Chicken Piccata

Chicken Piccata

I love going to Italian restaurants and getting Chicken Piccata. One of my favorites is at Maggianos Little Italy. If you have one in your area-- go! It's so yummy. Sadly, it is breaded and the sauce is made with white wine, so it's not very induction (let alone Atkins) friendly. I had to find a good substitute. Some recipes for Chicken Piccata leave your chicken with a bland sauce or rubbery chicken. (yuck.) This recipe returns a delicious lemony sauce atop sautéed chicken. Remember to not overcook your chicken-- the cutlets only need about 4 minutes to cook.

Also, a great kitchen gadget to have that works wonders in this recipe is a Mandolin. I have one like this. It is great for slicing the shallot nice and thin and you can use the thicker slice guide to slice the lemon. (Plus it takes about a whole minute to slice both of them! How great is that?) Uniform slices and saves time! Go get one!

....................

Chicken Piccata

Serves 4

4.6 Net carbs

-8 Thin Boneless Chicken Breast Cutlets (about 4 oz each), or make your own by using 4 breasts and cut them in half.

-Salt and Pepper

-4 tbs Olive Oil

-1 Garlic clove, minced

-1 Shallot, thinly sliced

-1 cup Chicken Broth

-1 Large Lemon, sliced in about 1/4" slices

-1/2 large lemon, juiced

-1 tbs capers, with juice

-3 tbs butter in three slices, chilled.

-1 tsp Italian Seasoning spice

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Dry your cutlets and salt and pepper them.

2. Heat 2 tbs oil in a large skillet over medium high heat until just smoking. Add 1/2 of your cutlets and cook until golden brown on both sides.

REMEMBER: These cutlets take only about 4 minutes to cook. DO NOT overcook them. You will end up with rubbery chicken. Rubbery=icky.

Remove from pan and put on a plate in the oven to keep warm. Repeat with the remaining oil and remaining chicken.

3. Add the shallot and garlic to the remaining oil in the skillet. cook over medium heat until soft- about 2 minutes. Add the chicken broth and lemon slices, while scraping up the browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Let simmer for a few minutes until it thickens up a bit.

4. Stir in lemon juice, capers and accumulated chicken juice from the plate in the oven. Integrate well. Then, remove from heat and add the butter, a piece at a time waiting until the piece is fully melted and integrated in the sauce before adding another. Stir in Italian Seasoning and salt and pepper to taste. Plate your chicken and spoon the sauce over before serving.