or it was really last thursday i felt like chicken, but the camera needed charging and yada, yada yada, i am lazy. anyway, i will try to get more on top of this blogging stuff!
so rewind to last thursday morning......
my alarm goes off, i stumble out of bed, refill my thermos with some delicious unsweetened mango iced tea and started singing I feel like chicken tonight! yes, this is a bit of an odd morning song, but it came to me for some reason and hence: the chicken post. of course, chicken tonight was very big in the 80s and was a real easy go-to bottled sauce to marinate chicken during the day and grill later on. and while, i always enjoyed those sauces, i decided to take a bit of inspiration from my mom who always makes delicious mariantes with a dash of this and a smide of that (read: love). so here comes the hotstepper or me: a marinate made right from the kitchen ingredients i already had on hand.
the star:
the marinate ingredients:
white wine, white wine vinegar, olive oil, garlic, shallot, basil, lemon, salt and pepper.
the breading ingredients:
lemon zest, bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, fresh basil, salt and pepper
now the process:
first the breadcrumb mixture:
in a cereal-sezed bowl add: 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs (whatever you have on hand is fine. i had some organic trader joes plain breadcrumbs, but seasoned or fresh is fine); add to that, the zest of 1 whole lemon (then put lemon aside, you will use juice for marinate), 1/3 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, maybe 5 stems fresh basil ripped in. set this aside.
for the marinate:
open storage ziplock, put in 2 big chicken breasts (total weight about 1.25 lbs), seal bag and attempt to flatten. i still don't have a rolling pin, which i only seem to remember when i need a rolling pin, so i used an empty wine bottle to flatten. ( i really need to get a rolling pin, but nothing compares to my mom's wooden one, but i think i may get one of these, thoughts all?)
ok back to the rolling with said wine bottle. this wasn't too successful of an operation. when i was done "flattening," the breasts were still about 3/4 of an inch thick. these were some big boobies!
ok so double bag those fun bags up, add to it the juice of one whole lemon (use the lemon you zested earlier!), 1/2 cup of white wine (put in something you plan on drinking later with the cooked chicken, you will love me), 2 TB of white wine vinegar, 1 teaspoon of olive oil (I used my flavored sweet basil oil), 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic, 1/2 minced shallot, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, handful fresh basil.
make sure bags are really sealed up and mix together, should look like this:
when you're done mixing, and chicken looks evenly coated in baggies, put baggies in bowl to prevent leaking liquid all over your fridge. trust me, you only need to do this once, to learn your lesson. let marinate for about 3 hours. i think you could certainly marinate this longer or shorter, i basically pulled mine out when my husband was home and we were both hungry. come on people, this is cooking, its not rocket science:)
once the chicken is done marinating, remove each breast from the baggie and coat in your breadcrumb mixture from earlier. chicken should be moist enough that the breadcrumb mix adheres to the chicken. however, if you're struggling a bit, don't hesitate to really pat the breadcrumbs to the chicken. set chicken on a plate and put back in the fridge so the mixture really coats to your chicken.
while chicken sits in the fridge for about 10 minutes, disgard your marinate and heat your medium-sized skillet to medium heat. spray with a few sprays and about a teaspoon of your favorite olive oil (I used my shallot oil this time, just to mix it up!)
once the pan is warm, add one chicken breast at a time to the pan right in the middle of all the oil and heat and don't move it! let the chicken cook for about 5-7 minutes, before you flip it. remember my chicken breasts were super thick (about 3/4 of an inch!) and that takes awhile to cook. when you flip your chicken breast should look like this:
YUM!
ok continue cooking on the other side for another 5 minutes. at this point, i sliced the breast right in half and it was still a bit pink in the middle, so i gave it another 3-4 minutes. cooking chicken is tricky and NO ONE wants to get salmonella so its important to be completely sure the chicken is fully cooked before serving. cooking chicken breasts this thick take time and patience, you're basically baby sitting these bad boys and waiting for the juices to run clear when you cut through.
as my chicken needed a few minutes, i took this opportunity to throw together a simple salad of mescalin grees with of course a lemon, white wine, basil and olive oil vinagarette. i also poured myself a large glass of white wine to boot, which i sipped while patiently awaiting my aromatic chicken!
the end result, plated:
can you believe i remembered to take a picture before devouring? this really was quite a tasty and healthy chicken dinner, and the flavor impact was perfect for summer with that crisp white wine and zesty citrus backgrounds.
please attempt and enjoy on a hot summer night in your future!
