Chicken Cutlets with Almond Butter Sauce

Mmm, doesn’t just the name alone get your mouth watering?  Recently my mom sent me a subscription to Cuisine at home, and in the April 2010 issue, I saw this great looking chicken entree and decided to make it for dinner.  On one of my recent trips to the store, I picked up four chicken breasts hand selected by the butcher.

When it was time for dinner, I gathered all my ingredients and then unwrapped the chicken.  One at a time, I placed each breast in a large zip-lock bag and then beat it with a rolling pin to flatten it to the desired 1/ 2-inch thickness.  This was fine for the first two breasts, but the next two were huge!  The butcher must have selected the largest breast in his case because when I pounded them flat, each one just about covered the bottom of our 12-inch frying pan.

Once all the breasts were flattened, I dredged each one in flour.  There was no way that the recommended 2-tablespoons of flour would be enough for the dredging, and I ended up using almost two cups of flour.

I heated the large frying pan over medium-high heat and added a little olive oil then cooked each chicken breast for seven minutes per side.  When each one was cooked, I placed it in the warm oven in a glass-baking dish to stay warm.

The recipe calls for 1/4 cup of sliced almonds, and I though, no problem, I can slice them.  Wrong!  I did manage to get an approximation of sliced, but there were just as many chopped almonds.  In the end, they were just fine.  My wife said that next time I should just used pre-sliced almonds.

I added my “sliced’ almonds into the frying pan and browned them for a couple of minutes then added the 1/2-cup of white wine and deglazed the pan using my silicone spatula.  Simmering for three minutes, the wine and almond mixture started to thicken.

I added my 2-tablespoons of butter (the recipe calls for 4) to the pan, I stirred all the sauce ingredients over low heat until the butter was melted.  I added the 1/4-cup of green onions and stirred to mix the sauce.

It was time to serve, so I got out the red plates (white food), added some brown rice to the plate, put a portion of the chicken cutlet on each plate with some of the almond butter sauce on top.  I added some steamed peas and a little of the braised cabbage with carrots (more about that recipe in another post).

The result was a very colorful and tasty dinner.  The chicken was thoroughly cooked without getting dried out.  The sauce was a wonderful addition to both the chicken and the rice.  We just wish there was more sauce.  For our leftovers tonight, I will have to make more of the sauce.

This recipe (without the cabbage) will be added to ongoing our dinner menu.  Thank you to Cuisine At Home!

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell