I like to tell myself that I’m a good cook. I know I’m not amazing, but I do like to think that growing up helping my gourmet-chef-of-a-grandma cook  (this also referred to as getting in the way of my grandma trying to cook) and the the eight gazillion hours of Food Network I’ve watched with Tom have paid off in some small way.

That being said, my family will never call me a good cook. Why? Well, they refer to it as the “Lemon Chicken Incident of 2010”

Let me explain.

I had just returned from spending the month with my grandparents down in Florida where I had interned with a minor league baseball team. While I was there, my grandma used Meyer lemons from a neighbor’s tree to make this amaaaazing lemon chicken dish that I just loved. Wanting to recreate it for my family back home before I headed back to college for the spring semester, I recreated the dish using what we had on-hand in early February in Minnesota: the lemon juice from a bottle. And since my grandma used one Meyer lemon that’s the size of small grapefruit that had a TON of juice…I decided that must have meant I needed at least the juice of four or five small lemons when I made the dish at home. Right?

Wrong. So, so wrong.

Since I’m sure you can guess where this is going (hint: meyer lemon does NOT equal concentrated lemon juice from a bottle) my family took one bite and made this face:

My mother was the only one to take more than one bite…because there is truly nothing like a mother’s love.

Anywho, seven years later I was seeking redemption. Tom had heard a heckuva lot of crap from my family about the disaster that was my stab at my grandma’s lemon chicken and I was ready to prove them all wrong. And, in all honesty, I was bored of our rotation of chicken dishes and I had a lot of lemons on hand. Soooo while I like to tell myself it was kismet…it probably stemmed from me not wanting to go grocery shopping.

On top of needing to redeem myself, I also knew this was a great opportunity to bring a new chicken dish into our weekly meal plan rotation. It’s primarily protein and I just needed to made some easy swaps (and pair it with a yummy salad from our friend Kaela’s mama) so that it was diabetic-friendly.

So…where’s the compromise?

Here’s our answer:

• Ditch the thick crust of a traditional pan-seared chicken breast and utilize just a tiny amount of flour to get enough of a thin crust to soak up the sauce
• Swap regular lemons in for the less-widely available Meyer lemons…but use significantly less juice
• Use the power of deglazing to make a broth-based sauce instead of a flour-based gravy
• Pair the dish with a kale salad that complements the lemon in the chicken and adds a nutrient (and protein)-packed punch

| Pucker-Up Chicken with Kaela’s Mama’s Kale Salad |

Serves: 3 Tom’s or 6 Alaina’s

Ingredients Needed:

For the chicken:

• 6 chicken breasts, seasoned with salt/pepper
• 1/4 cup flour
  • NOT almond flour. You know me…I tried. It burns. Don’t do it.
• 2 lemons, juiced (~4 tbsp.)
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tbsp. butter
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 2 tbsp. pickled capers (or more to taste)

For the salad:

• 6ish cups, finely chopped kale (~one large bunch, chopped)
• 3 cups, finely shredded manchego or parmesan cheese
  • Note: This salad is great for your friends who are dairy-free if your use the manchego cheese. Our friend Kaela has this restriction so that’s how we first had it served to us by her mama. It’s out of this world good with the manchego–but parmesan works too! 
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2 lemons, juiced and zested
• Salt/pepper to taste

Directions:

First things first–get that salad prepped and set it aside!

• Finely chop your kale and place in a large bowl (trust me…a large bowl!)

• Add cheese, olive oil, lemon juice/zest, and and salt/pepper to taste
  • Around ~1/2 tsp. of salt is perfect, but add less salt if you use a saltier cheese!

