Chicken with Lemon Sauce

When I was visiting Mom a few weeks back we had so much fun cooking together.  Making old family favorites, and some new ones too.

One dish my mom always likes to make is Chicken with Lemon Sauce.  She absolutely LOVES LOVES LOVES lemon anything, but especially lemon chicken, be it stir fry or Italian style...anything lemon goes! 

This is a simple take on a chicken scaloppini, similar in technique and flavor.  


This can be made as a quick weeknight meal or served as an elegant dinner for guests.  Serve it with pasta or rice as we did, and change up your vegetables to fit your mood.

Hope you enjoy this as much as my mom does.  It's super easy to make.

Here we go...

You will need:  chicken breasts, flour, butter, chicken broth, lemon juice, lemon zest and parsley.

Butterfly your chicken breasts, not cutting all the way through so you have a large piece.  Place the breasts in between 2 pieces of plastic wrap and pound the breast out thin.  Go ahead pound that baby!

Salt and pepper your chicken.  Then put some flour in a pan and dredge your chicken breasts on both sides in the flour.

Heat up a skillet and put a pad of butter in it to melt.  Once heated add your chicken breasts and cook for about 3-4 minutes.

Turn your chicken over.  See how nice and golden!

Add your chicken broth, lemon juice and zest.  Cook chicken for another 3-4 min until done.  You can baste the chicken with the juices at this time to give it flavor.

Remove the chicken to a pan and keep warm.  Turn up your fire and cook the sauce until it thickens about 2 min.  Sauce should be boiling to reduce and thicken.

Pour sauce over chicken and sprinkle parsley on top and serve.  Oops! I forgot the parsley on ours...oh well, use your imagination!

Yummy!




Chicken with Lemon Sauce

Serves: 4

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Salt and pepper
3 T. flour
2 T. butter
1/2 c. low sodium chicken broth
1/4 c. fresh lemon juice
1 t. lemon zest

3 T. fresh parsley chopped (optional)

Butterfly your chicken breasts, but don't cut all the way through.  Place chicken between 2 sheets of plastic wrap; pound to an even thickness using a meat mallet or small heavy skillet. Sprinkle chicken evenly with salt and pepper to season. Place flour in a pan and dredge chicken in flour.

Melt butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken to pan and cook 3 minutes. Turn chicken over. Add broth, juice, and zest.  Reduce heat to medium, and simmer 3 minutes, basting chicken occasionally with sauce.  Remove chicken from pan; keep warm.

Bring sauce to a boil; cook 2 minutes or until thick. Serve over chicken.  Sprinkle with parsley!

Product Review: Williams-Sonoma White Chili Starter

Today's post is a new type of post... 

 A Product Review

I thought that you all might benefit from reviews of products that you may like to try but haven't.  These reviews will be of a food item that I've recently purchased and used.  Just an honest opinion of the product. They are not sponsored by anyone.

I hope you enjoy these reviews.

Williams-Sonoma White Chili Starter

I made White Chicken Chili using Williams-Sonoma starter last Saturday when it was cold and rainy here in LA.  I used the recipe straight off the bottle.  I found that it was a simple recipe and very easy to make.  Cook time was about 40 min. 

The flavor of the starter has a very nice combination of spices and made for a tasty chili.  It is not hot with spicy heat, and I detected the lime juice to be a prominent flavor.  Not overpowering but definitely prominent.  My boyfriend and I both ate this for dinner and liked the flavor.  The one shortfall is the servings per bottle.  This bottle makes about 4 servings.  If you eat a good portion then most likely it will only be enough for 2 people.  MGG ate 2 bowls full, and they were not more than 1 1/2 cups each serving, I ate only 1 bowl.  There was just enough for lunch the following day for 1 person.

The cost is $14.50 at any Williams-Sonoma store or you can order online.  Click here for a link to the product.  White Chili Starter

It's definitely a good item and worth trying.  My only reservation would again be the cost per bottle/serving.

If you try this item or have in the past, let me know what you think!

Here's the recipe:

Easy White Chili

Whip up a pot of this Southwestern-style chili with ease by using our time-saving starter. You can prepare the chili with cubed chicken breast or ground chicken or turkey.

Ingredients:

• 1 to 1 1/4 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1/2-inch cubes, or ground chicken or turkey
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 2 Tbs. vegetable oil
• 1 jar white chili starter

Tortilla chips, chopped fresh cilantro and sour cream for serving

Directions:

Season the chicken with salt and pepper.

Stovetop method: In a Dutch oven over medium-high heat, warm the oil. Working in 2 batches, brown the chicken, 4 to 5 minutes per batch. Return all the chicken to the pot, reduce the heat to medium-low and add the white chili starter, stirring to scrape up the browned bits. Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes.

Slow-cooker method: In a fry pan over medium-high heat, warm the oil. Working in 2 batches, brown the chicken, 4 to 5 minutes per batch. Transfer the chicken to a slow cooker and add the chili starter. Cover and cook on high for 2 hours according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Ladle the chili into warmed bowls and serve immediately with tortilla chips, cilantro and sour cream. Serves 6.

Mini Banana Bread Loaves

So I had to come up with a hostess gift for a good friend of mine but this friend is on a low carb diet.   I found this wonderful recipe from Kraft's Food & Family magazine for Banana Bread Minis and altered it to be sugar-free and/or low carb.  I picked this recipe because it intrigued me as it used a yellow cake mix.


I've never used a cake mix in a bread recipe before.  Will it work?  Will it be too moist? I've got to find out!


So off to the store I go to purchase sugar-free cake mix and sugar free pudding mix.  This really makes the bread low carb.  About 8-10 carbs per serving.  I found that the sugar free ingredients didn't change the texture or rising of the bread. They were moist, a little cake like, but very delicate with a wonder banana flavor.  They were beautiful and tasted so yummy!


I made 5 mini loaves with this recipe.  2 for my girlfriend, and I gave 2 to MGG to share with the guys that work for him, and kept the last for myself.  Ha Ha!


You certainly can try the full carb/sugar version.  Just substitute regular yellow cake mix and pudding mix for the sugar free ones.  

Hope you all try this recipe and let me know if you enjoyed it!


Let's get baking.


You will need:  1 box sugar-free yellow cake mix (Pillsbury), 1 small box of vanilla or banana sugar free pudding mix, eggs, water, oil, 2 large bananas, and some pecans.

Take your cake mix, pudding, eggs, water, and oil and place in a large mixing bowl.  Using a mixer, blend all ingredients until smooth.

Mash your bananas.

Add bananas, and chopped pecans to the batter.

Mix until incorporated.

Pour in to 5 prepared mini loaf pans. (You can use the tin foil ones!)  I used this Wilton Loaf Pan, which I LOVE, and they came out perfectly. 

Cook in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 min. 


Cool on wire rack and then serve!


See how cute they turned out!  My friend will love me forever!

Mini Banana Bread Loaves

prep time 10 min

total time 50 min

makes  20 servings or 5 loaves, 5 servings each

Ingredients:

1 pkg. sugar-free yellow cake mix

1 pkg.  Vanilla Flavor Sugar-Free Instant Pudding

4 eggs

1 cup  water

1/4 cup oil

2 large mashed ripe bananas

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat first 5 ingredients in a large bowl with a mixer for 2 min. or until well blended.  Add bananas and nuts, mix just until blended.

Pour into 5 mini loaf pans sprayed with cooking spray.

Bake 35-40 min. or until toothpick inserted in the centers come out clean.  Cool completely on a wire rack.