Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Sage Chicken with Lemon Sauce


Back before we had "Sage-zilla" taking over the rest of the herb garden, I used to buy those pre-packaged herbs from the grocery store at $2.20 a pop. I'd bought a packet of sage for a different recipe, but had plenty left. This recipe was printed on the package, so I thought I'd try it out. Last night, I had a carton of whipping cream that hadn't gotten used for our anniversary dessert, so it was time to make this again. Although I didn't have the energy to play with this last night, I do plan on making it healthier so we can eat it more often. It's a nice dish that I'll try subbing Greek yogurt for cream in next time. I won't use the full 2 Tbs of butter either. Just enough to brown the chicken a bit.

Sage Chicken with Lemon Sauce:

6 boneless chicken breast halves (my pan will only hold about 3 flattened breasts, but I still make the whole amount of sauce)
2 tablespoons flour (I used brown rice flour)
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons butter (I used less, but will use even less next time)
1 tablespoon olive oil
10 sage leaves
1 lemon, sliced in rounds
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup dry vermouth
1/4 cup whipping cream

Pound chicken breasts to ~1/4" thickness.
Put flour on a plate.
Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper on both sides.
Dredge chicken breasts in flour, then set aside.
Melt butter and oil in skillet large enough to hold chicken breasts without crowding.
Add sage leaves, saute for a few minutes, then remove and set aside.
Add chicken breasts and saute on both sides until lightly colored (about 2 minutes per side?)
Add broth, lower heat to a simmer and cook chicken on both sides until its slightly underdone about 4-5 minutes.
Remove chicken and set aside.
Add vermouth and lemon slices to pan and boil for 3 minutes, scraping up bits of chicken from the bottom of the pan.
Remove lemon slices.
Add cream and sage leaves and simmer for a minute, stirring constantly, until cream is warm and sauce has thickened.
Return chicken to pan and simmer on low for 1-2 minutes to warm back through.
Divide lemon slices and sage among the pieces. Top each serving with a spoonful of sauce.

2 comments:

Beth said...

We made this one, but used olive oil for the butter, yogurt for the cream, and sherry/white wine combo for vermouth. It was dee-lish!

Erndog said...

Awesome Beth! You Erin-ified the recipe for me. :-)
I made it as called for on the packet of sage because I had the cream on hand from some Christmasy thing, but I'll make it with the olive oil and yogurt too from now on. Now what kind of yogurt did you use (fat% too) and how did you keep it from curdling from the heat?