{"id":240,"date":"2012-02-12T12:12:24","date_gmt":"2012-02-12T20:12:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/highheelgourmet.wordpress.com\/?p=240"},"modified":"2012-02-12T12:12:24","modified_gmt":"2012-02-12T20:12:24","slug":"chicken-milanese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.highheelgourmet.com\/?p=240","title":{"rendered":"Chicken Milanese and Thai Style Oranges in Syrup, Som Loy Kaew"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Chicken<\/a><\/p>\n

When did Valentine\u2019s Day become a stressful event? You try to take your sweetheart to a romantic dinner at a nice restaurant but once you step into the restaurant, you find out that the whole restaurant has turned into a luxury dorm cafeteria. Not only that, you sit down and your elbows brush against the guy or gal sitting at the next table way too close to yours.<\/p>\n

Even worse, the menu has become a set menu. Great! It\u2019s Valentine\u2019s, you can\u2019t be indecisive, you know. You can pick a dinner from set A, B or C or worse yet, there’s only one choice. (Why do people bother calling it a choice when there is only ONE!). You sit there listening to other couple’s conversations (yes, the one that keep brushing his or her elbows against yours–you should be thankful they aren\u2019t sitting in your laps) while you are talking romantically to your sweetheart and worry that other people might eavesdropping too. Well I\u2019ve got a headache already just thinking of the chaotic scene.<\/p>\n

How about a home-cooked healthy dinner that will take only 10 minutes to prep and less than 5 minutes to cook? The main course is a lean, pan-fried Chicken Milanese with arugula, and oranges in syrup for dessert. The chicken isn\u2019t going to be breaded in the traditional way to save time and minimize the carb quota for the day.<\/p>\n

Ingredients:\u00a0<\/strong>(Use the amount that’s appropriate for two of you)<\/p>\n

Main dish<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chicken breast, boneless, skinless 10 oz.<\/p>\n

Cherry tomatoes 8 oz. pack<\/p>\n

Arugula 2 oz.<\/p>\n

Lemon 1 whole<\/p>\n

Oil or butter\u00a0 1 tablespoon<\/p>\n

Salt<\/p>\n

Pepper<\/p>\n

Parsley chopped (to garnish) I used the flat-leaf kind<\/p>\n

Shaved or grated cheese of your choice (optional)<\/p>\n

Dessert<\/strong><\/p>\n

Blood oranges 2-3 whole<\/p>\n

Organic white granulated sugar 2 tablespoons<\/p>\n

Water 1\/4 cup and 2 tablespoons<\/p>\n

Salt a tiny pinch<\/p>\n

Mint (to garnish)<\/p>\n

Method:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1) Preparation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Syrup\u00a0<\/strong>Dissolve the sugar in the water. You can do it in a pot over the stove, microwave it (be careful do not let it boil over) or just dissolve it at room temperature if you use filtered water.<\/p>\n

Oranges<\/strong>\u00a0cut each into 8 wedges<\/p>\n

\"Thai<\/a><\/p>\n

and remove the peel<\/p>\n

\"Thai<\/a><\/p>\n

Chicken\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.1) clean, trim the fat and slice it down the middle like you would a bagel to create two equal halves. The chicken pieces should then be about 3\/8\u201d \u2212 1\/2\u201d thick.<\/p>\n

\"Chicken<\/a><\/p>\n

1.2) Pound both pieces until they flatten down to about 1\/4\u201d – 3\/8\u201d thick.<\/p>\n

\"Chicken<\/a><\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t have meat pounder, use fork to prick the whole piece of chicken then\u00a0 use beer bottle (clean it throughly first) or something heavy to pound it down.<\/p>\n

1.3) Season both\u00a0<\/strong>with salt and pepper. Be careful with salt, do not put too much, just lightly coated. There will be more flavor from tomatoes and lemon added to it later on. You don\u2019t want salt to mask all the other wonderful tastes.<\/p>\n

Tomatoes<\/strong>\u00a0slice them crosswise about 1\/4\u201d thick (3-4 pieces per tomato)<\/p>\n

