Chicken with Lemon Vinaigrette

Just before I left on my trip, I made dinner for my friend David. I felt bad that I was going to miss his birthday, so I thought I’d do something nice. So I cooked. This recipe isn’t an old stand-by, yet. This is, however, what I made the first time Aaron and I had Carrina and Mike over for dinner. It’s pretty good.

The original recipe, here, is for whitefish and involves a bunch of stuff I don’t use here. Basically, it’s the technique, transferred to chicken, and the vinaigrette, which is fantastic. I may bash the Food Network, which they often deserve, but this recipe is solid. I’ve mentioned Giada’s recipes before and other then the minor show-based complaints I mention there, I have none. She makes good stuff.

Chicken with Lemon Vinaigrette modified from Whitefish with Lemon Vinaigrette from Everyday Italian:

Serves 3

3 chicken breasts (make these fairly thin, they cook better)
Olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
All-purpose flour for dredging
¼ c. fresh lemon juice
¼ c. lightly packed fresh Italian parsley leaves
2 cloves garlic
2 tsp. finely grated lemon zest
½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1/3 c. extra-virgin olive oil



Prep the vinaigrette first. Blend the lemon juice, parsley, garlic, lemon zest, salt, and pepper in a blender. With the machine running, gradually blend in the oil. Season the vinaigrette, to taste, with more salt and pepper. Set aside.



Flatten chicken breasts if necessary. Heat a bit of olive oil in a medium size saucepan over medium high heat. Sprinkle both sides of the breasts with kosher salt and pepper. Dredge the breasts in flour to coat completely. Shake of the excess flour and fry in the pan until they are golden brown and just cooked through, about 3 minutes per side, possibly more, depending on how thick your breasts are. Ours were a little too thick, so I cut them into smaller pieces to cook faster.

Spoon vinaigrette over chicken and serve with your favorite sides and beer. We had steamed broccoli, mashed potatoes, and Portland microbrews, as usual.I was too hungry to take pictures of the final product combined. Sorry folks! All in all, a pretty decent birthday dinner that translates to a fairly easy midweek dinner as well.