The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook (141 page)
Read The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook Online
Authors: The Editors at America's Test Kitchen
Tags: #Cooking
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS
Chicken braised in a wine and mushroom sauce is a classic Northern Italian dish. It’s rich and flavorful—and takes hours to prepare. We wanted to keep the flavor but cut the cooking time by distilling the essence of this braise into a quick-cooking but complex-tasting pan sauce. We started by coating eight thinly pounded cutlets in flour (which aided in browning and also helped the sauce adhere) and sautéing them in two speedy batches. For the sauce, we found that substituting vermouth for wine (and adding a bit of sugar) helped replicate the flavor of a long-simmered wine sauce, while adding a dash of soy sauce to our dried porcini enhanced their meaty flavor. Some thyme and fresh lemon juice were the finishing touches to our quick yet flavorful pan sauce.
SERVES 4
Look for dried mushrooms that are smooth and have small pores; shriveled porcini with large holes will retain dirt and grit even after rinsing. To make slicing the chicken easier, freeze it for 15 minutes. For even more intense mushroom flavor, grind an additional ¹⁄
2
ounce of dried porcini mushrooms in a spice grinder until reduced to a fine dust. Sift the dust through a fine-mesh strainer and then stir it into the flour before dredging the chicken.
1 | cup low-sodium chicken broth |
¹⁄ | ounce dried porcini mushrooms, rinsed |
4 | (6- to 8-ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, tenderloins removed, trimmed |
¹⁄ | cup plus 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour |
Salt and pepper | |
2 | tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon vegetable oil |
1 | small shallot, minced |
¹⁄ | cup dry vermouth |
1 | teaspoon tomato paste |
1 | teaspoon soy sauce |
¹⁄ | teaspoon sugar |
2 | tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 2 pieces and chilled |
¹⁄ | teaspoon minced fresh thyme |
¹⁄ | teaspoon lemon juice |
1.
Microwave chicken broth and porcini in covered bowl until steaming, about 1 minute. Let stand until softened, about 5 minutes. Drain mushrooms through fine-mesh strainer lined with coffee filter, reserve liquid, and chop mushrooms into ³⁄
4
-inch pieces.
2.
Halve chicken horizontally, then cover chicken halves with plastic wrap and pound to even ¹⁄
4
-inch thickness with meat pounder. Combine ¹⁄
4
cup flour, 1 teaspoon salt, and ¹⁄
2
teaspoon pepper in shallow dish or pie plate. Pat chicken dry with paper towels. Working with 1 cutlet at a time, dredge in flour mixture, shaking off excess, and transfer to large plate.
3.
Heat 1 tablespoon oil in 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Place 4 cutlets in skillet and cook until golden brown on first side, about 3 minutes. Flip cutlets, reduce heat to medium, and continue to cook until no longer pink and lightly browned on second side, about 2 minutes longer; transfer to large platter. Wipe out skillet with paper towels. Repeat with 1 tablespoon more oil and remaining 4 cutlets; transfer to plate. Tent loosely with aluminum foil and set aside while preparing sauce.
4.
Heat remaining 1 teaspoon oil in now-empty skillet over low heat until shimmering. Add shallot and cook, stirring often, until softened, about 2 minutes. Add remaining 1 teaspoon flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 30 seconds. Slowly whisk in vermouth, scraping up any browned bits. Stir in tomato paste, soy sauce, sugar, soaked porcini, and reserved porcini soaking liquid. Bring to simmer and cook until reduced to 1 cup, 3 to 5 minutes.
5.
Return cutlets and any accumulated juices to skillet. Bring to simmer, cover, and cook until cutlets are heated through, about 1 minute; transfer to platter. Off heat, whisk butter, 1 piece at a time, thyme, and lemon juice into sauce and season with salt and pepper to taste. Pour sauce over chicken and serve immediately.
SELECTING DRIED PORCINI
Like fresh fruits and vegetables, the quality of dried porcini mushrooms can vary dramatically from package to package and brand to brand. Always inspect the mushrooms before you buy. Avoid those with small holes, which indicate that the mushroom was perhaps home to pinworms. Instead, look for large, smooth porcini, free of worm holes, dust, and grit.
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS
Most chicken cutlets offer a thin, uneven, pale crust; we wanted a thick, crisp, flavorful coating that wouldn’t fall off. Starting with the chicken, we found that pounding the chicken ensured the cutlets would cook evenly. Homemade bread crumbs were a must, providing a subtly sweet flavor and light, crisp texture, while adding a little oil to our egg wash allowed the crust to brown more deeply. Finally, pan-frying the cutlets two at a time (rather than four) reduced the amount of steam in the skillet, allowing the breading to crisp and brown evenly.
SERVES 4
If you’d rather not prepare fresh bread crumbs, use panko, the extra-crisp Japanese bread crumbs. The chicken is cooked in batches of two because the crust is noticeably more crisp if the pan is not overcrowded.
4 | (6- to 8-ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, tenderloins removed, trimmed |
Salt and pepper | |
3 | slices hearty white sandwich bread, torn into quarters |
³⁄ | cup all-purpose flour |
2 | large eggs |
1 | tablespoon plus ³⁄ |
Lemon wedges |
1.
Cover chicken breasts with plastic wrap and pound to even ¹⁄
2
-inch thickness with meat pounder. Pat chicken dry with paper towels and season chicken with salt and pepper.
2.
Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 200 degrees. Set wire rack in rimmed baking sheet. Pulse bread in food processor to coarse crumbs, about 10 pulses; transfer to shallow dish or pie plate. Place flour in second dish. Lightly beat eggs and 1 tablespoon oil together in third dish.
