Chicken Piccata with Crashed Hot Potatoes and Asparagus

Sometimes, I have a bad habit of not finishing my plate. I don't know why. But most of the time I eat 2/3rd's of my plate (even at home). A lot of times I will just leave one last bite, feeling that I am not capable of finishing. Maybe it is Scot's fault? When we go out, he always finishes my plate (as most of you know). So maybe some part of my brain is programmed to give myself 1.5 times the amount of food I actually want?!?!? Who knows. Bottom line. I ate my whole plate tonight. Because I was obsessed with this meal. I would rate this meal 5 Scot Happy Faces. Out of five. If I had a rating system.

Been blogging now for however long and I vote this meal my new favorite. So good. So so good. I should probably start talking about the recipes now since all I have done is shown you my empty plate and congratulated myself.

Let's start with the Chicken Piccata. First, this recipe is really versatile. It is really a method rather than a recipe. Cooking chicken cutlets and then making a quick pan sauce out of the crusty stuff on the pan is the method. Chicken Piccata calls for lemon, capers, chicken broth and butter to make the sauce. However, you could use any sort of aromatics you choose (fresh herbs, onions, olives, shallots, garlic, etc) with any liquid to deglaze the pan (wine, other broths/stocks, other citrus, juice, vinegar, etc). The lemon/caper combo wins in my book, though.

Chicken Piccata

from the Joy of Cooking with modifications by foodforscot

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Salt

Black Pepper

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 tbsp butter

1 1/2 tbsp olive oil

1‐3 tbsp of minced shallots or scallions (optional)

1 cup chicken broth or stock

juice of two lemons (or about 3‐4 tbsp)

2 tbsp drained small capers

1‐3 tbsp butter

Trim fat off chicken breasts. Remove tenderloin and tendon if they are there. Butterfly each breast by slicing in half along the thinnest side. Separate the two halves, resulting in two very thin cutlets. Pound each cutlet out, between plastic

wrap, with a meat mallet or the flat side of a tenderizer. Season each side of the four cutlets with salt and pepper. Dredge in flour.

Preheat a heavy bottomed skillet over medium high (preferably stainless steal) and put in 1 1/2 tbsp of each butter and olive oil. Once pan is very hot, shake excess flour off cutlets and fry each side for 2‐3 minutes. Do in batches and set aside.

If pan is dry, add a little more oil and the scallions. Cook for about 1 minute. Add chicken broth and deglaze pan, scraping up browned bits from the bottom. Add lemon juice and capers. Reduce sauce by half or whatever you want. Add some

butter to finish sauce.

Add chicken and drippings to sauce. Turn to chicken to coat. Serving chicken with sauce spooned over top.

(Servings: 2, Prep time: 15 min., Cook time: 15 min., Difficulty: Easy)

Printable Version

To go with the chicken, I also made Crash Hot Potatoes. I thought they were called Crush Hot Potatoes. Because you make them by boiling new potatoes, placing on a sheet pan, and crushing them. Pioneer Woman calls them crash, so I will too. And they are amazing. They are kind of a cross between a baked potato and roasted potatoes. I loved them. They are super easy to make if you don't fret about about the imperfectness of smashing them. See...while you smash them, you might have a small anxiety attack thinking that you are completely ruining everything. They break up quite a bit. Get all over the place. Etc. Not that this happened to me. I was completely calm. Anyways, the truth is, you can't ruin them. When you smash them, try to press lightly so that they don't break into pieces. But if they do...just shove them back together. It don't matter. PS: I used both red potatoes and yukon golds. The red potatoes were easier to work with but to yukon golds were tastier. Both really good though.

Crashed Hot Potatoes

by Pioneer Woman with slight modifications by foodforscot

whole New Potatoes (or Other Small Round Potatoes)

Olive Oil

Kosher Salt To Taste

Black Pepper To Taste

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add in as many potatoes as you wish to make and cook them until they are fork‐tender.

On a sheet pan, generously drizzle olive oil. Place tender potatoes on the cookie sheet leaving plenty of room between each potato. With a potato masher, gently press down each potato until it slightly mashes, rotate the potato masher 90 degrees

and mash again. Brush/drizzle the tops of each crushed potato generously with more olive oil.

Sprinkle potatoes with kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper. Bake in a 450 degree oven for 20‐25 minutes until golden brown.

(Servings: depends, Prep time: 30 min., Cook time: 25 min., Difficulty: easy)

Printable Version

This is my dog. He may look like he is begging, but really he just loves me.