- Hey, I'm John Kanell, and today on "Preppy Kitchen,"
we're making an easy and delicious chicken francese.
So let's get started.
First off, you'll wanna grab four six-ounce chicken breasts
and these guys are way too thick,
so we're gonna pound them out with a mallet.
You could also use a rolling pin if you don't have one.
Working one at a time, just place them
between two layers of paper
or you could use plastic as well.
We're gonna pound these out.
They should be nice and thin,
even throughout, about half an inch thick.
Don't go too hard. Just slowly whittle them down.
If you smash them, they'll just be smashed.
A voila, we have a thin chicken breast, half an inch thick.
Repeat for the other guys.
What this is doing is allowing it to pan-fry,
so it'll be perfectly cooked through
without being burnt or overcooked.
This will also tenderize things
and you're opening things up
so that more sauce can be absorbed by those breasts.
Okay, my chicken is all pounded out.
There is one more thing to do for prep
and that's to thinly slice a lemon.
Chicken francese or chicken French style,
which is what it means, is pan-fried chicken breasts
with a delicious lemony white wine butter sauce.
Ah, so good.
New cutting board, new me.
Thinly slice one lemon.
This is gonna be kind of cooked on top towards the end
and you can pick seeds out of them as well.
So that set aside, we'll need some lemon juice as well.
Roll one out and have it at the ready.
Now we can set up our dredging station.
So for the dredging, you want one shallow dish
with two beaten eggs, in you go.
Beat those eggs.
Nothing crazy, but you just wanna break those yolks up.
About a quarter of a cup of flour
into the other dredging station.
You don't have to be exact with this, no need for the scale.
To the flour, I'm adding about a teaspoon of salt
and around a quarter teaspoon of ground pepper.
Give that a mix, and if you have any other favorite flavors,
yes, you could add that to the drudging mixture as well.
A lot of dry spices that could go in here.
Okay, grab a large pan and place it over medium-high heat
and add about a quarter cup of olive oil to warm up.
Once it's hot, we're ready to go.
While your oil's warming up,
we're gonna dredge our chicken two breasts at a time.
So first breast into the flour.
just get it nice and coated.
Shake off the excess, now into the beaten egg.
Again, nicely coated.
Allow some of that excess to drip off,
and once the oil is dancing in the pan,
you'll see a nice shimmer.
We're gonna add our chicken breast right in.
(pan sizzling)
That shushing sound is exactly what you want to hear.
Repeat for the second breast.
This is such an easy, quick meal,
so if you have nothing planned,
you're gonna take about eight minutes
to defrost the chicken, you're ready to go.
This will be done in half an hour.
If your chicken's defrosted already, 20 minutes or less.
We're gonna cook our chicken for about four minutes
or until it's nice and golden, and then flip it over.
The internal temperature should be 165
so you can do a little temp,
and if you don't have that, you can give it a slice
and just make sure it's cooked through.
As the first two breasts are cooking,
you can start dredging your next one.
Just have it at the ready.
Our chicken's ready to turn over.
Look at that golden color.
It's exactly what you wanna see,
and it's just perfectly crisp right now.
Once done, remove your chicken breasts
to a platter and it's time for the next batch.
(upbeat music)
Once your chicken's out of the pan,
it's time to add those lemon slices in.
They're gonna cook and take on some color and soften up.
Pop them right into that hot oil,
and don't worry if there's some bits and bobs
hanging out in the pan.
Does not have to be perfectly clean olive oil.
You're gonna cook them for just about a minute
until they take on some color and slightly soften.
Once those lemon slices are slightly brown,
you're gonna remove them onto the plate with the chicken.
And here's the deal.
Your pan might look a little crazy at this point,
too crazy for our beautiful white wine sauce.
So you can wash it, use a new pan,
or just give it a nice wipe.
I'm gonna try a nice wipe.
I'm not telling you to like take all the flavor away
but the flavor was captured by the lemons,
and chances are you have some
browned bits which are a little bit bitter.
I am actually going to
carefully wipe with a steel sponge.
We need some white wine for the sauce,
so I suggest you grab some wine
that you are gonna enjoy drinking
with your chicken francese.
I'm using a nice Chardonnay,
but so many white dry wines will work for this.
(cork popping)
There we go. Half a cup of wine at the ready
That's for the food, the rest is for you and your guests
or just you.
Now place your skillet over medium heat
three tablespoons of butter. There we go.
And I have one tablespoon of flour at the ready.
You'll also want a whisk so you can whisk it in
and make a nice smooth roux.
(upbeat music)
Add that tablespoon of flour in.
We just wanna cook it in the butter.
It gets rid of that flour taste
and it's gonna do such a nice job
thickening this sauce just the right amount.
All right, we just need to cook the flour
for a minute while whisking.
Now I'm gonna add my wine in.
(pan sizzling)
And I'm also gonna add one cup of chicken broth.
A slower pour is better whenever you're making a sauce,
it'll be silkier.
This is pouring crazily, so do as I say, not as I do.
Smells so good though. Oh my gosh.
Mmm, that butter and flour were just starting to brown,
so you get a nutty depth of flavor, which is really nice.
I'm gonna stir this over medium heat
for about four minutes until it's just thickened.
Then we can finish it off and get this all together.
A little bit of whisking later,
and my sauce has thickened up, but it's not a gravy.
I wanna show you the consistency.
You can see on the back of a wooden spoon,
it's coating it, but it's a thin sauce.
So if you want it to be thicker,
I would add an extra teaspoon or two
of flour with the butter and you'll have
a thicker, more gravy-like sauce.
This however looks great to me,
so I'm gonna add in the remaining quarter teaspoon of salt,
a quarter teaspoon of black pepper,
and about a tablespoon of lemon juice.
This will brighten everything up.
Here we go.
(upbeat music)
Oh my gosh, pow, that is delicious.
Slaps you across the face with flavor.
Now we can return the chicken back into the sauce
to warm through, as well as the lemons.
So let's place those chicken breasts right back.
This time it doesn't matter if they're overlapping.
Okay. Add those lemon slices back as well.
You can nestle them here and there.
Mmm. Just go to the edge.
Spoon the sauce over the chicken.
This goes with basically anything
from veggies to pasta to salad, so plate it up and enjoy.
That sauce is packed with flavor.
I love the lemon in it
and the chicken is so tender and just perfectly done.
I hope you get a chance to make this recipe,
and if you like this video,
check out my easy dinner playlist.