3.
Working with 1 cutlet at a time, dredge in flour, shaking off excess, then coat with egg mixture, allowing excess to drip off. Coat all sides of cutlet with bread crumbs, pressing gently so that crumbs adhere; transfer to prepared wire rack and let sit for 5 minutes.
4.
Heat 6 tablespoons oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Place 4 cutlets in skillet and cook until deep golden brown and crisp on first side, about 3 minutes. Flip cutlets, reduce heat to medium, and continue to cook until deep golden brown and crisp on second side and meat feels firm when pressed gently, about 3 minutes longer. Drain cutlets briefly on paper towel–lined plate, then transfer to clean wire rack set in baking sheet and keep warm in oven. Pour off all oil left in skillet and wipe out with paper towels. Repeat with remaining 6 tablespoons oil and remaining 4 cutlets. Serve with lemon wedges.
Rub each breast with generous pinch cayenne before dredging in flour. Lightly beat 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard, 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, and 2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme into eggs along with oil.
Lightly beat 3 tablespoons minced fresh oregano and 8 garlic cloves, minced to paste, into eggs along with oil.
Though Parmesan is the traditional cheese to use in this dish, feel free to substitute Pecorino Romano cheese if you prefer a stronger, more tangy flavor. The cheese is quite susceptible to burning, so be sure to keep a very close eye on the cutlets as they cook.
Substitute ¹⁄
4
cup finely grated Parmesan cheese for an equal amount of bread crumbs.
CHICKEN—ONE SIZE DOESN’T FIT ALL
Every good chicken dish starts with high-quality fresh chicken. But there are an overwhelming number of choices at the supermarket—so how do you recognize superior poultry? Here are a few tips the test kitchen has learned over time: If you’re buying boneless, skinless chicken breasts, you should be aware that breasts of different sizes are often packaged together, and it’s usually impossible to tell what you’ve bought until you’ve opened the package. If possible, buy chicken breasts individually. If that isn’t an option, pound the thicker ends of the larger pieces of chicken to match those of the smaller pieces. Some breasts will still be larger than others, but pounding will help make their thickness the same and ensure even cooking. As for chicken parts—say for making a dish such as fried chicken or stew—we prefer to butcher our own birds rather than buy packaged parts. Not only is this a less expensive option, but the parts will be consistently sized. (We also use this approach with stew meat—there’s no guarantee that packaged stew meat is going to be cut into even-size pieces or be from the same cut or even the same cow!)
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS
Unlike classic Italian-style chicken cutlets, where the coating primarily consists of bread crumbs, Parmesan-crusted chicken breasts offer a thin, crispy-yet-chewy, waferlike sheath of Parmesan cheese. But this dish can be hard to get right: baked versions are pale and gummy while pan-fried recipes produce patchy, bitter-tasting crusts. We started by coating the cutlets with flour, then egg, and finally grated Parmesan instead of the usual bread crumbs. Eliminating the yolks prevented the crust from having a souffléed texture, and adding some grated Parmesan to the flour layer provided a serious flavor boost. For the outermost layer, shredding the cheese on the large holes of a box grater gave us a sturdier, more even crust, and a little flour added to this cheese helped the coating turn crisp. Pan-frying in a nonstick skillet over medium heat prevented sticking and browned the cheese without making it bitter.
SERVES 4
We like the flavor that authentic Parmigiano-Reggiano lends to this recipe. To make slicing the chicken easier, freeze it for 15 minutes. Although the portion size (1 cutlet per person) might seem small, these cutlets are rather rich due to the cheese content. Do not be tempted to cook all four cutlets at once; this will cause excessive sticking between cutlets and make flipping them difficult. To make 8 cutlets, double the ingredients and cook the chicken in four batches, transferring the cooked cutlets to the warm oven and wiping out the skillet after each batch. Serve this chicken with a simple salad.
2 | (8-ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, tenderloins removed, trimmed |
¹⁄ | cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour |
6¹⁄ | ounces Parmesan cheese, ¹⁄ |
3 | large egg whites |
2 | tablespoons minced fresh chives (optional) |
Salt and pepper | |
4 | teaspoons olive oil |
Lemon wedges |
1.
Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 200 degrees. Set wire rack in rimmed baking sheet. Halve chicken horizontally, then cover chicken halves with plastic wrap and pound to even ¹⁄
4
-inch thickness with meat pounder.
2.
Combine ¹⁄
4
cup flour and finely grated Parmesan in shallow dish or pie plate. Lightly beat egg whites and chives, if using, together until slightly foamy in second dish. Combine 2 cups coarsely grated Parmesan and remaining 1 tablespoon flour in third dish.
3.
Pat chicken dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Working with 1 cutlet at a time, dredge in flour mixture, shaking off excess, then coat with egg white mixture, allowing excess to drip off. Coat all sides of cutlet with coarsely grated Parmesan mixture, pressing gently so that cheese adheres; transfer to prepared wire rack.
4.
Heat 2 teaspoons oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Place 2 cutlets in skillet and cook until golden brown on first side, about 3 minutes. While chicken is cooking, use thin nonstick spatula to gently separate any cheesy edges that have melted together. Flip cutlets, reduce heat to medium, and continue to cook until lightly browned on second side, about 2 minutes longer. Transfer cutlets to clean wire rack set in baking sheet and keep warm in oven. Wipe out skillet with paper towels. Repeat with remaining 2 teaspoons oil and remaining 2 cutlets. Serve immediately with lemon wedges.