Chickeny Goodness
A butter-basted sauteed chicken in Cooking Theory (I attend the New England Culinary Institute). Recipe under the cut or at my blog.
Ingredients:
1 Boneless Chicken Breast, skin on (shown is an airline/statler/frenched chicken breast where the drumette is still attached)
2T Canola Oil
2-3T Butter
1 Garlic Clove, peeled, kept whole
1 sprig Thyme (I used Rosemary)
1 slice Lemon (thick slice)
Preparation:
Set your saute pan on a burner on medium high heat. You want that sucker to get nice and hot. As it’s heating up, pat your chicken breast dry and season both sides with salt and pepper. Once the pan is hot enough (hold your hand over the pan (NOT ON IT) and if you can’t keep your hand on there for more than a couple of seconds, it’s hot enough), pour in the oil. The oil will immediately change viscosity from a thick liquid to almost like water. Set your chicken breast presentation (skin) side down away from you. The oil is going to pop and splatter as it reacts with the water in the chicken (part of the reason why you want to pat it dry; the other reason being is that a dry skin becomes a crisp skin). Let that side cook for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Flip to the other side and add your butter, garlic, herb sprig, and lemon slice. Using a spoon, start basting the chicken with the oil-butter mixture. The skin will brown up even more and get all delicious and crispy. Continually baste for 10-15 minutes, or until the thickest part of the breast registers 160F. Remove from the pan, set on a plate, and let it rest ~10 minutes so the juices can redistribute. If you’d like, you can take some cut-up potatoes and vegetables and saute those in the same pan with the leftover oil/butter/herb mixture that now has tasty chicken bits. Or you can deglaze the pan with a little stock or wine and make a quick pan sauce.