Chicken Francese
Chapter 4 — Chicken / Veal / Eggplant Parm + Mains
Listen, if you walk into a real red-sauce joint in Brooklyn, you aren't ordering food from the old country. You’re ordering Italian-American food, forged by immigrants who arrived with empty pockets and built an empire of culinary abundance. Chicken Francese doesn't apologize for not being French, and it sure as hell doesn't apologize for the sheer volume of butter. We're taking this fast-paced restaurant staple and turning it into a slow Sunday simmer. You're going to fry a mountain of cutlets, build a massive lemon-wine brodo in your heavy Dutch oven, and let the chicken gently braise until that parmesan-laced batter swells up like a dumpling. Serve it right out of the pot with foil-wrapped garlic bread and a bottle of Chianti.
Ingredients
- boneless skinless chicken breast2 1/2 lb
- all-purpose flour1 cup
- kosher salt2 tsp
- black pepper1 tsp
- garlic powder1 tsp
- large eggs4 large
- whole milk1/4 cup
- Parmigiano-Reggiano1/2 cup
- flat-leaf Italian parsley1/4 cup
- olive oil1/2 cup
- unsalted butter4 tbsp
- large shallot1 large
- garlic4 med clove
- dry white wine1 cup
- chicken stock3 cup
- large lemons2 large
- unsalted butter6 tbsp
- all-purpose flour2 tbsp
Method
- 01
Butterfly and pound the chicken breasts into thin, even cutlets.
Slice each breast horizontally to yield two pieces, then place them between heavy-duty plastic wrap and pound gently with a meat mallet to a uniform quarter-inch thickness. Season them generously on both sides with kosher salt and black pepper.
- 02
Set up your breading station for the defining reverse-dredge.
In a wide, shallow dish, whisk together the one cup of flour, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. In a separate shallow dish, aggressively beat the eggs with the milk, parmesan, and half the parsley. This cheese-laced batter is the soul of the dish.
- 03
Fry the cutlets in batches until deeply golden and puffed.
Heat the olive oil and four tablespoons of butter in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Dredge a cutlet in the flour, shake off the excess, and then submerge it entirely in the egg wash. Drop it into the hot fat, frying for three to four minutes per side until the egg batter puffs up. Set aside on a wire rack.
- 04
Deglaze the pot and build the massive, lemony brodo.
Pour off all but two tablespoons of fat from the Dutch oven. Sauté the minced shallot and garlic until highly fragrant, using a wooden spoon to scrape up the browned fond. Pour in the white wine and boil violently until reduced by half, then add the chicken stock and fresh lemon juice, bringing the entire bath to a rolling boil.
- 05
Thicken the pan sauce with a beurre manié.
Mash the remaining two tablespoons of flour into the six tablespoons of cold, cubed butter until a paste forms. Whisk this paste directly into the boiling broth a little at a time until it transforms into a velvety, glossy sauce. Toss in the lemon slices.
- 06
Return the chicken to the pot for a slow Sunday braise.
Lower the heat to a whispering simmer and carefully shingle the fried cutlets back into the Dutch oven, submerging them in the lemony sauce. Cover loosely and let it gently simmer for twenty to thirty minutes so the golden crust drinks in the broth and softens into an incredibly tender, dumpling-like sponge.
- 07
Serve massive portions directly from the Dutch oven.
Garnish the pot with the remaining parsley. Spoon the cutlets and copious amounts of the velvety sauce over buttered angel hair pasta, making sure there is plenty of foil-wrapped garlic bread on hand.
Notes
Serve with unapologetic, foil-wrapped garlic bread.
Do not toast your garlic bread open-faced. A loaf of Italian bread must be sliced, slathered in garlic butter, wrapped tightly in aluminum foil, and baked. The trapped steam softens the crumb while the butter melts deeply into the bread, creating the perfect vehicle to wipe your plate clean.
From Cook Red Sauce at Home.