Ok seriously. This was SO easy. Even the cleanup was easy – ONE pan. That was it. Well, of course the ramekins from making individual Spinach-Parmesan Souffles had to be cleaned too. But as far as the main dish, I think one pan to clean is awesome. Plus the flavor was amazing.
Now, you can certainly pan fry the chicken as the recipe says to do. I, however, have this lingered hatred for anything that happens to even slightly taste like fried chicken. Not that pan frying it will make it taste anything like fried chicken, but I was trying to play it safe. The reason I dislike fried chicken is, not for health reasons, I wish I could say it was. No, it’s because when I was pregnant with my oldest child, Linus, fried chicken was one of those things…you know….that you cannot eat even if you were starving to death. Unfortunately for my husband this dislike of fried chicken has never gone away completely and when I am pregnant it returns to it’s full force.
So since I am, once again pregnant, I decided to err on the side of caution and butter poach the chicken. It really is a very simple way to cook the chicken. It requires only that you do stand at the stove a little longer and more butter.
But I always like using more butter. Until about 5 months from now when I have given birth and start working out again. But I’ll deal with that later.
(serves 4)
Ingredients
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 stick butter, divided (more like 1 1/2 sticks if you are going to butter poach it)
1 tablespoon finely ground fennel seeds
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons capers, drained and chopped
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
Preparation Instructions
1. Heat oil and butter in a large skillet over medium heat.
2. Combine the ground fennel seed, salt and pepper together and sprinkle on both sides of each chicken breast.
3. Place the chicken breasts in the pan and cook until cooked all the way through and nicely browned on both sides. Remove from pan and place on a plate or serving tray and cover with foil to keep warm.
Alternately: if you would like to butter poach the chicken, place 1 stick butter in the pan over medium heat. Once melted add the chicken and turn up to medium-high. Using a large spoon, continuously pour melted butter over the chicken. Once the pan side of the chicken is nicely browned, flip the chicken and continue pouring butter over it until the other side is nicely browned and the chicken is cooked through. Continue with the rest of the recipe.
4. Add the capers and orange juice to the pan and cook, stirring until thickened about 2-3 minutes. Remove the pan from heat and stir in the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter.
5. Pour the sauce over the chicken and serve.
Thanks for the recipe: http://www.epicurious.com
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