  I think I'm going to set an amount for lemon juice, cuz I had really juicy lemons evidently.

[eo000]

you miss that town a lot, don't you?

[dazie]

you miss that town a lot, don't you?

Just that restaurant. 

[eo000]

is this the same place you were talking about your friend sending you frozen food from?