Do you ever have a day where you feel like a complete moron with everything you do? That was me today! I don’t know where my kitchen mojo went, but it was missing! This is a pretty easy, straight forward recipe (thank the lord!). If it wasn’t, we would have been ordering pizza! I made a few changes to the recipe. My shallots were dried up and nasty, so I used the red onions from the farm box. I didn’t have any fancy green olives… just used the ones from the jar. Voila! I also didn’t have cutlets, rather just had some chicken tender pieces, so I used those. All in all, it went very well!
I do want to point out 2 things about this recipe. First, I would double the sauce part. There was little to no sauce action by the time it all cooked down. It was still very tasty, but it needed more sauce (Nancy, are you out there?! This sauce tip is for you and the RC!). Secondly, don’t crowd the pan when you’re doing your chicken. I know it’s a pain to have to do the meat in 2 batches, but it cooks so much better that way!!
I served this with some couscous (which I will discuss later) and sauteed greens that I needed to use up. (I think this would be FANTASTIC with some wilted spinach!)
Lemon Chicken with Olives
Preparation Time: 25 minutes
Other Time: 5 minutes
Yield: Makes 4 servings
Source: Real Simple, February 2008
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons lemon zest, plus 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Kosher salt and pepper
1 1/2 pounds chicken cutlets, thawed
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 shallots, thinly sliced
1 cup pitted green olives
1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
1/2 cup dry white wine (such as Sauvignon Blanc)
Mix the flour, cumin, zest, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper on a flat plate. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels and dredge in the flour mixture.
Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the chicken in 2 batches until golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate.
Wipe out the skillet and return to medium heat. Heat the remaining oil. Add the shallots and cook until soft, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in the olives, parsley, lemon juice, and wine and bring to a boil. Return the chicken to the pan, nestling it in the olives and shallots. Reduce heat to low and cook, covered, until the chicken is cooked through, about 5 minutes.
Divide among individual plates, spooning the olives, shallots, and any sauce over the top.
CALORIES 425 (30% from fat); FAT 14g (sat 1g); CHOLESTEROL 66mg; CARBOHYDRATE 39g; SODIUM 739mg; PROTEIN 6g; FIBER 1g; SUGAR 7g
(I ran the nutritional info on sparkrecipes.com and they came out differently. In my opinion, the Real Simple calories seemed high, that’s why I checked it… It comes out to – Calories: 324.5, Total Fat: 15.3 g, Cholesterol: 82.5 mg, Sodium: 1,130.6 mg, Total Carbs: 6.8 g, Dietary Fiber: 2.0 g, Protein: 35.9 g)
