Pan-Seared Chicken Breasts with Shallots

Pan sauteed chicken breast with shallot non-sauce.

A couple months ago I was on a kick to find recipes utilizing boneless, skinless chicken breasts.  I had some Randall Farms chicken breasts in the freezer and wanted to use them up, so I dug out this recipe from the recipe box I have on allrecipes.com and away I went.

Pan-Seared Chicken Breasts with Shallots

3 tbsp unsalted butter, divided
1 tbsp olive oil
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - pounded thin
salt and pepper to taste
2 shallots, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/3 c dry white wine
1/2 c chicken broth

Melt 1 tablespoon butter and heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.

Season chicken with salt and pepper, and brown on both sides in the skillet. Cover, and continue cooking 10 minutes, or until chicken juices run clear. Set aside, and keep warm.

  

Mix shallots and garlic into skillet over medium heat, and cook until tender.

  

Stir in wine, and cook until heated through.

Stir in broth, and continue cooking 5 minutes, or until reduced and slightly thickened.

Mix in the remaining butter until melted.

 

Serve the sauce over the chicken.

While it tasted ok, the chicken was dry.  I overcooked it by about 10 minutes.  And my sauce wasn't exactly a sauce by the time I was done with it.

There were a few things I should have done differently:

1. Avoid using the biggest breasts in the world to make this.  Randall Farms breasts are huge anyway and after pouding them to flatten a bit were even wider.  This resulted in my skillet becoming way too crowded and the chicken didn't brown well.  Searing?  No way.
2. What is the point in pounding this chicken anyway?
3. After cooking the chicken, there was quite a bit of pan juice left.  I dumped it. That may have been a problem.
4. Cooking 5 minutes before the butter was added to the shallots was way too long.  I think it was actually slightly reduced (but not exactly thickened) within just a couple minutes.

Cost:

• Randall Farms chicken breasts: $1.97/lb or $8
• shallots: $0.26

Total: approximately $8.26, bringing each serving to $2.10.



Pan-seared chicken breasts with shallots, Crash Hot Potatoes and steamed carrots for dinner.

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