French Chicken: a hearty and tasty recipe

This french chicken is an amazing dish to serve up on a cold fall or winter’s night! Succulent chicken breasts are coated with flour, and pan-fried until golden. The cutlets are then served up in a buttery lemon sauce.

This dish is quick and easy to prepare, and is cooked in the one pan for ease of washing up after.

Serve this French chicken with vegetables of your choice. This dish goes great with pasta, with the lemon sauce providing the perfect backdrop for the golden chicken.

How to make French Chicken

If you already bought chicken cutlets, skip this step.

Line a small baking sheet with parchment paper. Remove the rib meat/tenderloin from the breasts with a sharp knife – keep them for another recipe, or cook them with the cutlets.

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Step 1

If you already bought chicken cutlets, skip this step.

Place the trimmed chicken breasts on the baking sheet and freeze for 15 minutes. This makes it much easier to slice the breasts to make cutlets.

Hold the breast firmly against the cutting board with one hand. Using a sharp chef’s knife, carefully cut the breast in half horizontally with the knife parallel to the cutting board. That’s the cutlets ready.

Prepare the chicken

In a shallow bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk. Set aside.

Combine the salt, pepper and flour in a separate shallow dish, and place next to the egg wash. Line a baking sheet with paper towels and set aside.

In a large skillet, heat two tablespoons butter and two tablespoons olive oil over medium heat until the butter is melted and the foaming stops. You can use ghee instead if you wish.

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Step 4

Line a small baking sheet with parchment paper. Remove the rib meat/tenderloin from the breasts with a sharp knife – keep them for another recipe, or cook them with the cutlets.

Using tongs, coat the chicken cutlets in the flour mixture, before shaking off the excess.

Dip the chicken in the egg mixture, allowing the extra egg to drip back into the bowl. Transfer to the flour dish once again, turning to coat well.

Put in the hot skillet, and cook 2 or 3 cutlets at a time, turning once, until the chicken is well browned. This should take about 3-5 minutes on each side.

Transfer to the prepared paper-towel lined baking sheet.

Repeat until all the cutlets are cooked, adding more butter and olive oil if needed. Set the chicken aside. Pour out the grease from the pan to discard, and wipe out the skillet with clean paper towels.

Lemon sauce

Put 3 tablespoons butter or ghee in to the wiped-out skillet over medium heat.

Add the sliced onion and cook, stirring occasionally until soft.

Next, add 2 tablespoons of flour and stir for 2 minutes.

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Step 7

Place the trimmed chicken breasts on the baking sheet and freeze for 15 minutes. This makes it much easier to slice the breasts to make cutlets.

Add the wine, lemon juice and chicken broth, then increase the temperature to medium-high and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.

Reduce the heat to medium, and cook the sauce, stirring frequently, until it is reduced and slightly thickened. You should have around 1 ½ cups of sauce, and it will probably take about 10 minutes to reduce.

Pour the sauce through a fine mesh sieve to remove the onions if desired, then return the sauce to the pan and reduce the heat to low.

Add the last tablespoon of butter to the sauce, and stir gently until melted.

Check the seasoning and add salt and pepper as needed. The lemon flavor of the sauce will be intense.

Add the chicken cutlets to the sauce, and heat gently for 4 to 5 minutes, turning once, or until they are well heated through.

When ready to serve, top the chicken with sautéed lemon slices, and garnish with chopped parsley and plenty of fresh ground black pepper.