Chicken Scallopine

Question: Have you discovered the amazingness of capers in your life? If you have you will automatically love this meal and if you haven't this, in my humble opinion, is the best dish to expand your horizons. Capers are delightful little flavor bombs. A little salty, a little pickle-y, and downright wonderful. Add to them golden crispy chicken, tender noodles, a little cream, a little garlic, and a lot of lemon and you have easily one my top 10 meals. Food is a glorious thing is it not?

Chicken Scallopine

{Based on a Pioneer Woman recipe}

4 chicken breasts, cut in half and pounded thin

Garlic Pepper

Black Pepper

Flour

Olive oil

1 cup chicken broth (or white wine)

1/2 cup cream

1 cup sliced mushrooms (optional-you'll see I didn't have any on hand in the above picture, but they are yummy)

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

2 generous T capers with a little of their juice

1/2 a lemon+, juiced

salt and pepper to taste

hot cooked linguine noodles

freshly grated parmesan cheese

Note: the above amounts are rough guesses, I generally just throw things together and taste as I go until it's how we like it. good luck with that!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Get noodles going.

In large heavy skillet over med-high heat, heat a few Tablespoons of olive oil. After chicken is halved and pounded thin generously season both sides with garlic pepper and fresh ground pepper. Lightly dredge each piece in flour and brown in pan. You want a nice golden crust, so don't move the chicken around once it's placed in the skillet. Leave it alone for 3-4 minutes and then turn over for the same amount of time. Place browned chicken cutlets in a baking dish and pop uncovered in the oven to finish cooking through while moving onto the sauce.

Splash a little chicken broth into browning skillet to start the deglazing process and stop the little bits from burning. If needed add a little more olive oil and then quickly cook garlic (approx 30 seconds) until fragrant, being careful not to burn. (If using mushrooms, now's the time to saute those for a couple minutes). Add remaining chicken broth and scrape the pan to loosen up any bits. Add cream, capers, and lemon juice. Let cook down for a few minutes. Add salt and pepper, taste and adjust adding more seasoning or lemon juice or capers until it's flavored to your liking.

Once noodles are cooked and sauce is ready, remove chicken cutlets from the oven. Plate some noodles, top with 1 or 2 chicken cutlets, spoon some sauce over, and sprinkle grated parmesan over all. Take one bite and die of bliss!