This Chicken in Brown Butter with Fresh Herbs is a very simple yet flavorful side dish to go with your salad or soup. The nutty flavor from brown butter along with fresh thyme and sage makes this utterly simple dish packed with robust flavor. A few slices of fresh lemon and a good squeeze of fresh lemon juice helps cut out the richness from the brown butter, thereby making it not too rich for the palate.

Chicken in Brown Butter:

I always prefer chicken with bones on it and even if I go for boneless, I tend to pick the boneless thigh. That’s only because these pieces retain juice and don’t get dry from a tad bit of over cooking. With chicken breast, you can go wrong within a few seconds. A little bit of too long on the hot skillet and it loses its moisture, turning into this rubbery bleh!

I would guess it was only about 3 years back when I finally got the cooking technique right with the chicken breast. Cook it at the right temperature and for the right time, it will turn out juicy delicious. Once I got that technique right, making quick stir-fried chicken meals came in very handy. I really didn’t plan a lot for this meal. I had a couple of chicken breasts to be used and a few fresh herbs. A quick toss on a hot skillet and the dish was ready.

When making brown butter for this Chicken in Brown Butter, keep an eye as it melts, turns to toasty brown and starts to smell nutty. As soon as it’s done, take the pan off the heat!

OTHER VARIATIONS

You can try the same dish with seafood of your choice. Good vegetarian options would be either firm tofu or cauliflower steaks.

You could make it saucy by adding chicken stock or cream. Or your could also toss it with pasta for a full meal.

Now, before I jump to the recipe, thank you to everyone who participated in the giveaways last couple of weeks. I have announced the winner and you can check it here.

Chicken in Brown Butter and Fresh Herbs

Kankana Saxena

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Prep Time 5

Cook Time 10

Total Time 15

Servings

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts (no skin, no bone)
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly cracked pepper
1 tablespoon oil
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 fresh thyme sprigs
8 fresh sage leaves
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
few lemon wedges

Instructions

Slice the chicken breast into ½ inch thin strips and dust it with salt, pepper and flour.
Place a heavy bottom skillet on medium high heat and brush the oil on the pan. When the pan heats up, layer the chicken pieces evenly and fry for 2 minutes on each side. Then, take the chicken pieces off the pan into a separate plate. Keep it aside to be used later.
Keep the same pan at medium heat, add the butter and swirl the pan around as the butter starts to melt. Drop the sage leaves, thyme sprigs and continue swirling the pan gently as the butter turns from yellow to toasty brown. Switch off the heat as soon as you see the color change and smell the nutty flavor.
Layer the chicken pieces in the pan. Add lemon juice and lemon wedges. Toss it around to mix it properly.
Serve warm!