Pan-Seared Chicken with Lemon-Chive Pan Sauce

Chicken can be such a dry, boring dish. It is usually accompanied by lots of stuffings and soup mixes in order to hopefully mask the dehydrated meat. It is hard to cook chicken well. A wonderful way to ensure juicy, tender chicken is to use bone-in breasts. I however, have a hard enough time preparing boneless chicken, not to mention preparing or eating bone-in chicken. So I am stuck trying to making dry, boneless, chicken tantalizing.

This recipe for chicken is just that...tantalizing. The recipe uses an interesting technique, baking the chicken most of the way in the oven and then finishing it off with a final sear, to ensure moist meat on the inside with a delightful crust on the outside. To top it off, a simple pan sauce, made with the fond (those delicious bits left over in the pan after cooking the chicken), adds bright flavor and punch.

Pan-Seared Chicken with Lemon-Chive Pan Sauce

Serves 2 - 4
Total Time: 45 minutes to 1 hour

2 - 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed of fat

1 tsp. salt

1 T. veggie oil

2 T. butter, melted

1 T. flour

1 tsp. cornstarch

1/2 tsp. ground black pepper

For Pan Sauce:
1 medium shallot, minced (about 3 T.)

1 tsp. flour

1 cup chicken broth

1 T. lemon juice

1 T. minced fresh chives (optional)

1 T. butter, chilled

Salt and Pepper, to taste

Poke the thick end of the chicken breasts with a fork, 5 or 6 times. Sprinkle 1/4 tsp. salt over each breast. Place in a baking dish and cover with tin foil.

Bake at 275 degrees for 25 - 40 minutes (depending on size of breasts) until thickest part of the chicken reads 145 - 150 degrees on an instant-read thermometer.

Then whisk together the melted butter, flour, cornstarch and pepper.

Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel and spread about half of the mixture onto one side of each breast.

Heat oil in a medium sauté pan over medium high heat until shimmering.

Place chicken buttered side down in the pan and sear for 3 - 4 minutes, until golden brown.

While chicken sears, coat the other side with remaining butter mixture, then flip and sear on second side until instant-read thermometer reads 160 - 165 degrees.

Remove chicken from pan and tent with tin foil.

For the Sauce:

Then it's time to whisk together the pan sauce. 

Without cleaning out the pan, place minced shallot directly into pan. Sauté for 2 minutes.

If you can't find shallots, you can also use 2 - 3 tablespoons of onion.

Add flour and cook for 30 seconds, scraping up that nice fond as it cooks.

Fond is the browned bits left in the pan after cooking our chicken. Fond = flavor.

Add chicken broth and simmer rapidly for 3 - 5 minutes. Sauce will begin to reduce.

Remove form the heat and stir in butter, lemon juice and chives. Season with salt and pepper.

Spoon pan sauce over chicken. The sauce also flavors rice nicely. 

This recipe is from Cook's Illustrated Magazine.