Lemony Freshness

I'm here! I'm here!

After a whirlwind couple of weeks with very few blog posts, you are going to get the pleasure of five straight nights of cooking, fingers crossed.

I actually wasn't supposed to cook tonight because of baseball, but the kid had some minor stomach pangs, so we opted out and I opted into the kitchen. As with all of the recipes I pulled this week, I just kind of grabbed this one at the last minute. (The other recipes are in the to-be-filed pile category, i.e., laying on my kitchen counter.)

I normally am not a big fan of super lemony foods. Despite the oodles of benefits of this little yellow fruit, I don't love lemonade. Or lemon popsicles. Or lemon bars. But this just sounded right tonight.

Chicken Piccata with Orzo
Source: Cooking Light, not sure of date

Ingredients:

• 1 c. uncooked orzo
• 2 tsp grated lemon rind (Yes, I did this!  Yes, it was a mess!)
• 4 (4-oz) chicken cutlets
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt (skip)
• 1/4 tsp pepper (skip)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 c. white wine
• 1/3 c. fat-free, low sodium chicken broth (used no-salt added)
• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 tbsp chilled butter, cut into small pieces
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley (skip)
• 1 tbsp capers (skip - don't like capers)

Directions:

• Cook orzo according to package directions. Drain. Stir in rind. 
• While orzo cooks, heat a large skillet over med-high heat. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Add oil to pan, swirl to coat. Add chicken, cook 3 mins on each side or until done. Remove from pan, keep warm.
• Add wine to pan, cook 1 min or until liquid almost evaporates, scrapping to loosen browned bits. Add broth and lemon juice, bring to a boil. Cook 2 mins or until reduced to 1/2 c. Remove from heat; add butter, stirring until butter melts. Stir in parsley and capes. Serve over orzo and chicken. 

Yield: 4 servings (1/2 c. orzo, 1 cutlet and 2 tbsp sauce)

Per serving: 345 cals; 8.5g fat (2.7g sat, 3.6g mono, 0.8g poly); 32g protein; 33g carb; 19g fiber; 73mg chol; 328mg sodium

Reviews:

The kid was super excited about the lemon chicken, because he loves lemony items (and was actually jonesing for a lemon bar earlier today, in a completely unrelated conversation). Howevs, he declared that while the chicken was good, it was not super lemony. I disagree - the lemon taste was strong, but not in a bad way. The hubs noted he tasted the lemon most in the orzo. The meal was also very fast to throw together. 

Ranking: 

Three Forks

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