Angela's Chicken Piccata
I have not made piccata in forever, but I had a hankering, so I made this last night. It is the best piccata I've ever made! Note that I used scallions because I didn't have parsley!
Servings 4 servings
Ingredients
- 1 pkg Thin sliced chicken breast (4-6 pcs) or filet 2 yourself for 4 pcs; the packs have both large and small pcs, which I prefer
- 1 cup Orzo I like DeLallo #65 (large size)
- 2 Lemons, zest and juice in separate bowls Slice off 4 1/4" slices after you zest. About 2 Tbl zest and 1/4 cup juice
- 3 cloves Garlic, minced about 1.5 Tbl
- 1 small Shallot, minced about 2 Tbl
- 2/3 bottle Capers and brine 2oz bottle, about 2 Tbl, or use the whole thing if you really love capers!
- 2/3 cup White wine dry wine or dry sherry would work
- 2 Eggs, whisked with 2 Tbl water egg wash
- 1/2 cup cornstarch in bowl big enough to dredge chicken
- 1/2 cup rice flour you can sub 1/4 A/P flour if you don't have rice flour
- 1 cup panko with a large pinch of lemon zest, 1/2 tsp salt and 2 Tbl EVOO
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan mix with panko
- 4 Tbl Butter in 2 2Tbl chunks
- 1/2 cup EVOO
- 1/2 cup Canola or any neutral oil
- 3 Tbl Parsley, chopped OR a couple of scallions, thinly sliced on bias
- 2 tsp Cornstarch
- Grated parmesan garnish
Instructions
- Put 2-3 cups of water in a sauce pan w/ lid for orzo. Park on stovetop.
- Set up dredge station:Bowl 1 is cornstarch, rice flour, 1 tsp salt, mix thoroughlyBowl 2 is egg washBowl 3 is panko with zest, salt and EVOO, mix thoroughly
- In a large heavy skillet, put EVOO, Canola and 2 Tbl butter over medium heat. You should have about 1/4 inch of oil to shallow fry the chicken cutlets.
- Start breading procedure with chicken. Flour, egg, panko. Press the panko on. This will be a light breading.
- When oil is heated (you can check with a thermometer if you like, anything over 175ºF is fine), monitor the heat. Med heat should be OK - it should NOT be smoking hot! Lay the cutlets in the oil gently away from you. Do not crowd the pan. The sound you hear should be a light sizzle, not a raging sizzle. You're going for golden brown, not dark brown and you don't want to overcook the chicken.
- Turn on heat for orzo water. When boiling, add 2 Tbl salt and a tsp or so of chopped garlic. Cook orzo for about 10 mins, until done but still has a little bite to it.
- Continue cooking cutlets until they are golden brown. It should take about 4 mins (2 each side) for large pcs and 3 mins for small ones. You'll turn them ONCE. When cooked, put on a plate with a paper towel and don't forget to sprinkle with salt while they are hot.
- When all the cutlets are cooked and resting, the orzo should be done, drain it and put a little EVOO in it to keep it from sticking together. Lid it and set aside.
- Set aside the used oil and get out another skillet (nonstick is fine). Put over medium heat with the other 2 Tbl chunk of butter.
- Cook shallot and garlic until softened, do not brown.
- Add wine and cook a couple of minutes.
- Stir in 2 tsp cornstarch to the reserved lemon juice (this is a slurry) and add to pan. Stirring constantly.
- Add capers and brine, continue to stir. Add lemon zest.
- This will probably get pretty tight, so you'll need to add a bit of water to keep it saucy. I added about 1/2 a cup all together. Just add one Tbl at a time until your consistency is that of a light sauce. This should yield about a cup of sauce. Add in a Tbl of parsley after you kill the heat.
- Add salt to taste. You want the sauce to be pretty aggressive since it is flavouring the pasta as well as the chicken.
- To assemble, put about 3 Tbl of orzo on plate, then lay a cutlet atop that. Put a lemon slice on the cutlet. Spoon 2-3 Tbl of sauce over the lemon and on the pasta. Garnish with some grated parmesan and more parsley (or scallions).