Cooking
Lemon and garlic chicken; skillet meatballs with peaches and basil; and grilled zucchini with miso glaze.
The problem isn’t that they’re lean, it’s that they’re plump. Boneless chicken breasts, that is, which are hard to cook not just because their lack of fat makes them prone to drying out, but also because they bulge in the middle and taper at the ends, like the boa constrictor digesting an elephant. How can you bring the thick middle to doneness without desiccating those shallow edges?
My favorite fix is to pound the heck out of them. Flattening the soft flesh into a thin, uniform cutlet allows it to cook evenly and quickly and still stay juicy. Use the flat side of a meat tenderizer or a rolling pin, and let each stroke fall with a cathartic thwack. It may take an extra few minutes to flatten your chicken breasts, but the faster cooking time makes it a wash. Besides, you’ll work out some stress.
Once pounded, chicken cutlets can be grilled, seared or breaded and fried like schnitzel. But one stress-free way to go is to simply sauté them and use the drippings to make a savory pan sauce, just as Martha Rose Shulman does in her recipe for lemon and garlic chicken breasts. Cherry tomatoes and white wine anchor the sauce, which is seasoned with rosemary and thickened with the small amount of flour she dredges the cutlets in before sautéing. Serve this elegant, summery dish with a glass of the wine you used for the sauce, and enjoy a vibrant dinner that feels a little more elevated than the average weeknight meal.
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Lemon and Garlic Chicken With Cherry Tomatoes
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Peaches are another summertime ingredient that really shine in a pan sauce, especially if they’re a little past their prime. Throw mealy or overripe fruit into a ripping hot skillet and watch their tartly sweet juices flow. I love to simmer them with skillet meatballs spiked with basil and lime. They’ll soften without breaking down and add body to the pan sauce. I’m partial to pork here, but chicken or turkey would work equally as well.
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