Chicken Piccata

Cooking can be an exercise for your body as well as your brains. Really, you ask. How do you figure that? Well, it takes a brain to be able to cook and imagine different flavors together, right?. But there are plenty of meals that involve physical exertion to get dinner ready. Not the usual chop, chop, stir, repeat. Oh no. There is the piccata family of excellent food and exercise combined in one meal. The exercise definitely balances out the butter that is always in a piccata.

At least in my humble opinion.

Take boneless chicken thighs or breasts and put between two sheets of plastic wrap and take a rolling pin or meat pounder thingy (obviously I have a rolling pin) and go to town. Be sure to beat using both arms, to balance out your exercise program. Then have a bit of House Red . Flip the chicken and beat again. This is a fast dinner to prep and cook and is loaded with lots of flavor from the lemon, butter and white wine sauce. Added zing comes from the salty oil cured olives added at the last minute.

Piccata in Italian means tasty. It certainly is.

Chicken Piccata
Adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook

5 boneless chicken thighs, seasoned with salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 good swirls extra virgin olive oil
4 tbsp butter
¼ cup dry white wine (I used vermouth)
1-½ tbsp fresh lemon juice (I used Meyer lemons)
¼ cup oil cured olives, pitted and chopped

Take the chicken thighs and put between two pieces of Saran Wrap and bang on them with a rolling pin until flattened to about an 1/8th of an inch, depending on how much you’re enjoying banging the hell out of the chicken.

Put large skillet over medium high heat and swirl in the olive oil. Add 2 tbsp butter and when the foam subsides, add the chicken, several pieces at a time and cook til golden brown on both sides, probably takes about 3 minutes per side. Remove to plate and tent with foil and repeat with remaining chicken thighs.

Pour off any fat in the pan and off the heat, deglaze with the vermouth. Put back on the heat and bring to boil, scraping up the brown bits. Then stir in lemon juice and 2 tbsp butter. Remove from the heat and stir in the olives and freshly cracked black pepper to taste. Plate and garnish with fresh chopped Italian parsley.

Serves 2-3 depending on the size of the chicken thighs.

Chicken Piccata