This is one of those dishes that didn’t evolve from another recipe, it was just improvised from what was on-hand one evening. The light presence of lemon on the chicken and more pronounced presence on the veggies gives it sort of a light, summer-dish feel.
Not much art or skill required, but the results have been very pleasing.
Ingredients:
Enough chicken breast for two entrees
One fresh lemon
Broccoli, enough for a half-pound of florets
Cauliflower, enough for a half-pound of florets
Two eggs
General-purpose white flour.
Italian breadcrumbs (the kind that come in a cardboard can)
Olive oil, grease or Pam, salt, pepper
A half-stick of butter
Miscellaneous notes:
I’ve had experienced cooks react negatively to the idea of tarragon on chicken. Apparently that violates some unspoken rule. I don’t know why, the same people find tarragon perfectly acceptable in chicken salad, and this dish always goes over well. I personally like it a lot, American supermarket chicken can be very bland and uninteresting, and this adds something a little unusual.
I’ve used a variety of chicken breasts. Some come cut to about right for one person’s entree, some are much larger. If it’s more than about a half-inch thick at the thickest part I usually cut off the thinnest third, then slice the rest horizontally so that it’s half-thickness, resulting in three pieces, then often cut each of those across to produce six pieces, three for each serving. This helps the chicken greatly in cooking evenly, and makes the cooking time a little less variable.
Sometimes the supermarkets package the broccoli and cauliflower florets ready-to-cook, and that seems to work fine, though it’s cheaper to buy the heads and cut it yourself if you’ll use the rest before it goes bad.
I’ve had some trouble getting the broccoli and cauliflower to roast well together, the broccoli just wants to cook faster. The results have been acceptable but not perfect, so I may have to experiment with tossing them separately and starting them a few minutes apart (on the same sheet). I’ll revise it here if it seem worthwhile.
Preparation:
Wash and cut the lemon in half across the middle.
Wash and cut the broccoli and cauliflower into even-sized florets into a large bowl (they don’t have to be kept separate), not leaving a lot of stem. Be generous, the broccoli especially shrinks when roasted. When cut to size lightly drizzle the florets in the bowl with olive oil, and add a little salt to aid cooking (we’ll add more to taste later). When lightly covered spread the florets evenly on a large, greased baking sheet (I use Pam).
Cut the chicken as noted above so that you end up with six pretty evenly-sized pieces, three for each person. Salt and pepper, not too heavily, and rub a light but even dusting of tarragon into both sides.
Prepare a wide bowl with a shallow layer of flour and a second wide bowl with a shallow layer of breadcrumbs for dredging.
Break two eggs into a medium size bowl, squeeze in the juice of one of the lemon halves and stir or whisk it, breaking the egg yolks until it’s evenly mixed, a few seconds by hand is plenty.
Take the chicken pieces one at a time, dip them in the egg mixture until coated, then into the flour until coated, then into the egg mixture again, then into the breadcrumbs until covered, then onto a plate.
Put the half-stick of butter in a microwave-safe bowl.
Things can sit at this point until the timing is perfect, but if it takes time to pre-heat your oven to high temperatures keep that in mind.
Cook (allow maybe 20 minutes plus pre-heating):
Pre-heat the oven to 475 degrees F.
Start heating a large pan with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in it, maybe to medium heat on stand-by.
When the oven is up to temperature insert the baking sheet of broccoli and cauliflower. Expect it to take about 14 minutes to roast, but we’ll revisit it in 10 minutes.
When the broccoli and cauliflower have been in for about 5 or 6 minutes heat the pan to medium-high, add the chicken pieces and cook until done, browned on each side but not dark, usually between 2 and 3 minutes per side. Place the chicken pieces aside in a warm place.
When the broccoli and cauliflower have been in for ten minutes, check them to see how they’re doing. Ideally you’d like to see some a little browning on the cauliflower but not let the broccoli scorch. It will probably be another four or five minutes, but watch it.
While we’re waiting, melt the butter in the microwave, usually 15 seconds is about right. Squeeze the second half of the lemon into it, some pepper and a little salt, and mix.
When the broccoli and cauliflower are ready, remove from the oven, give them a few seconds to cool just a bit, use a cooking spatula to move them from the pan into the bowl you kept handy, pour in the butter/lemon and toss to coat.
Plate and serve.
– Robert the Wombat