• Toss, then set aside

Now it’s time to tackle that chicken…

• First things first, it is critical that you get your chicken breasts to be the same thickness in order for them to cook evenly
  • My favorite way to do this? Just toss them in a zip-top bag, remove the air from the bag, and give ’em a few good whacks with something heavy until they’re all looking about the same thickness #nomess

• Next up, salt and pepper those chicken breasts (yes, the chicken breasts directly)
  • Why? If the seasoning is only in your flour you won’t transmit as much flavor onto the chicken breasts because you’re using such a small amount of flour. 
  • Why don’t I see this in the picture? Good question. Because I forgot and had to salt and pepper them before I put them in the pan. Don’t be like me 🙂 Remember when I said I know I’m not that good of cook but I want to be? Here is Exhibit A. 
• Spread your flour out of a plate and lightly coat both sides of your chicken breasts in flour and set aside on a separate plate

• Once complete, give your chicken breasts another sprinkle of salt and pepper…seasoning is everything, people!
  • Bonus: Adding more salt/pepper will also make your sauce even yummier if you’ve got this extra flavor fun going on

• In a large skillet, heat your olive oil and melt your butter on medium-high heat
  • Question: Why olive oil AND butter? What gives?!
  • Answer: You only really need the olive oil, but the butter helps brown the chicken and give it an extra delicious bit of delectableness. Trust me, you want the butter #buttermakeseverythingbetter 

• Once olive oil is heated/butter is melted and pan is hot, add your chicken breasts to sear them on each side–this should take about 8-12 minutes or about 4-6 minutes a side
  • Pro Tip: As the chicken is cooking, turn them occasionally to avoid burning

 

• Once chicken breasts are cooked (165 degrees F), remove from pan and place on a plate and cover with foil to keep them warm

• Increasing the pan heat to high, add lemon juice, chicken broth, and capers and stir/whisk vigorously (scraping all the caramelized yummy bits of chicken and flavor off the bottom of the pan as you do–also called “deglazing”) and bring the liquid to a boil
  • Note: Ensure you’re using a wooden spoon or coated whisk if you have a nonstick pan–you don’t want to run your nonstick coating!

• Continue to stir/whisk boiling liquid until it slightly reduces in volume and the caramelized bits from the bottom of the pan dissolve into the sauce
  • Note: If desired, you can add some additional butter to smooth out the texture (I don’t think you need it…but in case you want a more buttery sauce!)

Nice job! You’ve got a salad, some chicken, and a sauce…now all you have to do is serve!

• Serve your chicken with a spoonful or two of your sauce over the top (ensuring you’ve got lots of capers in there…mmmm) and with the kale salad on the side

 

Now let’s get real: the first time I made this chicken I sang from the rooftops.

Why? Let me tell you:

• It was actually edible (big win over the version I made in 2010)
• The lemon-flavor was perfectly balanced 
• My husband only needed to eat two chicken breasts and two servings of salad to be full (cue the hallelujah chorus)
  • 2 chicken breasts (86g of protein) + two servings of kale salad (6g of protein) = 92 GRAMS OF PROTEIN= FULL HUSBAND= HAPPY WIFE
    • Note: Who says Tom’s the math genius in the family now? That’s some pretty impressive math I just did there. 
• I could have a delectable pan-fried-esque chicken dinner with under 6g of carbohydrates and no sugar per serving (score!!)
• And most importantly…I felt like I redeemed myself

But seriously. I literally could not. stop. smiling. when this dish turned out.

Tom and I already adored the salad recipe from our bestest best friend Kaela and her amazing mama (I personally could eat buckets of that salad in lieu of other food for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It’s that good.), but when it was paired with this lemon caper chicken it just made me swoon.

Even better? I got a literal thumbs up from my husband when I made it for him. So I did what any normal adult woman does–I made him take a picture of him doing it so I could prove to my family that once and for all I CAN MAKE LEMON CHICKEN SO PLEASE STOP TEASING ME:

To which they responded (and I shouldn’t be surprised by this), by teasing me:

We show love in our family by teasing each other ruthlessly. So really, all I can do is laugh at their reaction. Either way, I know that I did it and I’m happy I can maaaaayyyybe get away with calling myself a good cook now that I’ve overcome my most famous cooking disaster.

And on the bright side? Their teasing helped name my dish: “Pucker-Up Chicken” fits it perfectly.

Why? Because I know Tom loves this dish so much he’ll pucker up in good way and give me a smooch for making it 🙂

Here’s to making many more culinary compromises…all in the name of love.

xoxo,

alaina