Chicken Piccata - All Time Fave

One of my all time favorite dinners is chicken piccata and nobody does it better than my mother-in-law. I've tried Giada's recipe which is quite good but the M-I-L has it down. She doesn't cook by a recipe so it's hard to hammer down the details. I've watched her make it a dozen times and I still can't make it as good as her but tonight's was pretty darn close. Here's my version, using both my M-I-L and Giada's as guidance.

I served my chicken piccata with white rice (so good with sauce on it), steamed broccoli (drizzled with olive oil and lemon juice) and a great simple salad that my friend Jen told me about (coming soon!).

Chicken Piccata

2 or 3 chicken breasts, skinless & boneless, butterflied and pounded thin*
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup bread crumbs
kosher salt
freshly ground pepper
garlic salt
5-6 tablespoons butter
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
5 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup capers
1/3 cup sherry
1 3/4 cup chicken stock
1 T cornstarch
2 cups sliced mushrooms
1/3 cup fresh parsley, chopped
Juice of one lemon

Whisk cornstarch into chicken stock to combine, then set aside. Saute mushrooms in a tablespoon or two of butter, then set aside.

Mix flour and bread crumbs together on a large plate. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, melt 2 tablespoons of butter with 3 tablespoons olive oil. While you wait for it to heat up, season chicken breasts with kosher salt, garlic salt, and pepper. Dredge into flour/bread crumb mixture. Add chicken to pan and cook for a few minutes on each side until it's golden brown. Remove and transfer to plate. Add remaining butter and oil and repeat with the rest of the chicken.

Reduce heat to low and add a touch of olive oil if needed. Add garlic and saute for a few minutes. Add capers, then add sherry, scraping up the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Pour in lemon juice and chicken stock mixture and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low. Add mushrooms, parsley and more pepper.

Return all the chicken to the pan and simmer for 5-15 minutes, moving the chicken around so each piece gets coated in sauce. Serve with white rice. Spoon sauce over chicken and rice.

* I hate working with raw chicken so I asked the guys at the meat counter to butterfly and pound the chicken breasts for me. They weren't busy today so they were happy to do it. Great time-saving trick too!