Chicken Piccata with Rice Pilaf
The beauty of cooking is that you can make things exactly the way you like them. For example, chicken piccata is usually made with capers, but since I don’t like capers, I just use parsley instead. It also means that I can make a double batch of rice pilaf so there are plenty of leftovers. This is not exactly a quick dinner to prepare, but it is so good that I don’t mind taking the time to make it.
Recipe information
Yield
serves 4 to 6
Ingredients
Rice
Chicken
Preparation
Step 1
To prepare the rice: Peel the onion and carrot. Dice the onion, carrot, and celery into 1/4-inch pieces. (Don’t cut them smaller or they will fall apart while cooking.)
Step 2
Place the butter, onion, carrot, celery, and orzo in a large saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring on and off, for 10 minutes, or until the orzo is browned. Add the rice and stir until coated with the butter. Add the chicken broth and stir. Cover and cook for 20 minutes, or until the rice is tender. Season the rice with salt and pepper and place it in a serving bowl.
Step 3
Meanwhile, prepare the chicken: Cut each chicken breast in half lengthwise. Place a chicken breast half in a large resealable bag or between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and pound with a meat mallet (a small saucepan also works well) until it is less than 1/4 inch thick. Repeat the process with the remaining chicken breasts.
Step 4
Whisk the egg in a shallow bowl. Combine the flour, salt, and pepper in another shallow bowl.
Step 5
Place a large sauté pan over medium heat and add 2 tablespoons of the oil.
Step 6
Dip both sides of a chicken breast into the flour, then into the egg, and back into the flour. Carefully place the chicken breast into the hot oil and repeat until the pan is full. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes on each side, or until the chicken is golden brown. Transfer the chicken to paper towels to drain. Drain the used oil out of the pan, wipe out the pan, and add the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the remaining chicken breasts and cook as for the first batch. (If you don’t drain off the used oil and add fresh oil to the pan before cooking the second batch, the chicken will taste burnt.)
Step 7
Pour the chicken broth into the pan and stir to loosen any bits stuck to the pan. Cut the lemons in half, remove any seeds, and squeeze the juice into the pan. Combine the cornstarch and milk in a small bowl and mix until smooth. Pour the mixture into the pan and stir continuously until it comes to a boil.
Step 8
Arrange the chicken in a shallow serving bowl and pour the sauce over it. Sprinkle the parsley over the chicken and serve immediately with the rice pilaf.
Kitchen Vocab
Step 9
Orzo (OHR-zoh) is a small rice-shaped pasta that is often found in soups. You can find it in the pasta section of the supermarket.
Step 10
Adding the chicken broth to the pan to loosen any cooked on bits is called deglazing the pan. And, if you really want to impress people, know that the bits that are stuck to the pan are called the fond.
