That day came up about 48 hours later when I needed to use the breasts I'd grabbed at Wally's. No, I was not randomly grabbing women at Walmart. They had chicken on sale. Get your mind out of the gutter, perv.
Ok, so I had chicken and dried figs, and really wasn't in the mood to be stuffing and rolling breasts, because that can be a bit of a finicky operation and I wanted something a little more 'quick and dirty'. As per usual I dug around online for a while and found a recipe here that I started from and did some tinkering. Generally, I tinker based on available ingredients and general laziness. Tinkering with established recipes makes me feel like I'm getting all cheffy and increases my domestication faction just a little. The thing about that particular recipe that really turned my crank is that it involved pounding the breasts out with a mallet. One of the best things about cooking when you have 2 kids under the age of 4 (and their associated father) around is WHACKING THE POOP out of some meat. I love meat whacking recipes. Cooking therapy.
Anyway, I ramble and digress. It's my thing. Scroll to the bottom if you just want the recipe without the diatribe.
So, on with it then...
Unroll a long stretch of plastic cling-wrap, long enough to go double over your chicken breasts once they are smooshed. Put your chicken down on the plastic and fold it over the top so it's all covered and then when you get into the therapeutic and primal pounding of flesh you don't get raw bits of chicken flying all over your kitchen, into the backsplash, on the appliances, up under the cupboards, etc. It defeats the purpose of letting out your frustrations if you have to turn around and detail your kitchen as a result. Ok, so whack your chicken. Recipes always say "pound until they are XX inches thick". Do not get a ruler, don't be ridiculous. Just beat it until you feel better and they're all about the same thickness throughout. Try to stop before you turn them into a fine paste.
Take a breath. You are now zen and may continue with the actual cooking part.
Alright so dredge the meat in some flour that you cleverly spiced up with some stuff. I used onion powder and since I lacked tarragon, I shook some herbs de provence in there because that is one of my favorite magic ingredients. Put a pan on and crank it up. You want to brown the dredged meat, so you want it fairly hot. Not max, you're not boiling water, but I usually go to about 7 on my stove. Can I just say that I love my glass top? I don't feel as awesome and dangerous as I would if I had a gas range, but you can't have everything.
Alright, brown the meat. Do you need directions for that? Use butter. Not margarine, that stuff will kill you. Use butter to brown meat! Cut it with a little oil if you want, it allows the temp to get higher and the butter doesn't burn as much. At least that's what I learned one day on a cooking show a few years ago, so now I just state it as fact. Generally about 4 - 6 minutes a side depending on how angry you were when you started pounding and how hot your pan is, etc. If in doubt, cut through one and see if it's cooked. You're not serving in a restaurant, your kids don't care if there's a cut mark where you checked done-ness. You will probably need to do 2 batches of chicken because you don't want to totally crowd out the pan, and the only downside of meat whacking is it increases surface area thus reducing the number of pieces you can cook at once.
In the meantime...
Put your balsamic vinegar in a small saucepan and boil it. If you are using dried figs, I would chop them up now and toss them in so they have more time to kinda reconstitute. If you are using fresh figs, hold off till after you reduce the vinegar. Once you get it boiling, reduce the heat to about 3ish so it simmers. It will smell like a vinegar factory, if you didn't already have the hood fan on because of the browning chicken, now is the time to turn it on. Your hubby will be all "What the heck are you doing in there?". Tell him to shut it and mind the kids, the vinegary taste will be gone once we're finished. Reduce the vinegar until it gets pretty syrupy. If you're unsure, dip a spoon into it and watch it drip off. If it kinda clings approximately like pancake syrup but not quite as thick as honey, you're good to go. If you haven't tossed the figs in, do that now. Also put a couple large squirts of honey and a large chunk of butter and stir it in till it's mixed and melted and stuff. I shook a little more herbs de provence in the sauce too. Worked just fine. If karma is on your side, the chicken and the sauce will be done around the same time. Serve the chicken with the sauce spooned on it.
On the side:
While things were browning and reducing I realized we needed some veggies, so I quickly hacked up a few carrots, an onion and a red pepper or two, sauteed them in butter in a hot pan till they were cooked and then candied them up a bit with a little honey to match the main dish. Worked nicely.
The verdict:
Loved it! The flavour is not at all vinegary and not too sweet. It's kind of rich and sweet-ish and yummy - almost raisiny. It very strongly reminded me of my Grandma's chutney that I now need to get the recipe for from my mom. The kids even ate it, although little miss drama made a scene about it, because she's 3, but she did eventually eat it.
The ingredients:
- 4 skinless boneless chicken breasts
- 1/2c flour
- a dash or 2 onion powder
- a few dashes of herbs de provence or tarragon or basil or something along those lines
- 1/2c balsamic vinegar
- 6 tbsp butter (2tbsp to brown the chicken in, 1/4c or so for the sauce)
- 3 tbsp honey (aka a couple large globs)
- 5 or 6 figs, dried or fresh, chopped up into bits
The short version:
- Pound out the chicken
- Dredge the chicken in a mixture of flour, onion powder, herbs de provence, etc.
- In a large frying pan brown the chicken in butter in 1 or 2 batches
- In a small saucepan boil and reduce the vinegar to a syrup
- Stir in the chopped figs, butter, honey, bit of herbs
- Serve chicken with the sauce spooned over it
No comments:
Post a Comment