« Dining out and about (Orange County): California eating | Home | Cooking scales of justice? »
Can’t stop cooking with the Contessa
By Ann | January 7, 2008
I thought I could stop after only two recipes but, as it turns out, now that I’ve started cooking from Barefoot Contessa at Home: Everyday recipes you’ll make over and over again I can’t quit. Garten’s recipes are just so appealing (the beautiful photos don’t hurt either), not to mention easy. I shook off my Secret Single Food apathy to make a foray into shoeless Italian royalty with chicken piccata.
This has all the basics of your Garten-variety (ha ha) chicken piccata — pounded chicken breast, flour, egg wash, bread crumbs — but Garten browns both sides of the coated chicken breast in olive oil, finishing the meat in a 400 degree oven. This made for exquisitely tender and juicy chicken, though one side of the coating was too soggy, not crunchy – next time I would place the browned piccatas on a baking rack within the oven. The tangy sauce featured white wine and lemon juice and — Garten’s trademark — heavy amounts butter, which I eliminated, using a bit of olive oil instead. I accompanied the chicken with buttermilk pureed potatoes-cauliflower, but I think roasted cauliflower would be a better match. The above photo is from the Food Network.
Topics: Cooking the Books, The Outlaw Chef |
One Response to “Can’t stop cooking with the Contessa”
Comments
« Dining out and about (Orange County): California eating | Home | Cooking scales of justice? »
January 8th, 2008 at 1:39 am
Yum! I love lemon with chicken especially one with a crust that will sop up the sauce. And sauteing in a nonstick pan with a modicum of olive oil is the perfect preamble to finishing it in a hot oven. We may have that for dinner tomorrow!