Sauteed Chicken With Five Easy Sauces

This is a recipe that we have fallen in love with! We have tried all of the different sauces except one. We put the chicken/sauce mixture on top of rice. For extra goodness, pair this with a salad - YUM!


Chicken with Pan Sauce

Ingredients:

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
5 tbsp cold butter*
2/3 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup finely chopped shallot (2) or onion
2 tbsp whipping cream

*read the recipe all the way through if you are concerned about adding this much butter. I am sure there are other replacements you can make. I would love to know what other people try!

Instructions:

1. Place each chicken breast half between two pieces of plastic wrap. Using the flat side of a meat mallet, pound the chicken lightly to about 1/4" thick. Remove plastic wrap. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
2. In a large skillet melt 1 tbsp of the butter of med-high heat. Reduce to medium. Cook chicken for 6 - 8 mins or until no longer pink, turning once. Transfer chicken to a platter; keep warm.
3. Add wine, broth, and shallot to hot skillet. Cook and stir, scraping up browned bits from the bottom of the pan.
4. Bring to boiling. Boil gently for 10 - 15 mins or until liquid is reduced to 1/4 cup.* Reduce heat to med-low
5. Stir in cream. Add the remaining 4 tbsp butter, 1 tbsp at a time, stirring after each addition until butter is melted. Sauce should be slightly thickened. Season with additional salt and pepper. To serve, spoon sauce over chicken.**

*Note: It is important to reduce the liquid to 1/4 cup or the sauce will be too thin.

**For the last step, I usually return the chicken to the pan and coat them with the sauce there. This gives them a minute to soak up some of the sauce.


Sauce #2: Balsamic-Caper Sauce

Prepare as above, except stir 2 tsp balsamic vinegar and 2 tsp drained capers into finished sauce.


Sauce #3: Lemon-Herb Sauce

Prepare as above, except stir 2 tsp fresh lemon juice and 2 tsp snipped fresh thyme, chervil, or parsley into finished sauce.


Sauce #4: Mushroom-Tomato Sauce

Prepare as above through Step 1.

In a large skillet, cook 1 cup sliced fresh shiitake, porcini, or button mushrooms in 1 tbsp of butter over med heat until tender. Remove mushrooms from skillet.

Continue as directed in Step 2, using the same skillet.

Along with the cream, add cooked mushrooms, and 2 tbsp snipped, drained, oil-packed dried tomatoes. There will only be 3 tbsp of butter to add in Step 4.

Stir 2 tsp snipped fresh basil or parsley into finished sauce.


Sauce #5: Mustard Sauce

Prepare as above, except stir 1 tbsp snipped Italian parsley and 2 tsp Dijon-style mustard into finished sauce.


Nutrition Info: Per breast half + 2 tbsp sauce all variations: 325 cal, 20 g total fat (10 g sat fat), 117 mg chol, 444 mg sodium, 2 g carbs, 0 g fiber, 27 g pro
Daily Values: 14% vit A, 1% vit C, 3% calcium, 6% iron
Exchanges: 4 very lean meat, 4 fat

Herb-Mustard Marinade

We use this marinade to coat pork chops which we place in a roasting pan and bake at 425 degrees for 25 mins. The recipe book where we found it states that you can also use it on grilled chicken. Just coat the poultry with the marinade during the last 10 minutes of grilling.

In addition, though the recipe calls for fresh parsley, we have replaced it with dried (fresh can be a little pricey) and it tastes the same to us! Just remember the exchange of fresh to dried herbs:
1 tbsp of fresh = 1 tsp of dried


Ingredients:

2 tbsp creamy Dijon-style mustard blend
1 tbsp snipped fresh parsley
1 tsp dried oregano, crushed
1 tbsp water
1/8 tsp ground red pepper


Instructions:

1. In a small bowl, combine all ingredients. Cover and chill until ready to use.


Easy!!! Woo hoo!

Olive Chicken with Herbs & Lemon

This is another great recipe sent to me by Allison. Here is what she wrote:

"Ok - this is quite possibly the simplest and yummiest meal I've ever put together. I didn't measure anything - just estimated, threw it together and let it sit while I heated the skillet and browned the garlic and onions."


Ingredients:

1 chicken breast (the full heart shaped piece!) sliced or chopped
5 garlic cloves, chopped
1 cup fresh green olives, pitted and roughly chopped
~1/4-1/2 cup red onion, chopped
Zest of 1 lemon
Salt (to taste)
Ground pepper (to taste)
Dried basil (~3 tbsp)
Ginger powder or fresh (~1 tsp)
Olive oil


Instructions:

1. Marinate chopped chicken in olive oil, basil, ginger, salt, pepper and lemon zest.
2. Heat skillet on med., then brown onion and garlic in olive oil
3. Add chicken to skillet.
4. For the last 3 minutes, add olives (to warm, don't add to early so it doesn't absorb raw chicken juice)
5. Serve like stir fry: over rice, next to noodles or as the center of a grilled sandwich!


Thanks for sending me this yummy dish!

Jennifer's Sun-Dried Tomatoes & Asparagus Pasta

This recipe is one of our favorites! Jennifer made it for us one time and we end up eating it at least once every other week. It is easy to make and super yummy! The sun-dried tomatoes must be the ones that are in the jar of olive oil. Trader Joe's sells a jar where the tomatoes are already cut julienne style. The chicken is not necessary but it makes a great meal.

Ingredients:

8 oz penne pasta
1 pkg asparagus, cut into penne pasta sized pieces
~20 pieces sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil, cut into penne pasta sized pieces
olive oil
1 pkg boneless, skinless chicken breasts
bread crumbs


Instructions:

1. Saute breaded chicken in a little bit of olive oil, turning once so it is fully cooked.
2. Meanwhile, bring water for pasta to a boil.
3. Remove chicken from pan and place somewhere to keep warm.
4. In same pan add a little more olive oil and some oil from the sun-dried tomatoes container (this will end up coating the pasta as a sauce).
5. Saute asparagus and sun-dried tomatoes on med. heat. Cook to taste.
6. Drain pasta and add to pan with asparagus and tomatoes. Stir until pasta, asparagus, and tomatoes are well blended.
7. Serve with chicken!

We have found that we like this meal with chicken that is thinly sliced.

Thanks, Jennifer, for this great recipe!