I call this Angie’s Chicken because after I had had one of my babies, this dear neighbor named Angie brought a pan of this to my family. It was all I could do to not eat the whole thing by myself. Serious. Some of you may relate to the ravenous appetite you get after having given birth. I would first drink about 25 gallons of juice in the first day or two, then the appetite would kick in.
Needless to say, this chicken hit the spot and is probably the favorite meal of the whole family. It is one of the two items I can only eat as leftovers. It is the one that I serve when we have company. It is the BEST! I’m telling you– the BEST!
And it’s EASY. Which adds to the bestness of it!
Here’s what you’ll need:
Chicken, butter, milk, eggs, flour, lemon juice, nutmeg, salt, pepper, bread crumbs (why aren’t they in the picture? I don’t know.)
Now you can either pound your chicken down or not. I like to pound mine down for a couple of reasons. 1. It makes your chicken cook more evenly when it is all the same thickness. 2. Since my first pregnancy where I couldn’t even look at or think of the word “chicken” without getting sick, I now do so much better when the chicken is in thinner portions than in big chunks. It’s just what happens. Those of you who have been pregnant and couldn’t eat, smell or look at certain things will understand me here. So I like to pound my chicken, unless I’m in a mass hurry.
Here’s the best way I’ve found to pound chicken.
Place your chicken in a ziploc bag. You can use the quart size. I was out and just had gallon.
Start pounding at the smallest/thinnest portion of your chicken, then work your way to the thicker portions, pounding until you get a uniform thickness like this:
This will make the portions very large, so I cut them down into serving size portions. Big eaters can take two. ;o)
See my sweet boy cutting them in half for me? The other thing that is nice about pounding your breast is that you can get more servings out of your chicken that way.
Here’s a finished cut piece. See how large it still is? You can cut them even smaller if you have small kids so that they are portioned according to your family needs. (See how versatile I am?)
Now we’re going to get our coatings ready. First we take the eggs and crack them into a bowl. I always add a little milk to make it go a little further. I probably add about 1-2 tablespoons.
Here’s the breadcrumbs. You can add a little salt and pepper to it. You may have to add more bread crumbs depending on how many pieces of chicken you are doing. You can also used the Italian style bread crumbs. I use whatever I have in the house.
Start your butter melting in your pan and spread it around to cover the whole pan.
Line your coatings up next to your cooking pan.
Dip your chicken into your egg wash. (Those are my boys hands. He’s such good help to me!)
Then dip into your bread crumbs.
Flip it over to coat the other side. (I’m sure this was obvious, but I was happy to be taking pictures!)
Place in your pan. (See how impatient I am. Didn’t even wait for the butter to melt entirely.)
Continue with remaining pieces until you have them all in the pan cooking. (I always have two pans going to feed our bunch.)
Once they are browned on the first side and you can see the sides of them turning white, flip them over to finish cooking them. It really doesn’t take too long for them to cook through, maybe 5-7 minutes on each side. That is if they are pounded down. If you don’t want pound them, just make sure they are cooked all the way through before you remove them from the pan. Speaking of which…..
When they are cooked through, take them out of the pan and place them on a plate while you make the sauce.
In the same pan, (don’t you love not having to mess up more dishes?!), melt another 6 tablespoons of butter. Stir and loosen up the bits on the bottom.
Add your flour to the pan and stir in. It will kind of foam up and start to thicken.
Then add your milk and cook and stir until it thickens. Only takes a minute or two.
Add your lemon juice and stir some more. If you like a little more tangy and lemony flavor, I recommend using the juice of half a real lemon. If you like it a little more mild, use the 2 teaspoons of bottle lemon juice. They are both good. I may be leaning to the fresh juice a little more now, though. I’ve also used lemon essential oil, too. It has good flavor. Start with 3 drops for mild flavor, 4-5 for stronger lemon flavor.
Sprinkle on your nutmeg. See how thick it gets? I have to turn my heat down at this point, if not sooner, to keep it from getting too thick.
You have a choice here. You can be fancy and place the chicken on a serving dish or on individual plates and pour the sauce over it. Or you can do what I do…..Place your chicken back in the pan with the sauce.
Then flip them over so they are coated nicely with the sauce. I like them covered in sauce. Sauce = happiness and joy and yummy in my tummy!
They are ready to serve at this point, or you can keep them on low and warm until ready to serve.
Trust me when I say “eet’s thee best! I looovee eet!” (In your best Nacho voice.) We had twice baked potatoes (yet again) and Doodle Bug’s Creamed Corn. Hey! Why didn’t I get pictures of that?? Okay, I promise, I’ll get that one up. You’ll love it. It’s her own creation and not like any creamed corn you’ve ever had!
Enjoy!!
