Weeknight Dinners · Family Favorite
Grandma Edna's Lemon Butter Chicken
From Aunt Carol Kowalski, written down Easter 1978 — 'the one dish nobody ever leaves on the plate'
We've been making this lemon butter chicken since before any of the grandchildren were born, and it's still the first thing they ask for when they walk through the door. Aunt Carol learned it from a neighbor on Maple Street and made it her own with that gorgeous garlic butter sauce. There's nothing fancy about it, but my goodness, does it disappear fast.
Ingredients
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded to ½-inch thickness
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon paprika
- 3 tablespoons butter, divided
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- ¾ cup chicken broth
- ⅓ cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 2 teaspoons fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons cold butter, for finishing the sauce
- 1 lemon, sliced into rounds
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
Method
- Place the chicken breasts between two sheets of plastic wrap and pound them with a rolling pin or meat mallet until they're an even ½-inch thickness all the way across.
- In a shallow dish, whisk together the flour, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and paprika, then dredge each chicken breast through the mixture, shaking off the excess.
- Heat 2 tablespoons of butter and the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until the butter is foaming and just beginning to brown.
- Cook the chicken breasts for 4 to 5 minutes per side until they're beautifully golden and cooked through, then transfer them to a plate and tent loosely with foil.
- Reduce the heat to medium and add the remaining tablespoon of butter to the same skillet, then sauté the minced garlic for about 30 seconds until fragrant.
- Pour in the chicken broth, lemon juice, honey, and fish sauce, scraping up all those lovely golden bits from the bottom of the pan, and let the sauce simmer for 3 to 4 minutes until it reduces by about a third.
- Remove the skillet from the heat and swirl in the 2 tablespoons of cold butter until the sauce turns glossy and silky.
- Nestle the chicken back into the skillet, spoon that gorgeous sauce over each piece, and tuck the lemon rounds in around the chicken.
- Scatter the fresh parsley over the top and bring the whole skillet right to the table — that's how we've always served it.
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