Lemon Chicken with Carrots and Rice

Some nights I just really don’t want to try when it comes to dinner. Those are the nights I cozy up with a bowl of Oatmeal and watch some TV on DVD (we don’t have cable in our apartment). Other nights, like Sunday Night, I go all out and make some spectacular multi-course meal and put on a show entertaining all of my friends. Then there are the inbetween nights where I look in my fridge, see what I can meld together to form something edible, and hope for the best. This was one of those nights.

About a year ago, I went over to my friend Rachel’s house and she was making something she called “Chicken French”. It was flattened chicken cooked in a lemon sauce served on a salad. It seemed easy enough, so I threw together what I remembered from her recipe and this is what came out. Of course, it had been a year since I’d given the recipe any thought, so this may not be the exact duplication of her recipe, but it ended up tasting amazing!!

Chicken with carrots and lemon sauce

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, patted dry
AP flour
1 egg, beaten
Seasoned bread crumbs
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
½ cup white wine (dry or sweet, I prefer sweet)
½ tsp white pepper
½ tsp dried basil
Pinch of salt
1 can of sliced carrots, with juice
Zest and Juice of 1 lemon
Small Pinch of Red pepper flakes
½ cup Jasmine rice, cooked according to package instructions
½ tsp dried basil, stirred into rice

In a large skillet, heat up the olive oil. Dredge the chicken pieces in flour, then egg, then bread crumbs, forming a breading. Once the oil is hot, pan-fry the chicken about 4 minutes per side, until golden brown. Remove from pan and cover with foil to rest. Deglaze the pan by pouring in the wine and scraping the bit off the bottom of the pan. Add the lemon juice and red pepper flakes to the wine. Add in the can of carrots, and sprinkle the white pepper and dried basil over the carrots. Stir and let simmer for about 5 minutes. Add the chicken back into the sauce, and cook for another 2 minutes. Serve over a bed of cooked rice with basil. Serves 2.