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Yes. I do notice the irony. The fact that yesterday's post was a loving tribute to my new egg laying chickens. While today's post is a loving tribute to a pistachio encrusted chicken recipe. Dear chickens: the moral of this story is remember to lay eggs.
I don't know about you but I don't even really like chicken. Especially a big, honkin' chicken breast sitting on my plate. Blech. I can never get through the whole thing. It always smells great and a roast chicken conjures up thoughts of the most delicious dinner in the world, but really I'm only interested in the crispy skin and the stuffing.
In fact, the only reason I eat chicken is to break up the red meat I long for and eat every other night. Plus, apparently I overcook my chicken all the time which probably makes it somewhat less delicious than it could be. I got this habit from my mother who doesn't believe her chicken is completely done until it's completely inedible. Ditto for every other meat and the occasional Eggo.
In our house it isn't "Honey! Is dinner ready yet?". It's "Honey! Is the chicken overcooked yet?". True story.
I've partially solved both of my issues with chicken by slicing it thinly before cooking it. It's less grotesque to me that way, plus it cooks more evenly and quickly.
Having a good sauce don't hurt none neither. ( Since I own chickens I will now sporadically talk hillbilly. )
So when this stupid, goofy, stupid, relentless, neverending, stupid meal plan I'm on had a chicken recipe I was none too impressed. Then I made it, fell in love with it and decided to marry it. True story. We're hitched.
It's a pistachio encrusted chicken with a dijon mustard/dill sauce. And you will love it too. Unless you're a weirdo. No wait. I'm a weirdo and I love it. So ... on second thought ... if you're a weirdo, you too will love it.
The best part is it's easy. Here we go!
Ingredients
Mustard Dill Sauce
¼ cup Red Onion (minced)
½ cup Chicken Broth
1 ½cups Whipping Cream (yep ... the good stuff)
2 Tablespoons Dijon Mustard
¼ Cup Fresh Basil
2 teaspoons dried dill weed
Chicken Breasts
Chicken Breasts (1 per person, sliced against the grain, thin)
½ cup Panko Breadcrumbs
½ cup Pistachios (shelled)
Whack of butter (4 Tablespoons or so)
Milk (½ cup or so)
Mustard Dill Sauce
Dice your ¼ cup of Red Onion.
Add it to a saucepan with the ½ cup of chicken broth.
Simmer until liquid is almost gone.
Meanwhile, chop your ¼ cup of fresh basil.
By now your broth should be reduced. Like this.
Add your basil.
And your 2 Tablespoons of Dijon Mustard.
Throw in the dill. I mean, don't endanger anyone but ... chuck it in there. With flare. Like they do on cooking shows! It'll make you feel good.
Add the 1½ cups of Whipping Cream.
Simmer and reduce the sauce to one cup. Season with salt and pepper.
O.K. I have a tiny confession to make here, explaining lie #1. This whole recipe up to this point? A bit of a lie. The original recipe (which I've altered slightly) states that you're supposed to reduce your onions, THEN add your whipping cream and reduce to 1 cup. THEN add your basil, dill and dijon.
Heh heh. Seems I did it a little backwards and added the basil and such at the same time as the whipping cream. We ate it. It was good. We didn't die.
Phew ... now that that's out of the way ... crush your pistachios. Don't turn them into flour, they should be like bread crumbs.
Like this!
Add your ½ cup of Panko Breadcrumbs and mix together. This is your breading.
Dip the chicken slices in the milk and then the crumb mixture.
Heat some butter in a non stick pan over medium high heat.
Once it's good and hot but before the butter browns, drop the chicken pieces in the pan. Don't drop actually. That'll splatter. "Place" the chicken pieces in the pan.
And why am I reminding you not to let your butter brown? Because contrary to what this post would imply, I browned my butter. A lot. That butter up above is my second batch of melted butter, which I made sure not to brown. So the above picture would be lie #2.
Cook the chicken on one side a few minutes, then flip them over ....
... and cook the other side. Until they're done. I'm not giving you any time frame here because as was established in the beginning of this post, I'm a bit of a chicken overcooker. Use your best judgement. If need be, stick a knife in the middle of one of the pieces. If it's pink, it's no done. If it's so cooked you need a pair of tin snips to cut into it ... it's cooked to Karen Perfection!
Plate it up and drizzle with the Mustard Dill Sauce.
I used this much Mustard Dill Sauce for the picture. Then I put the plate on the table in front of me to eat for dinner and slathered it with another half cup of sauce. Allow me to introduce you to lie #3.
Oh. And the cauliflower? I didn't eat it. Blech. I don't like cauliflower. It sitting on my plate, as if I would ever eat it. Is white lie #4.
Which brings us to my 5th. lie. The fact that I said there were only 3 lies. Consider yourself lucky, most of my posts probably contain 10 or 12 lies. And regular bloggers probably hit somewhere around 25 - 30 on a good day.
The recipe is totally delicious! That, I promise is not a lie.
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