Chicken with Garlic & Parsley

Welcome to my new look!  I just wanted to change things up a bit.  I also wanted to add more background to my recipes.

Recently I've been doing a lot of blog hopping.  I found a food blog, Amanda's Cookin and decided to give this one a whirl.  The bonus is that I had all of the ingredients on hand.  I did, however, exchange dried parsley for fresh parsley.  I also used frozen chicken breasts and whole wheat flour.

Chicken with Garlic & Parlsey

3 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (each about 7 ounces), cut into 1- to 1-1/2 inch cubes

1 tablespoon flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons good olive oil

1 tablespoon chopped garlic

3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 lemon, quartered (optional, I don't bother)

gravy (see recipe below)

Directions:  Dry the chicken cubes with paper towels and toss them with the flour, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Trust me, don't be tempted to ad more flour, the amount mentioned is perfect. Heat the oil in a 12-inch skillet over high heat until very hot but not smoking, add the cubed chicken, and cook in one layer, for about 4-5 minutes, this will develop a lovely crust. Turn pieces of chicken and continue cooking for 3-5 more minutes.

Meanwhile, combine the garlic and parsley in a small bowl. Add the butter and the parsley mixture to the skillet and saute for 1 minute longer, shaking the skillet occasionally to coat the chicken. Use a spoon to remove the chicken to a plate, leaving brown bits, extra parsley and garlic in the pan.

Here's what I started with:

Notice that I used frozen chicken breasts, dried parsley and whole wheat flour.

Here's how I did it:

After thawing the chicken breasts (I used 4), I dried them off and cut them into cubes.

I added the salt, pepper and whole wheat flour and mixed it all up.

The recipe called for 1Tbsp of garlic.  This ended up being 3 cloves, chopped.

I put olive oil in a skillet and let it get hot.  Then, I added the chicken cubes.  They cooked on one side, without stirring, for about 6 minutes.  Then I individually turned each of them over.

Once the chicken had cooked for a while, I turned each piece over.  The cooked side was nice and crispy and brown.

While the second side of the chicken was cooking, I mixed about 1 1/2 Tbsp of dried parsley to the garlic. 

The garlic and parsley was thrown in with the chicken along with the butter.

Once the second side of the chicken was cooked, I pulled it out and started on the gravy.  This is what was used for the gravy:

1 heaping Tbsps of flour

1 cup of chicken broth

The recipe said to add butter, too, but since I just used butter with the garlic and parsley, I didn't add any extra.

Here is the chicken when I pulled it out of the skillet.

The start of the gravy.  1 big Tablespoon of whole wheat flour and 1 cup of chicken broth to the oil/butter mixture and then stir like crazy.  I cooked it for about 1 minute.

The Finished Product:

Review:

I cannot say enough about this chicken and the gravy.  It was fantastic!  Having made SO MANY chicken dishes, I was a little skeptical that this one could be that good but it really was. 

There were three things that made this dish stand out.  The first thing was letting the chicken just sit and cook for the 4-5 minutes at first and really letting it crisp up and then doing the same thing on the other side.  This really trapped in the juices.  Secondly, loved the simplicity of the garlic and parsley.  Lastly, the gravy was great!  Using the drippings of the butter/oil/garlic/parsley really added that extra flavor.

Amanda suggested serving this over rice and I think that would be a fantastic idea.  I think that I will make it again with wild rice the next time.  This time, though, I served it with a potato/mushroom side, green beans and baked beans.

Everyone loved this dish.  Kanin ate and ate it.  Gracie, of course, took one bit and said "I don't like it."  I consider it a success that she even tasted it.  LOL

Hope you enjoy!

April