chicken piccata with capers and tarragon

I keep some abnormal hours at the bakery. Most tend to start very early in the day - between 4 and 6 am - whereas I start my ten hour shift at 8:30 am and finish at 6:30. After my hour long commute from Williamsburg to the Upper East Side, it's 7:30 and the absolute last thing I want to do is make dinner. That's where this 20-minute chicken piccata comes in. 

Chicken piccata is a classic Italian preparation, piccata meaning to dredge something in flour and serve with a wine, butter, and lemon sauce. You can use any protein and veal is a classic preparation. Here, we've used a chicken breast and I've added capers for a hit of bright brininess and herbal tarragon. (It's a thing of mine, really, to throw tarragon in everything I can.) It's fast as hell - going from raw ingredients to your plate in less than twenty minutes - and easy to throw together. 

1 skinless, boneless chicken breast
1.5 tsp salt
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup white wine
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp capers
2 tbsp tarragon, minced

Preheat oven to 350. Mix salt with flour. Dredge chicken on both sides in flour mixture. Heat a 10" skillet over high heat. Add oil and allow to get very hot. Place chicken, top side down, gently in the pan. Cook until it forms a golden brown crust and comes away from the pan easily, about 3-4 minutes. Repeat on opposite side. Remove pan from heat and place in oven. Remove when chicken is 160 degrees Fahrenheit and allow to rest for five minutes.

Meanwhile, pour the oil out of the pan and add wine, lemon juice, capers, and tarragon. Reduce halfway. Mix in butter, one tbsp at a time, stirring constantly. Serve chicken with pan sauce drizzled on top.

culinary 101: let's cook chicken marsala

so, you've got some knife skills and you know how to saute. now what can we get in our hands to cook?

let's start with something that sounds fancy as hell but is a perfect beginner meal - chicken marsala. first - what is it? chicken marsala is a classic Italian-American immigrant dish made of chicken, cremini mushrooms, and Marsala wine. There are a few different variations on a theme - the most traditional method involves dredging a chicken cutlet and then creating the reduction sauce. there are other methods of braising the chicken directly in the marsala. here, we're going to try a more modern technique of getting a nice crispy skin from sauteing and then deglazing to make that beautiful, complex sauce. 

chicken marsala's a standard dish from culinary school curriculums, often taught while learning saute. it's a great skill to have in your repetoire because it's not only delicious but it reinforces knowledge of chicken cooking times, saute technique, and how to make a great pan sauce.

2 chicken breasts
1 oz canola oil
1/4 cup marsala wine
2 oz chicken stock
2 oz porcini or cremini mushrooms, cleaned and sliced*
1 oz shallots, minced
1 oz butter

*a note on cleaning mushrooms - never run them or soak them in water - mushrooms are incredibly porous and will soak the water up and get slimy. instead, use a clean towel to brush the dirt away.

preheat oven to 350.

heat a large (10 inch) saute pan over high heat. add canola oil and swirl around in pan. get it smoking hot. season your chicken on either side and gently lay skin side down (going away from your body with the motion so any oil doesn't splash you) in the pan. cook several minutes or until skin is golden brown and crispy. flip. cook another 3-4 minutes. place entire pan (if oven safe) in oven for about 7-8 minutes or until chicken comes to internal temp of 160. remove from pan and let rest 3-4 minutes. flip once.

off heat, add the marsala wine to the pan. stir to get that brown chicken residue (this is the fond, this has most of your flavor) up and into your sauce. turn heat to high and reduce wine to au sec or almost dry. add chicken stock. stir. add mushrooms, shallots, and butter. stir often until  sauce becomes thick and glossy and covers the back of a spoon easily, like syrup. 

serve spooned over chicken.

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pan-roasted chicken thighs on rye toasts with warm parsley brown-butter vinaigrette

one night, late in march, i spent a day trailing in the prune kitchen. before it, i poured over the entire cookbook, fascinated by chef gabrielle hamilton's kitchen language (walk in. hotel pan. mise en place) and her dedication to presenting simply good, well-executed, well-conceived food. during the trail, i became fascinated by a grilled pigeon with a warm parsley vinaigrette served on top of a rye toast. i ordered it that night and ate it up with a glass of wine at my elbow. i picked the bones up and tore the skin with my teeth. i'm sure other patrons watched but i didn't care.

two weeks later, i was back in michigan preparing easter dinner for my family. i still couldn't get my mind off the bird i'd had at prune, so i decided to do a variant on it. this is it.

birds
4 skin-on chicken thighs
3 tbsp. fennel pollen
1 tsp ground and toasted ancho chile 
1 oz canola oil
kosher salt
black pepper

vinaigrette
1/4 lb. butter
2 tbsp honey
1/2 cup parsley leaves
4 parsley stems with leaves
1/4 cup cider vinegar 
pinch kosher salt
pinch cracked black pepper

toast
4 pieces rye, toasted
1 tsp ground and toasted ancho chile 
 

pat the thighs dry. season. rub fennel powder and ancho chile into skin. allow to sit, open to the air, in the refrigerator for at least one hour or overnight (this helps to dry the skin and achieve a crispy crust). 

preheat oven to 400. get large sautepan hot. add the canola oil, swish it around. get it smoking hot. add the thighs skin-side down. allow to cook until golden brown. flip once and continue for 3-5 minutes on the other side. (if your pan doesn't fit all thighs, do this in batches.) place in oven for ten minutes or until birds register 160 degrees Fahrenheit. remove and allow to rest, turning once, for three minutes.

in a small mixing bowl, combine cider vinegar, honey, salt, and cracked black pepper. set aside. in a small sautepan, heat the butter, stirring often, over med-high heat. once butter begins to brown and smell nutty, remove from heat. slowly pour butter into the mixing bowl with vinegar mixture, whisking rapidly and constantly. you're looking for this to emulsify. 

serve the birds atop toast. sprinkle toast with ground chiles and any extra fennel pollen. pour vinaigrette tableside over the birds. be heavy-handed and soak thoroughly through the toasts. top with parsley stems.

Yum