DRIVE BY RECIPE: PAN ROAST CHICKEN BREAST - make it fast, eat it with everything... immediate dinner or the best leftover chicken ever!

Yeah, well, I'm usually too poor (or stingy) to buy boneless, skinless chicken breasts.  I also think it's the least tasty, least tender, least juicy bit of the bird.  HOWEVER, my local #HEB will sometimes put their chicken on at such a sale price I simply have to buy it.

Such was the case today.

Pay close attention, this goes fast... it's a

DRIVE BY RECIPE; Pan roasted Chicken Breast

Ingredients:

Chicken breasts, however many you want.
You MUST pound it, gently, to be the same thickness all the way across the piece.  Obviously, don't pound the thin end but just get it relatively balanced.  That's the secret to this whole process.
Salt
Pepper
Plain oil, grapeseed, corn, canola, something that can get HOT

One stainless frying pan, or cast iron.  It needs to go into the oven.

Here you go:

Heat pan to smoking, add a little oil to coat the bottom of the pan, put chicken in.
DO NOT TOUCH it, seriously.
When you see color on the sides, flip, shake to be sure it's not sticking (it's not, trust me, if your pan is hot enough, you're fine)
Put pan in PREHEATED 400 degree oven, hit timer 10 minutes.

Remove pan, remove chicken, cover and leave to rest 10 minutes. IF you're in the mood, make a quick pan sauce by adding a little flour to make a roux then add some stock or water to just shush around the pan to get the bits up.  OR you can simply pour in a little heavy cream and a splash of chicken stock into the pan and shush it around till it gets thick. Add chicken back into sauce for a few minutes so soak up some.

Add any juices around your chicken to the sauce, slice chicken, serve, eat, repeat :)

Here's the shots:

Pound chicken, into a screaming hot pan, flip and into a 400 degree oven for 10, then rest for 10 then eat :)

   

 

OR to do just one for sandwiches later :)

  

  

LOOK how juicy and tender that chicken is...  wow, sometimes I delight myself :D

I wanted a vinaigrette for this piece of chicken.  I'm going to slice it and use half in a sandwich and half with a salad.  Heat the pan and add a little olive oil, a little vinegar and shush it around to scrape up the dark bits, add a smidge of water and pour it into a little jar and use later... mmmmmm

   

/enjoy

Pan roasted Chicken with Sugarsnaps

My local HEB  puts chicken breasts on sale frequently.  I can buy these three breasts, skin on, bone in, for $3.00.  Really?  They also had sugar snaps peas on sale the other day so I grabbed a handful that cost me $1.00.  Ok, $4.00 spent and I'm about to put a sweet meal on the table.  The 3 of us will eat well, these are huge breasts and when you cook them with skin and bone, they stay ridiculously flavorful and moist and juicy, yeah, it makes me happy.  

Salt and pepper the chicken liberally and drizzle with some olive oil.

  

After they are browned DARK on the skin side, flip them, let them sizzle for a moment and pour some water or chicken stock or wine in the pan.  WHOA, steam and it boils like crazy, we like that!

I squeezed half a lemon into the molten juices and tossed the lemon in the pot as well as a clove of garlic. I put the pan in a 400 degree oven until the chicken was just cooked through, 20 minutes I think these took, I just stab a knife in the thickest part to be sure they're done. Take them out of the oven, put them on a plate and cover them loosely with foil, we don't want the crispy skin to sog out on us.

  

Ah, my resting beauties.  In the mean time, put the pan on pretty high heat and stir up all the chickeny juices, I added a drizzle of cream but you can just boil it down to have a think juice to pour over.  It's your call.  Cream is better though ;)  Add a few scrapes of nutmeg into the sauce and let it boil like crazy to reduce and thicken up.  It'l also darken from the brown bits on the bottom.
   

I picked the ends off my sugar snap peas, tossed them into a steamer and turned the heat off and let them sit there for a few minutes.  We like crisp tender here.  Toss them with a little butter, salt and pepper and voila, the veg done! 

  

When the peas are done, the sauce has thickened.  I had some corn in a can I heated up to add to the plate.  I cut the chicken off the bone in one large piece and sliced it, added the peas and corn and drizzled the thickened sauce over all.
  

About an hour from deciding we needed dinner to sitting down eating a pretty nice feast.  It's fresh, delicious, filling and light all at the same time.  It also fed us WELL for $4.00 and there was leftovers which will be a cold chicken/pea/corn salad tomorrow that I'll toss with a little mayo, lemon juice, curry powder and tarragon.  I will pile it into one of my french baguettes, sliced length ways and lightly toasted and I might just like meal 2 as much as meal 1!   

Hope you make it, you'll certainly enjoy it!! 

/enjoy!

Chicken Scallopini, that's what's for dinner

Ok, so HEB has split chicken breasts on sale for $1.00/lb again. Go, load up, it's crazy cheap and you can roast them with skin and bone or you can take the meat off and make my ridiculous cheap, tasty and easy chicken scallopini as well as about a million other recipes.

See me be lazy about it today, I'm going to send you back to www.examiner.com to check out the details. I tried their slideshow option, let me know what you think.

http://www.examiner.com/budget-meals-in-austin/chicken-scallopini

Cooler weather and cheap chicken are too tempting for me and since Connor loves loves loves this meal, it's his favorite directly behind my schnitzel and buttered noodles, I think I'll make it for him soon. I have recently been making my ciabatta dough recipe, half of it and laying it as a big blob on parchment paper after it's initial rise. Poke finger holes in it, drizzle it with olive oil and hide minced garlic in the holes so it doesn't burn. Let it sit on the counter until the oven is 500 degrees and bake it off util it's cooked. It has a different texture and more a true foccacia than other recipes I've tried. It's a nice addition.

Anyway, Connor's had a rough time these last two weeks. Since today is mom/son night, maybe I'll do it as a special dinner for us to reconnect, talk about the pain in the butt that is middle school and be sure we're both still doing ok.

Let me know what you think about the recipe and slideshow - oh and go make it, it's crazy good!

Dinner for 3? Oh you'll need one piece of chicken for that...

Ok, so I do know this is lame (the cross link rather than writing it all out again) but I'm crushed for time and wanted to link the two. I cooked and I wrote today.

I will be submitting piece/s to eatingeverywhere tomorrow and will link them through here as well.

I'll be honest, I'm a little sick of chicken, and I wonder if the examiner thinks chicken is the only thing I cook. The whole point of being the 'budget meal examiner', in my mind, was to supply information on cooking on a budget and I'm going by what the stores are putting on special to that end. I think HEB needs to put something ELSE on sale in the next little while. I did manage to do something 'new' with it today and frankly, I was thrilled at the outcome. Instead of writing it all out, here's the direct link.

A meal for 3 out of one chicken breast, c'mon, that's impressive :)

http://www.examiner.com/x-53128-Austin-Budget-Meals-Examiner~y2010m7d1-Chicken-dinner-for-3-with-one-piece-of-chicken

Make it. Oh and no, I have no idea what I'm doing with the other two breasts I cooked at the same time. Ala Scarlett O'Hara, I'll worry about that tomorrow.

/tracy