Olympics Day 2: Chicken Piccata

This afternoon we went on an excursion to extend the international beer selection. From left-to-right you'll see another British beer as well as beers from Scotland, Spain, France, Holland, Czech Republic and Jamaica.

For tonight's dinner Gail made chicken piccata in honor of Italy. I love how the flavors of the lemon and capers complement each other. The chicken was as tender as the butter it was sauteed in.

Chicken Piccata

amounts per serving

½ T olive oil

1 ½ T flour

4 oz boneless skinless chicken breast

¼ t salt

freshly ground black pepper

4 t dry white wine

2 t fresh lemon juice

3 T low-salt chicken broth

1 T drained capers

½ T butter

1 T chopped fresh parsley

Fresh lemon slice or wedge for garnish

1. Heat oil in heavy skillet (preferably not a non-stick variety) over med low heat. Meanwhile, measure flour into shallow bowl; set aside.
2. Pound chicken to ¼” thickness; sprinkle with salt and pepper.
3. Dip chicken pieces in flour to coat; reserve excess for thickening pan sauce.
4. Cook coated chicken in skillet until golden, about 3 min per side. Meanwhile, combine wine, lemon juice and chicken broth, set aside; measure capers into small bowl.
5. Transfer cooked chicken to platter; cover to keep warm.
6. Melt butter in skillet; remove from heat; whisk in reserved flour until completely smooth. Add wine mixture; bring to boil in skillet over med-hi heat; boil until sauce thickens slightly, about 2 min.
7. Stir in capers and parsley; pour sauce over chicken; serve immediately. 

Tonight's beer was also from Italy: Birra del Borgo's ReAle Extra. I brewed a beer once and forgot to add the hops. The resulting beer had a sour, lemon flavor that was pleasant but overwhelming. The ReAle had that same pleasant sour flavor balanced with an appropriate, but subtle hops. In fact, they triple the hops in this beer, but don't add them until the flavoring phase, totally skipping the bittering phase. This makes it a rather sophisticated alternative to my normal fare. This was piccata in a bottle. It was a perfect complement to the capers and lemon.