Let’s talk about fruit baskets.
Mine is getting a little out of control. What should be housing bananas and oranges inside it’s wirey bowl, is loaded with avocados, whole wheat pitas, and tortillas. Two of those things are not like the other!
My fruit basket has gotten so out of hand, I forgot I had two lemons buried at the bottom…that I had accidentally left in their plastic bag from the grocery store. Big no-no. I found the lemons and one didn’t even resemble a lemon anymore. It wasn’t even yellow.
It was covered in fuzzy, grayish green mold. Gross.
Shockingly, the other lemon was perfectly fine. I still tossed it, just in case, but it was weird how one lemon could still look perky and ready to be juiced, and the other looked like something from the Moon.
Do you have a fruit basket? Is it unruly right now?
With lemons on the brain, I started craving my favorite Italian dish: chicken piccata. When I go to Italian restaurants, my normal dinner choices are either piccata or marsala. Something about chicken cutlets in a winey, briney sauce really gets my goat. God, I miss Italian food. I miss pasta. We’ll meet again sometime…
No pasta in the house means I had to adapt my piccata recipe. I ditched flouring the cutlets, too. A stir fry sounded like the perfect way to get piccata in my system without the pasta vehicle, so out came the wok. I added in mushrooms (I’m a mushroom fanatic) and the best dinner was born.
This tastes exactly like chicken piccata without all the guilty carbs. And if you close your eyes enough, and have a creative imagination, you can almost pretend the green beans are like fettucine. Almost.
God, I miss pasta.
This dinner is still really good, though, even without the pasta. Lemony, briney, and winey. All the things I like in a good piccata.
Chicken Piccata Stir Fry
Zesty lemon chicken with green beans, capers, and mushrooms stir fried together.
Ingredients
- 1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1″ pieces
- 1 tsp. lemon pepper seasoning
- Pinch of salt
- 2 TBS. olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 16 oz. fresh green beans, snapped and ends trimmed
- 8 oz portobello mushrooms, sliced
- 3 TBS. capers + 1 tsp. brine
- 1/2 cup white wine or sherry
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 3/4 cup chicken broth
Directions
- Season chicken with lemon pepper seasoning and salt. Heat olive oil in a wok or large skillet over medium heat. Add chicken and saute for 4-5 minutes. Add garlic and stir fry for 2-3 minutes, making sure to stir constantly so you don’t burn the garlic.
- Add wine to pan and cook for 1-2 more minutes. Add green beans, mushrooms, capers and brine and stir-fry for another 3-4 minutes.
- Stir in lemon juice and chicken broth and cook for another 4-5 minutes, stirring, until green beans are crisp-tender.
Step-By-Step Instructions
Season chicken with lemon pepper seasoning and salt. Heat olive oil in a wok or large skillet over medium heat. Add chicken and saute for 4-5 minutes. Add garlic and stir fry for 2-3 minutes, making sure to stir constantly so you don’t burn the garlic.
Add wine to pan and cook for 1-2 more minutes. Add green beans, mushrooms, capers and brine and stir-fry for another 3-4 minutes.
Stir in lemon juice and chicken broth and cook for another 4-5 minutes, stirring, until green beans are crisp-tender.
leencuisine.com 