Posted by Emily Tags: 30 minutes, chicken, easy, herbs, potatoes, sauce

So this is one of those titular “30 Minutes Meals”, which is definitely what attracted me to this recipe. Well, that and the potatoes. I love red potatoes! The problem is that it took wayyyy longer than 30 minutes, but I fully attribute that to the fact that I’ve never made it before and that I’m just a slow cook. I have no doubt an experienced cook would totally knock this out of the park in 30 minutes, but it you’re like me, it’s probably going to take you longer.

I made quite a few mistakes with this one (though it still turned out well), so after the recipe I will include notes that go a bit more into my process and what I learned, so that you won’t make the same mistakes as well.  As usual I made some substitutions which I’ll note also, but I’m listing the original ingredients.

Chicken Cutlets with Herb Sauce

From Real Simple Meals Made Easy

The Ingredients

1. 1 tbsp. olive oil
2. 1 1/2 lbs. Yukon gold or new (red) potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (peel first if desired)
3. 1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
4. 1 - 1 1/2 lbs. chicken cutlets
5. 1/4 tsp. black pepper
6. 1/4 cup dry white wine (chicken stock will work if you don’t have wine)
7. 2 tbsp. unsalted butter, chilled
8. 2 tbsp. chopped fresh herbs, such as rosemary, chives, parslet, or tarragon

The Process

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees.  Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the potatoes and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden, about 15 minutes.  Transfer to baking dish and season with salt.  Bake for 10-15 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, rinse the chicken and pat dry.  Season both sides with 1/4 tsp. salt and 1/8 tsp. pepper.  Return skillet to medium-high heat.  Add the chicken and cook until browned on each side and cooked through, 3-4 minutes per side. Transfer chicken to a platter.

3. Add the wine to the skillet, reduce heat, and simmer for 2 minutes, constantly scraping the bottom.  Add 1 tbsp. of butter and stir or whisk until completely combined.  Repeat with remaining butter.  Remove skillet from heat.  Add the herbs and the remaining salt and pepper and whisk to combine.

4. Add the potatoes to the platter with the chicken and spoon the sauce over the top.

Serves 4

Notes for Step 1: This was the main part I messed up on.  First of all, I cut the potatoes too big, because in the end, the bigger ones were not completely cooked through and I had to stick them back in the oven.  I cut the potatoes in half, then quarters, then eighths, but next time, I’d probably cut it down even further to sixteenths (though of course this depends on how big your potato is in the first place, mine were fairly large red potatoes).

Second of all, I didn’t brown them enough.  This is totally my fault because there was some kind liquid that had collected in the burner pan and if I turned the element above medium heat it started smoking really badly and was filling my little kitchen with so much smoke that my eyes were tearing up.  So it took much longer than 15 minutes to brown them since I had to keep the heat lower than specified and even then I was impatient and just wanted them done already so I stopped short.  In the end all or most sides should be a nice golden brown.

Even despite all that, I think 10 minutes is a little low for the baking part.  I think I wound up baking the potatoes for 20-25 minutes.  In theory, you do the rest of the recipe while the potatoes are baking and the rest took me longer than 10 minutes, so I think it’s pretty safe to leave the potatoes in there until you finish the rest, however long that takes you.

Notes for Step 2: This only took me more time because I used chicken breasts instead of cutlets, so it took longer to cook through.  So if you don’t have cutlets, breasts totally work fine, too.

Notes for Step 3: I don’t drink really wine.  I’m not opposed to it, but I don’t like it enough to buy a bottle and even if I did, I would have NO IDEA what kind to buy.  When I started cooking again, I’d find these recipes that call for wine and would be annoyed that I couldn’t make them because I wasn’t going to waste money on a whole bottle of wine just for cooking, right?  But I did some research on this subject, anyway, mainly to try to find substitutes.  So if you don’t have wine, for this recipe chicken stock/broth would be absolutely fine to substitute.  But in my research, people mentioned that many grocery stores now sell “mini” bottles of wine.  Usually in a pack of 4.  I have found these to be perfect for cooking.  I highly recommend them if you aren’t a wine drinker, but want to have real wine in your recipes.  I bought Sauvignon Blanc for white, and Cabernet Sauvignon for red, which is what a lot people had recommended when recipes call for “dry” red and white wines.

Also, I substituted butter for margarine and fresh herbs for dried and it worked fine, though I know it would taste better with fresh herbs.  I need to try to start an herb garden or something because every time I buy fresh herbs they go bad in a few days, which is giant waste of money.

Despite the hiccups, this turned out really good. Brandon said it was really good, twice, which is high praise from him. Now that I know what I know, I think I’ll have a much easier time making this next time, hopefully within 30 minutes!

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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