\"Chicken<\/a><\/p>\n

All of these steps shouldn\u2019t take you longer than 10 minutes. I’ll allow you 15, if you aren\u2019t in the kitchen often, or even 20 minutes for those of you that use the kitchen once in a blue moon, so you guys will have extra time to find your hidden tools and perform the tasks.<\/p>\n

Arugula\u00a0<\/strong>wash, if it hasn\u2019t been, but buying the pre-washed kind would be the best. Let it dry on a paper towel and put it on the plate before you start cooking.<\/p>\n

\"Chicken<\/a><\/p>\n

Lemon\u00a0<\/strong>cut in half, then pick all the seeds out.<\/p>\n

2) Cooking:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dessert<\/strong>\u00a0First drop the orange sections in the syrup, then add a tiny pinch of salt and put them in the fridge.<\/p>\n

\"Thai<\/a><\/p>\n

We are quite done with the dessert now. This is a typical Thai dessert called \u201cSom-loy-kaew\u201d or \u201coranges in syrup\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Thai<\/a><\/p>\n

Main dishes<\/strong><\/p>\n

I recommend cooking this when your sweetheart has already arrived. It is best served warm right from the stove. You can pour two glasses of wine, have a cheese and cold cuts board out for an appetizer, and he or she can watch you cook the dinner.<\/p>\n

2.1) put oil or butter in a heavy skillet or frying pan, and set the stove on medium high heat.<\/p>\n

\"Chicken<\/a><\/p>\n

2.2) The pan should be hot enough in about 30 seconds to a minute, and when the butter is melted and bubbling, or the oil gives off a very faint smoke, lay the chicken in the pan.<\/p>\n

\"Chicken<\/a><\/p>\n

2.3) Wait until you see the edges of the chicken turn white (see picture). This shouldn\u2019t take longer than a minute to minute and a half depending on how thin you pounded the chicken pieces. Flip the chicken and then add the sliced tomatoes to the pan.<\/p>\n

\"Chicken<\/a><\/p>\n

2.4) It shouldn\u2019t take longer than another minute for the chicken to be cooked through. Put the cooked chicken pieces over the bed of arugula on the plates you prepared, but leave the tomatoes in the pan.<\/p>\n

2.5) Sprinkle some chopped parsley over the tomatoes and continue cooking.<\/p>\n

\"Chicken<\/a><\/p>\n

The tomatoes will give some juice in the pan, and you want to scrape the bottom of the pan so the juice absorbs all the chicken flavor and spices. But do not leave them in too long–this shouldn\u2019t take longer than another minute. Put the tomatoes and the juice from the pan over the chicken pieces on the plates.<\/p>\n

\"Chicken<\/a><\/p>\n

2.6) Squeeze the lemon on the chicken pieces, then sprinkle more parsley. You can add the shaved cheese on top at this point. I don\u2019t add the cheese and it\u2019s still delicious.<\/p>\n

Voila! You are ready to serve with a glass of good Pinot Grigio or buttery Chardonnay. Just remember that it actually takes longer to read this blog than to prepare the entire meal. Once you finish the main course, crush some ice and put it over the oranges in syrup, garnish with mint, then they are ready to serve.<\/p>\n

\"Chicken<\/a><\/p>\n

Since neither a Democrat nor Republican government intends to make Valentine\u2019s Day a national holiday yet, I think a simple dish like this would be easy on a school night. Happy (protesting) Valentine\u2019s Day!<\/p>\n

\"Thai<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When did Valentine\u2019s Day become a stressful event? You try to take your sweetheart to a romantic dinner at a nice restaurant but once you step into the restaurant, you find out that the whole restaurant has turned into a luxury dorm cafeteria. Not only that, you sit down and your elbows brush against the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[39,55,50,11,124,126,25],"tags":[14,200,230,20,286],"class_list":["post-240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chicken","category-clicking-in-the-kitchen","category-dessert","category-dinner","category-fruits","category-italian","category-thai","tag-food","tag-italian-food","tag-orange","tag-recipe","tag-thai-dessert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highheelgourmet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highheelgourmet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highheelgourmet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highheelgourmet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highheelgourmet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.highheelgourmet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highheelgourmet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highheelgourmet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highheelgourmet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highheelgourmet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}