Our Recipes

CHICKEN PICCATA

Serves Four

CHICKEN PICCATA

Adapted from West Coast Prime Meats Cooks © 2015

Tools

  • Three sauté pans big enough to hold 2 half chickens. Do NOT use nonstick.
  • One baking pan lined with aluminum foil
  • One baking pan lined with parchment paper
  • One rack to fit across the foil-lined baking pan that can hold four half chickens
  • One ladle

Roast Fingerling Potatoes

Ingredients

  • Twenty-four fingerling potatoes
  • Two tablespoons olive oil
  • Half-teaspoon kosher salt
  • Pepper mill filled with black peppercorns

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. Cut fingerlings lengthwise in half. If some are much bigger slice them in quarters.
  3. Toss in a big bowl with half of the olive oil, half of the salt and two turns of a pepper mill. If the potatoes look dry, add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil.
  4. Spread out potatoes on the baking pan covered with parchment paper. Get all the oil out of the bowl onto the pan.
  5. Sprinkle the remaining quarter-teaspoon kosher salt over the potatoes.
  6. Bake in the oven in the middle rack for 30 minutes.
  7. While the potatoes bake, start the sauce.

Herb Rub

Ingredients

  • Two tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
  • Two tablespoons fresh sage
  • Two tablespoons fresh rosemary
  • Rind of one lemon, white pith removed

Instructions

  1. Chop herbs finely, mix together and reserve two tablespoons of the rub for garnish later. Set the remaining four tablespoons aside.
  2. Cut eight skinny lemon twists from the lemon rind, wind them around a pen or pencil and set aside for garnish.

Chicken Piccata

Ingredients

For the sauce:
  • One tablespoon olive oil
  • One tablespoon minced garlic (approximately two large cloves)
  • Two shallots, minced
  • Quarter cup yellow onion, 1/4-inch dice
  • Half-teaspoon kosher salt
  • Pepper mill filled with black peppercorns
  • One teaspoon all-purpose flour
  • Two cups mushrooms, sliced
  • One teaspoon fresh lemon juice
  • Quarter-teaspoon lemon zest
  • Third-cup white wine 
  • One and one-half cups chicken stock
  • Two tablespoons small capers
For the chicken:
  • Four boneless half chickens
  • Four tablespoons olive oil
  • One tablespoon garlic, minced
  • One tablespoon shallots, minced
  • Two teaspoons kosher salt
  • Pepper mill filled with black peppercorns

Instructions

  1. Heat the olive oil until shimmering in a large saute pot over medium flame.
  2. Add garlic and sauté until fragrant, about one minute.
  3. Add one-quarter teaspoon salt and two turns of the pepper mill.
  4. Add shallots and onions and cook until the onions are translucent but NOT brown.
  5. Add flour and stir to combine.
  6. Add mushrooms, lemon juice and zest, the remaining quarter-teaspoon of salt and one more turn of the pepper mill. Turn the heat up to medium-high. 
  7. Pour in wine and simmer, but do not boil, until wine reduces to a syrup, about 20 to 25 minutes. 
  8. While this simmers, sprinkle one-half teaspoon kosher salt and two turns of the pepper mill over each half chicken.
  9. Heat two tablespoons olive oil over medium heat in a sauté pan large enough to hold all the chicken. Add the tablespoon of minced garlic and tablespoon of minced shallots and sauté until fragrant, about one minute.
  10. Place chickens in the pan, breast side down. 
  11. Around this time, the potatoes should be done. Remove from the oven, cover the sheet pan with foil and hold warm to the side.
  12. Turn the oven up to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
  13. Sauté the breasts for about one to two minutes or until golden brown. Turn and brown equally on the other side.
  14. Remove chickens from the sauté pans to a cutting board and sprinkle one tablespoon of the reserved fresh herb rub over both sides of each chicken.
  15. Place chickens, breast side up, on the rack fitted into the foil-lined sheet pan. Bake in the middle rack of the oven for 25 minutes.
  16. At this point, the sauce should be reduced to a syrup. Add chicken stock and simmer 10 more minutes to reduce to about two cups total.
  17. Once reduced, remove the pot from the heat, add the capers and pour the sauce into a container; hold aside in a warm place.
  18. As soon as the chickens are done, remove them from the oven, remove the foil from the potatoes and put them back in the oven for five minutes to reheat them. Also put your plates in the oven for two minutes to warm them.

Assembly

Instructions

  1. On each warm, round plate, ladle four ounces of sauce in a puddle at the 4 o’clock position.
  2. Set the leg part down first at the 12 o’clock position and prop the breast up partially on top of the leg, resting atop the sauce.
  3. Arrange the potatoes next to the chicken and sprinkle reserved herb mix and lemon twists on the plate.
  4. Serve immediately.

Copyright © 2015 by Amy and Craig Nickoloff and West Coast Prime Meats
Recipes reprinted with permission of the owners.
Photos courtesy of The Quiet Woman

Contributor

Lynne Anthony Campbell
Chef/Owner, The Quiet Woman

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Chef’s Tip

We always work mise en place, a French term that refers to your ingredient preparation. Before you start, make sure all your ingredients are portioned, diced, measured and set in ramekins or bowls or coffee cups or whatever you have that can hold things. This recipe calls for the sauce to be made while the chickens are in the oven and it takes about 25 minutes, the same amount of time the chickens cook. The only way to do that without stress is to have all the parts ready before you start.