Week 4, Day 3: Chicken with Lemon, Garlic, and Parsley

Tonight I made our dinner from Wednesday, which is a recipe from the Williams-Sonoma: Casual Entertaining cookbook Anne gave me. Just for kicks, here's the recipe and review.

Chicken with Lemon, Garlic, and Parsley
2 tbsp flour
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, about 1/2 lb each
3-5 cloves garlic
3/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf (Italian) parsley
1 tbsp finely chopped lemon zest (I grated mine with a cheese grater)
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
3/4 cup chicken stock or broth
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (juice of 3-4 lemons)
1/2 cup dry white wine (I just used more chicken broth)

1. Spread the flour on a plate, then lightly coat both sides of each chicken breast half with the flour, shakin goff the excess. Finely chop 2 or 3 garlic cloves, then mince 1 or 2 additional cloves. Set aside the chopped garlic. In a small bowl, stir together the minced garlic to taste, the parsley, and lemon zest.
2. In a frying pan over high heat (I would do medium high next time), warm the olive oil. Add the chicken breasts and saute, turning once, until lightly browned, about 2 minutes on each side. Transfer to a platter, season to taste with salt and pepper, and set aside.
3. Pour off all but 2 tbsp of the fat from the pan. Add the finely chopped garlic to taste to the pan and saute over high heat until softened, about 20 seconds. Add the stock, lemon juice, and wine and deglaze the pan, stirring to scrape up any browned bits from the pan bottom. Bring to a boil and cook until slightly reduced, about 3 minutes.
4. Return the chicken to the pan and reduce the heat to medium. Cook until the chicken is opaque throughout and the juices run clear when a breast half is pierced with a knife, about 10 minutes. (I ended up adding a few tablespoons of chicken broth during this because it was getting dry and the chicken hadn't cooked completely.) Using tongs, transfer the chicken to a warmed serving platter.
5. Raise the heat to high and boil the pan sauce until reduced to about 1/4 cup, about 5 minutes (I skipped this step because the sauce had already reduced considerably). Pour the sauce evenly over the chicken and sprinle the parsley-garlic mixture evenly over the top. Serve at once.

The Verdict: 2 thumbs up, 3 thumbs medium. The chicken was super moist, but the lemon flavor was too strong for Adam and the kids. I will use this method of cooking again (browning, then cooking in broth), but with different flavors.