Pan Seared Chicken with White Wine Sauce

I’ve never had a bad word to say about meat and potatoes. The combination, in just about any incarnation, is essential to my existence. This is a simple, yet tasty recipe that is sure to be a hit. Using a versatile pan sauce, this recipe is not only delicious, but it can be interchanged with fish, pork, or beef along with a multitude of spices and wines. Served with a stuffed potato, this meal is bound to leave you satisfied when leaving the dinner table.

Ingredients

Serves two people

1.5 lbs Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast

½ cup White Wine

½ cup Chicken Broth

2-4 tbsp Butter, depending on desired thickness and taste

1 tsp Basil

1 tsp Thyme

3 cloves Garlic

Salt and Pepper, to taste

1 tsp Lemon Juice

1 tbsp Oil (I use EVOO but any cooking oil should work)

2 large Russet Potatoes

2 tbsp Sour Cream

1/3 cup Cheese – I used cheddar, but any cheese should work (Asiago?)

2 tsp Garlic Powder

Process

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

For the potatoes

Wrap the potatoes in foil and cook in the preheated oven for about an hour.

When you pull them out, the potatoes should be fairly soft but not completely cooked. Scrape out a hole in the center of the potato. The more you scrape out, the more filling you have, but don’t scrape too much or the potato will collapse. If it is difficult to carve out the center, the potato is not cooked enough.

Mix together the cheese, sour cream, garlic powder and potato remnants that were scraped out. Add salt and pepper to taste. Fill the potato with the mixture and cook for another 15-20 minutes. You can add chives for extra flavor and color if you prefer.

For the chicken

Pour one tablespoon of oil into a medium pan on medium heat. Sear both sides of the chicken, cooking the breast most of the way through but not all the way. When both sides are brown, pull the chicken out of the pan.

In the same pan, sauté the garlic until it is translucent but not brown, about one minute.

When the garlic is done, deglaze the pan with the wine then add chicken broth, lemon juice, spices, butter, salt, and pepper into the pan. Stir the mixture so the butter combines evenly, bring to a boil and add the chicken breasts. Cover and cook for 10-15 minutes stirring once or twice. The liquid should reduce to about half of the original quantity by the time it’s ready.

Plate the chicken and pour the sauce on top. This recipe makes a little extra sauce than most people would use, but that’s how I like it.

Taste Test

The chicken came out extremely moist. The sauce was spot on. The tartness of the wine was balanced out with the sourness of the lemon juice and rounded off well with the butter and spices. The garlic added great flavor to the sauce which accentuated the chicken nicely.

The mixture was creamy and cheesy, just what I wanted. It’s not the most complex combination, but it tastes pretty darn good.

Leftover Quality

The sauce thickened up over night, but I thought it was delicious. The chicken was good but the potatoes didn’t hold up too well. The filling was good but the outer layer of the potato was a bit flaky.