EAT: Chicken Piccata and Homemade Balsamic Dressing Salad

Last night we experimented with a healthy version of Chicken Piccata and it was pretty darn good.

From foodpics

INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons dry breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1/8 teaspoon pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 (4-ounce) skinned, boned chicken
breast halves
Cooking spray
1 teaspoon margarine
Cooking spray
1 teaspoon margarine
8 thin lemon slices
1/4 cup low-salt chicken broth
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons lemon juice
**Capers (not in original recipe)
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Combine first 5 ingredients in a shallow dish; set aside.
2. Place chicken between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap; flatten to 1/4-inch thickness, using a meat mallet or rolling pin. Lightly coat both sides of chicken with cooking spray; dredge chicken in breadcrumb mixture.
3. Melt margarine in a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook 4 minutes on each side or until done. Remove chicken from skillet. Set aside; keep warm. Add lemon slices to skillet; saute 30 seconds. Add broth, parsley, and lemon juice; cook 1 minute. Spoon sauce over chicken.
YIELD: 4 servings
PREPARATION TIME:15 minutes
COOKING TIME: 12 minutes
NUTRITIONAL INFO
CALORIES 160 (16% from fat); FAT 2.9g (sat 0.6g, mono 0.8g, poly 0.7g); PROTEIN 27.3g; CARB 6.9g; FIBER 0.4g; CHOL 66mg; IRON 1.4mg; SODIUM 115mg; CALC 46mg

Thoughts: Grating the lemon rind was cool…neither one of us had done it before and couldn’t believe how powerful the smell and taste was from this! We agreed to keep our eyes open for more recipes with a lemon rind. Spraying the chicken with PAM doesn’t allow the breadcrumbs to stick terribly well but it was ok. Chicken is very tender when you pound it…..we didn’t have the proper tool so we took a regular hardware hammer and put the chicken breast in a baggie. Then we opened an old magazine, inserted the chicken breast in baggie, closed the magazine on top and then pounded it through the magazine. Worked good enough.

Lindsey cooked the recipe to a T and she even threw in some capers at the end that were not called for. Usually when you order this in a restaurant it is very buttery and very good…..this recipe isn’t as buttery, but it is pretty good considering how healthy it was. We’ll definitely make it again.

From foodpics

HOMEMADE BALSAMIC DRESSING
We also had a salad on mixed greens, tomato, and shredded mozzarella. We topped it with a homemade dressing that you really just feel your way through to taste.


Balsamic Dressing
EVOO
Minced Shallot
Dijon mustard
Splenda

Yes, Splenda. The original recipe I saw of this called for sugar but we didn’t have any so we used what we had and we’ll only use this in the future.

Directions: Add a decent amount of balsamic to a bowl and then throw in some minced shallots….maybe 3 tablespoons worth. Next add some Dijon….maybe a teaspoon to start….then a whole packet of Splenda. Start to mix it with a whisk while slowly drizzling in some EVOO. Stick your finger in and taste…..add more of the ingredients to get it where you want it . End result will be tangy and the Splenda will cut that for you.

Drizzle over salad and enjoy.