I’m so excited - my first recipe as a mem­ber of the Bare­foot Blog­gers and I get to make some­thing I never tried before and, to boot, it’s a Bare­foot Con­tessa recipe.  Lind­say over at Noo­dle Nights and Muf­fin Morn­ingschose Bare­foot Contessa’s Chicken Pic­cata.  Now, to quote Ina Garten “How hard can that be?”

Often when I heard Chicken Pic­cata, I would think, “If that’s like Chicken Marsala, I’m NOT going to like it!”  See, I had one inci­dent where I had Chicken Marsala as a kid and, quite frankly, I wasn’t a fan and haven’t touched it since.  Get­ting out of my com­fort zone is not some­thing I’m very good at and this recipe had me reach­ing new heights. 

As it was a Food Net­work recipe, I started by read­ing the com­ments.  At first blush, I thought “Eeeh – breaded chicken might not have too much fla­vor” so I added a lit­tle spice with some of my Cre­ole sea­son­ing (confession:  I put it on mostly every­thing.)   I reduced the Lemon Juice by a bit and it was per­fect!  I served it with Fet­tuc­cine and it was del­ish!  Granted I for­got the sliced lemon gar­nish but I was pleased with it.  Sadly, my sous in train­ing, Wiggs, was unable to try it as it had wine (and grapes + dogs = NOT good) but I made him his own lit­tle breaded cut­let.  See how much help he is in the kitchen?  :::sigh:::

So sleepy — Wiggs was not happy he couldn’t have the sauce.

Seri­ously, add this to your repoir­tire.  You won’t be sorry.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chicken Pic­cata

Recipe adapted from the Bare­foot Con­tessa © 2007, Ina Garten

Ingre­di­ents

• 2 split (1 whole) bone­less, skin­less chicken breasts
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 extra-large egg
• 1/2 table­spoon water
• 3/4 cup sea­soned dry bread crumbs
• Good olive oil
• 3 table­spoons unsalted but­ter, room tem­per­a­ture, divided
• 1/4 to 1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (1–2 lemons), lemon halves reserved
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• Sliced lemon, for serving
• Chopped fresh pars­ley leaves, for serving

Direc­tions

1. Pre­heat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with parch­ment paper.
2. Place each chicken breast between 2 sheets of parch­ment paper or plas­tic wrap and pound out to 1/4-inch thick. Sprin­kle both sides with salt and pepper.
3. Mix the flour, 1/2 tea­spoon salt, 1/4 tea­spoon of Cre­ole Sea­son­ing and 1/4 tea­spoon of pep­per in a shal­low plate. In a sec­ond plate, beat the egg and 1/2 table­spoon of water together. Place the bread crumbs on a third plate. Dip each chicken breast first in the flour, shake off the excess, and then dip in the egg and bread crumb mixtures.
4. Heat 1 table­spoon of olive oil in a large saute pan over medium to medium-low heat. Add the chicken breasts and cook for 2 min­utes on each side, until browned. Place them on the sheet pan and allow them to bake for 5 to 10 min­utes while you make the sauce.
5. For the sauce, wipe out the saute pan with a dry paper towel. Over medium heat, melt 1 table­spoon of the but­ter and then add the lemon juice, wine, the reserved lemon halves, 1/2 tea­spoon salt, and 1/4 tea­spoon pep­per. Boil over high heat until reduced in half, about 2 min­utes. Off the heat, add the remain­ing 2 table­spoons of but­ter and swirl to com­bine. Dis­card the lemon halves and serve 1 chicken breast on each plate.
6. Spoon on the sauce and serve with a slice of lemon and a sprin­kling of fresh parsley.

“