Lemony and Delicious Chicken French

Chicken French.  The ultimate Rochester entrée.  The perfect combination of savory white wine, tangy lemon, and hearty chicken: light, flavorful.  Delicious.  And really, not hard to make at all.  I always serve mine over angel hair pasta and some alfredo sauce.  When I’m being lazy and don’t make my own alfredo, I always use Wegman’s alfredo sauce- first of all, it’s absolutely delicious, and second of all, it has fewer fat/calories than a lot of the other brands on the shelves.

Redhead’s Chicken French: served with angel hair pasta and alfredo sauce.

-1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast pieces, sliced (or pounded) thin [tip: Wegmans packages thin sliced boneless skinless chicken breasts- it cuts a lot of your prep work in half to buy them packaged like this]

-2 eggs

-1/4 cup parmesan cheese

-1 tsp oregano

-1 tsp basil

-1 tsp garlic powder

-1 tsp each salt & pepper

-1/2 cup flour

-olive oil

-2 tbsp butter

-2 cloves garlic, minced

-1 cup chicken broth

-1/2 cup white cooking wine (or regular white wine, just make sure it’s on the dryer side.  A sweet wine would probably make this taste a little funky)

-1/4 cup lemon juice

-1 lemon, sliced

-parsley

-1 box angel hair pasta

-1 jar alfredo sauce

*note: it looks like a lot of food in my pictures, because I made a double batch tonight.  

Fill a large stock pot with water, add 4 tbsp salt (salting your pasta water adds flavor to your pasta), and 4 tbsp olive oil.  Bring the water to a boil.  While the water is heating up, in a small bowl, beat together the two eggs, parmesan cheese,  oregano, basil, and garlic powder.  In another small bowl, blend together the flour, salt, and pepper.

In a large skillet, over medium high heat, heat enough olive oil to evenly (and just barely) coat the bottom of the skillet.  Dredge (coating both sides) each piece of chicken in the flour mixture, then dredge the chicken in the egg mixture.  

Place in the hot skillet.

 Cook for several minutes, until the one side has turned a dark, golden brown, then flip over.

Brown the other side, cooking until the chicken is cooked through.  Remove the chicken from the pan and place on a plate with papertowels.  Add the garlic.  Vigorously stir (to prevent the garlic from burning) until the garlic has lightly browned.

Add the wine.

Bring the garlic/wine to a boil, and allow it to reduce for about 5 minutes or so.  Reducing the wine allows the flavors to concentrate, aka making the dish more flavorful.  Next, add the lemon juice and chicken broth.

Bring the mixture a boil again and allow it to reduce for 5 more minutes or so.  While the sauce is reducing again, pour the jar of alfredo sauce in a small saucepan, and over medium heat, warm the sauce, stirring occasionally.

Multi-tasking at its best!  After the sauce has finished reducing, add the butter.

Melt the butter.  Bring the mixture back to a boil, and add the chicken.  Now add the angel hair to the boiling pot of water.  The pasta and the chicken will be done in 3-4 mins.

Drain the pasta, and add a little bit of olive oil to prevent the pasta from sticking together too bad.  Remove the chicken from the heat, add the sliced lemon, and sprinkle with parsley. 

Yum.  I plate mine with a base of angel hair pasta, a scoop of the lemon-wine sauce, a scoop of the alfredo sauce, and the chicken on top.  I also served this dinner with garlic bread and a garden salad. 

Make it for your family!  They will love you for it, I promise!