So tonight we made one of Sam's favorites: Panko-Crusted Chicken with Mustard-Maple Pan Sauce from Bon Appetit. This main dish is so good it would easily work for company. Plus it's incredibly simple to make. And it's only 390 calories per serving (4 oz. of chicken with sauce).You have to flatten the chicken breast with a meat mallet or rolling pin. Beware: it's a very loud process. Then you dip it in egg, parsley, and Dijon mustard. Then you dip the breast in the panko breadcrumbs and cook it in 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil. It comes out so crispy and good. Now, if you haven't cooked with panko, I suggest you start. These japanese breadcrumbs are so incredibly light and crispy you can get the feel of fried chicken without deep frying.
Tonight we made a very delicious mistake with the panko. (Tee hee.) The recipe serves 4. We were only making 2 servings of the dish, but we accidentally coated our chicken in 4 servings worth of panko: 1 full cup (220 calories). But man, it just made the chicken crispier and yummier. For company you might want to make this mistake. If you want to keep the calories down, stick with 1/4 cup of panko per serving of chicken.
But maybe the best part of the dish is the maple mustard pan sauce. For two people the sauce uses 1.5 teaspoons of butter (50 cals) and 1.5 tablespoons of maple syrup (75 cals) and then dijon and whole grain mustard and low sodium chicken broth, reduced. Oh man, it's good. And when the sweetness of the maple mustard pan sauce pairs with the crispy, crunchy chicken and the tangy, spicy collard greens all the elements fall into place into delicious harmony. Did I just say that? You know what I mean. It's good.
yum yoh! how do you keep the crust from falling off in the pan? that happens sometimes when i make schnitzel. I MISS YOU!!!!!!!!! wish we could cook together. one day we will. xopupi
ReplyDeleteYes yes! One day we will cook together! soon soon soon!
ReplyDeleteNow onto the question: Sam is the master of cooking meat. As he says, he's the Meat Master. This answer is from the master himself:
The trick is not have to move the chicken too much. The reason why the recipe calls for pounding the chicken out flat is so that you only have to flip the chicken once. So get the pan nice and hot - as hot as possible without the oil "flashing" (fyi, olive oil gets smokey at lower temperatures than vegetable oil, but veggie oil isn't as good).
Also, make sure you pat the panko down with your hand and completely cover every wet spot of chicken.
Finally, resist temptations to fuck with the chicken once it's in the pan, you'll know when to flip it when you can see the edges of the chicken getting brown - then flip it gently with a spatula.
please thank the MeatMaster for me. this is fantastic advice. i DO fuck w/ the chicken once it's in the pan. have you considered taking videos of you cooking? and/or eating? i'd love to seeeee as well as read. (your demanding audience)
ReplyDeleteOK, DAUGHTER AND "NEW SON"... YOUR CHICKEN SOUNDS YUMMY....AS I AM NORMALLY NOT A CHICKEN FUCKER, I SHALL BE EVER SO CAREFUL WITH MY SPATULA. ADDITIONALLY, I WILL BE USING DARK MEAT, WHICH I UNDERSTAND HAS MORE CALORIES BUT TASTES SOOO MUCH BETTER. CAN I SUBSTITUTE STEAMED SPINACH? I TASTED COLLARD GREENS ONCE AND THEY WERE BITTER. WOULD IT BE THE SAME CALORIE-WISE? LUB CHEW, MOM
ReplyDeleteMelania: YES! We are considering using the Flip camera that Sam bought for me and taking some video of cooking, etc. We hope to post something this week. Stay tuned! Thank you for being such an amazing "follower" of this blog. At a moment when I thought about not doing it, your comments sparked me to continue. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteReRe: I am so glad you are not a chicken fucker. Tis not a good thing to be. And Sam agrees with you 100% that thigh meat beats breast meat hands down.
Calorie-wise the difference is not so huge:
1 cup of chicken breast(meat only, no skin)is 231 calories
1 cup of chicken thigh(meat only, no skin)is 273 calories
The important thing to remember for lowering calories is not to eat the skin or any other fatty part. Stick to the meat and nothin but the meat.
Also, I don't think of collard greens as being bitter (more smoky maybe) and I 'm thinking that maybe in the past you were given other greens that can be very bitter like mustard greens, dandelion greens, escarole, broccoli rabe, etc.
But that said, you can of course use spinach as a replacement. Only be aware that spinach cooks much more quickly than collards. The calories are about the same. If you are using a recipe that calls for collards, I'd substitute Swiss Chard over Spinach because Chard cooks more closely to Collards than Spinach does and it is not considered a bitter green. Plus you can get rainbow chard which is gorgeous greens with red or yellow stems and veins. Gorgeous stuff to behold! And sooo healthy!!
Keep fuckin' that chicken:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss8LDBNcsWc
That video is HILARIOUS.
ReplyDelete