so rewind to last thursday morning......
my alarm goes off, i stumble out of bed, refill my thermos with some delicious unsweetened mango iced tea and started singing I feel like chicken tonight! yes, this is a bit of an odd morning song, but it came to me for some reason and hence: the chicken post. of course, chicken tonight was very big in the 80s and was a real easy go-to bottled sauce to marinate chicken during the day and grill later on. and while, i always enjoyed those sauces, i decided to take a bit of inspiration from my mom who always makes delicious mariantes with a dash of this and a smide of that (read: love). so here comes the hotstepper or me: a marinate made right from the kitchen ingredients i already had on hand.
the star:
the marinate ingredients:
white wine, white wine vinegar, olive oil, garlic, shallot, basil, lemon, salt and pepper.
the breading ingredients:
lemon zest, bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, fresh basil, salt and pepper
now the process:
first the breadcrumb mixture:
in a cereal-sezed bowl add: 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs (whatever you have on hand is fine. i had some organic trader joes plain breadcrumbs, but seasoned or fresh is fine); add to that, the zest of 1 whole lemon (then put lemon aside, you will use juice for marinate), 1/3 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, maybe 5 stems fresh basil ripped in. set this aside.
for the marinate:
open storage ziplock, put in 2 big chicken breasts (total weight about 1.25 lbs), seal bag and attempt to flatten. i still don't have a rolling pin, which i only seem to remember when i need a rolling pin, so i used an empty wine bottle to flatten. ( i really need to get a rolling pin, but nothing compares to my mom's wooden one, but i think i may get one of these, thoughts all?)
ok back to the rolling with said wine bottle. this wasn't too successful of an operation. when i was done "flattening," the breasts were still about 3/4 of an inch thick. these were some big boobies!
ok so double bag those fun bags up, add to it the juice of one whole lemon (use the lemon you zested earlier!), 1/2 cup of white wine (put in something you plan on drinking later with the cooked chicken, you will love me), 2 TB of white wine vinegar, 1 teaspoon of olive oil (I used my flavored sweet basil oil), 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic, 1/2 minced shallot, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, handful fresh basil.
make sure bags are really sealed up and mix together, should look like this:
when you're done mixing, and chicken looks evenly coated in baggies, put baggies in bowl to prevent leaking liquid all over your fridge. trust me, you only need to do this once, to learn your lesson. let marinate for about 3 hours. i think you could certainly marinate this longer or shorter, i basically pulled mine out when my husband was home and we were both hungry. come on people, this is cooking, its not rocket science:)
once the chicken is done marinating, remove each breast from the baggie and coat in your breadcrumb mixture from earlier. chicken should be moist enough that the breadcrumb mix adheres to the chicken. however, if you're struggling a bit, don't hesitate to really pat the breadcrumbs to the chicken. set chicken on a plate and put back in the fridge so the mixture really coats to your chicken.
while chicken sits in the fridge for about 10 minutes, disgard your marinate and heat your medium-sized skillet to medium heat. spray with a few sprays and about a teaspoon of your favorite olive oil (I used my shallot oil this time, just to mix it up!)
once the pan is warm, add one chicken breast at a time to the pan right in the middle of all the oil and heat and don't move it! let the chicken cook for about 5-7 minutes, before you flip it. remember my chicken breasts were super thick (about 3/4 of an inch!) and that takes awhile to cook. when you flip your chicken breast should look like this:
YUM!ok continue cooking on the other side for another 5 minutes. at this point, i sliced the breast right in half and it was still a bit pink in the middle, so i gave it another 3-4 minutes. cooking chicken is tricky and NO ONE wants to get salmonella so its important to be completely sure the chicken is fully cooked before serving. cooking chicken breasts this thick take time and patience, you're basically baby sitting these bad boys and waiting for the juices to run clear when you cut through.
as my chicken needed a few minutes, i took this opportunity to throw together a simple salad of mescalin grees with of course a lemon, white wine, basil and olive oil vinagarette. i also poured myself a large glass of white wine to boot, which i sipped while patiently awaiting my aromatic chicken!
the end result, plated:
can you believe i remembered to take a picture before devouring? this really was quite a tasty and healthy chicken dinner, and the flavor impact was perfect for summer with that crisp white wine and zesty citrus backgrounds.please attempt and enjoy on a hot summer night in your future!
white wine + lemon + oil = one of my favorite combinations in life. good work on crisping the outside of the chicken!
ReplyDeleteI love big breasts!
ReplyDelete