Cooking For Engineers

[Dilbert]

[[modified / adapted from several different sources for our tastes.
for two.]]

this is sliced chicken breast / cutlet with sauce.
zillions of similar recipes use wine - which does work - but this uses just water,
and produces a seriously more clean and fresh taste to the sauce/dish.

ingredients:
two chicken breasts
one lemon
2 T capers
water
flour, salt, fresh ground pepper
olive oil for saute

the prep:
two chicken breasts - sliced in half thickness wise - half inch (12-14mm) thick slices.
perhaps "chicken cutlet" is a more apt description.
that thickness cooks quickly, without overcooking/making outer portions dry/tough/stringy.
salt and refrigerate for 2-4 hours
if schedule time does not permit the salt/fridge routine, use a seasoned flour dredge below.

zest one lemon - micro plane required - and reserve.
- use a reamer/juice the lemon to produce about 2 tbsp/30ml of lemon juice

about one hour prior to start, pat the chicken dry and dredge the chicken in AP flour.
see note above: if chicken breast slices not salted, use seasoned flour (salt/pepper/etc to taste)
allow dredged chicken to air dry on rack - minimum 20 minutes.
re-dredge chicken in AP flour immediately prior to fry step.

the cooking:
my favorite plating is chicken on a twirled pile of fettuccine or linguini - but over rice or ramen or just on the plate works.

- the chicken slices take 3 minutes first side, two minutes second side
- my 10"/25cm fry pan handles three chicken breast 'slabs', but not four
- so I do two fry passes, each with two chicken breast half-thick slabs each
- hence a ten minute chicken frying operation, with dithering - basically = 12 minute pasta boil

- batch one of chicken fried, removed and rested, batch two just removed from pan
- add about half-cup (125ml) water to the pan to dissolve/loose the fond
- add lemon zest + lemon juice + capers to pan, bring to a boil to reduce/thicken
- whisk in 1-2 T (15-30g) of cold butter to thicken
- add (more) water as needed for consistency
- add back chicken to heat; spoon pan sauce over chicken

remove chicken, plate, spoon on pan sauce.
the browning in the pix is from the pat of added butter - makes a yum factor.

looks like: