Chicken Piccata (but I cheated a bit)

I was planning on making Ina Garten's Chicken Piccata the other evening for dinner, a classic Italian recipe from one of her cookbooks that I've been wanting to try for awhile. On my way home from D.C. on Sunday, I drove by a Trader Joe's and decided to stop because we don't have these stores in central Pennsylvania. As I was browsing the aisles and filling my basket, I came across a jar of piccata sauce. Anticipating my high level of tiredness, I stood in front of the jars and thought, should I buy this jar or continue to collect the ingredients to make my own sauce??!! In a few seconds, I grabbed the jar and continued walking along! I did use Ina's recipe to prepare the chicken.

The jar of piccata sauce... oh and you can see the box of my new favorite granola in the background: HempPlus. Yum!!

Here is the recipe for Ina's entire dish. Again, this time only made the chicken. And I served it with pasta.

4 split boneless, skinless chicken breasts

salt and pepper

1 cup flour

2 extra-large eggs

1 1/2 cup dried bread crumbs

olive oil

3 tablespoons butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice, reserving lemon halves

1/2 cup dry white wine

sliced lemon for serving

chopped parsley for serving

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Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a sheet pan with parchment papper.

Place each chicken breast between 2 sheets of parchment paper or plastic wrap (but I put a single breast in a sandwich bag) and pound it out to 1/4-inch thick. Sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper.

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Mix the flour, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper on a shallow plate. In a second plate, beat the eggs and 1 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 then the bread crumbs.

Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large saute pan over medium to medium low heat. Add 2 chicken breasts and cook for a few minutes on each side, until browned. Place them on the baking sheet while you cook the rest of the chicken. Heat 2 more tablespoons in the saute pan and cook the second 2 chicken breasts. Place them on the same sheet pan and allow them to bake for 10 minutes (or until done) while making the sauce.

For the sauce, wipe out the saute plan with a dry paper towel. On medium heat, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter and then add the lemon juice, white wine, the reserved lemon halves, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and a 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Boil over high heat until reduced by half, about 2 minutes. Off the heat, add the remaining 2 tablespoons buttter and swirl to combine. Discard the lemon halves. Serve one chicken breast on each plate, spoon on the sauce and garnish with lemon slices and parsley.

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Here's my chicken from Ina's recipe, the Trader Giotto's piccata sauce and pasta. The sauce was quite good and had some capers in it which gave it a nice tart ting so I'm sure you can add some to Ina's sauce too.

If you're ever at a Trader Joe's I recommend picking up a jar of their piccata!

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