Chicken Paillard with Lemon and Shallot Sauce Served Two Ways

I threw a dinner party on Saturday night that required a few trips to Whole Foods as well as our neighborhood mom-and-pop grocery store. As a result, I have been unmotivated to see the inside of either place for a couple of days.  Tonight I figured I would slap together whatever I could find in the refrigerator.  I normally have at least one chicken breast in my freezer, and tonight I happend to have two.  I also had some shallot left over from the other night, and about two dozen meyer lemons from my tree in the back yard.   I decided this was enough to make some kind of chicken cutlets and a sauce.  

The organic chicken breasts that I buy are always very thick, and I almost never use them whole.  In most cases, I slice them through the middle -- I am just too impatient to wait for the thick ones to cook.  I am also lazy, so in most cases I won't even pound the chicken breast to create a uniform thickness.  I guess that means that my recipe isn't a true pailliard, but what the hell -- it's my blog, I'll call it what I want.  

Since I essentially made this up as I was going along, the ingredient amounts aren't exact, but are probably a pretty good estimation.  

Chicken Paillard with Lemon and Shallot Sauce

(serves 2-4)

4 chicken breasts, about 1/2 inch thick

2-3 tablespoons canola oil

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1-2 tablespoons minced shallot 

3 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

1 cup chicken broth

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Salt to taste

-- Pat dry chicken breasts and sprinkle with salt and pepper

-- Heat canola oil in skillet over med-high heat

-- When oil is hot, add chicken and sear about 2-3 minutes per side

-- Remove chicken when just opaque, tent with foil, and set aside

-- Reduce heat and add shallot, cooking until soft and fragrant, less than 2 minutes

-- Add butter and let melt

-- Add flour and wisk to incorporate it into butter

-- Add chicken broth, then increase heat to allow sauce to reduce

-- When reduced by almost half, add lemon juice

-- Let reduce a little more, add salt to taste

-- Return chicken to pan to rest in sauce for about a minute 

-- Serve breasts with sauce spooned over top

I served the chicken to my husband and kids with quartered potatoes and peas -- a solid, balanced weeknight meal.  For me, I had some arugula I wanted to use, so I shredded a breast, and served it over a little salad I made with the arugula, thinly sliced red onion, kalamata olives, and thinly shaved slices of parmigiano cheese.  Instead of a dressing, I just drizzed a couple of teaspoons of the sauce over my salad.  The combination of the arugula with the sauce was really tasty.  I think that I will also use this sauce on fish in the future.   

Product Love: Meyer Lemon-Infused Olive Oil

I am a sucker for "specialty" items. Sigona's, our farmers' market here in Redwood City has recently installed an olive oil bar where you can sample all kinds of specialty olive oils. On a whim (and without trying it), I decided to buy a bottle of their EVOO (apologies to Rachael Ray) with meyer lemon infused. Oh my! It makes everything taste yummier. I looove anything lemony, so okay, the deck was stacked in my favor. But really, it adds just a slightly different dimension to everything.

Last week as a side dish with dinner, I had some orzo that I wanted to use up. So, I just mixed it with some pitted kalamata olives, some pitted green olives (I forget which variety -- it was something I picked up a the olive bar), some halved grape tomatoes, and drizzled it all with the meyer lemon olive oil.* What a fabulous little dish -- the little lemon kick turned it from just tasty to something that I want to remember to make again. Tonight, I used it with the arugula pesto I made.

The only problem is that it comes in a little bottle. I am going to have to stock up if I want to continue using it all the time.

*Note: I have made this dish again since I posted this, and I've added a finely diced large shallot to the ingredients. The shallot makes the flavor just a little more savory.