A Delicious, Fast Chicken Dijon Dinner
Tender, moist chicken breast with fresh sugar snap peas and mushrooms in a tasty light sauce. Sound interesting? It tastes wonderful!
My husband was the creative cook in our household. He made a dish very similar to this. We would seriously sigh through every bite, it was so delicious. This recipe is similar only I’ve added vegetables and a slightly different flavor with dijon. I was so pleased with the result.
I try not to eat chicken or meat as often these days, so when I do fix it I want it to be special. But sometimes when I’ve cook a whole breast, I end up cooking it too long to be sure it’s done. Then it ends up dry which leads to tough. Not so with this recipe. It came out perfect–not dry or tough at all.
Butterfly the Chicken
For tender, just-right chicken, fillet the breast lengthwise. You can butterfly each into two or three thin cutlets, that will be 1/4 to 1/3 of an inch thick. Since these thin slices cook so quickly–just 2 or 3 minutes on each side–you won’t be as likely to overcook them.
The chicken breast pictured here was sliced into three thin fillets. They’re still plenty thick. You might note, it’s much easier to slice them across when they are partially frozen. Another alternative would be to pound them flat, but I prefer the slices. It goes further, and seems easier to work with.
I was pleased to find fresh sugar snap peas. They have a nice crunch, and taste wonderful infused with this flavor. There isn’t a lot of sauce, but enough to serve over rice, pasta, or potatoes. I made my new favorite, Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes, with mine. They were a perfect accompaniment. I hope you like it!
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Serves: 3 to 4
- 3 chicken breasts, partially frozen to make slicing easy
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 8 ounces fresh sugar snap peas
- 6 cremini mushrooms, sliced
- ⅓ cup onion, chopped
- 1 to 2 cups chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons flour, for sauce
- ¼ cup flour, just enough to coat chicken
- 2 tablespoons capers
- 2 to 3 tablespoons chives or sliced green onions
- salt and pepper, to taste
- Assemble all ingredients, so you have everything there and ready.
- With chicken breasts partially frozen, slice lengthwise (butterfly) into 2 or 3 thin cutlets each.
- Clip ends off sugar snap peas and halve.
- Stir together chicken broth and 2 tablespoons flour.
- Blend in dijon mustard, salt and pepper.
- Heat oil to a medium temperature in a large skillet.
- Coat each cutlet with flour.
- Saute the cutlets for 2 minutes on each side. If still partially frozen, you might need one more minute. Don't overcook!
- Remove cutlets from pan and set aside.
- Add the broth mixture, the sugar snap peas, mushrooms and onions.
- Bring to a boil, then simmer on a lower temp for 3 minutes, stirring often.
- Add chicken back into pan, and cook an additional 2 to 3 minutes.
- Add in fresh chives or chopped green onions and capers, and remove from heat.
- Serve with pasta, rice or potatoes, spooning sauce over chicken.
Butterfly Slicing the Chicken Breast
Here is a short video showing what it means to butterfly a chicken breast. With this recipe, I prefer to cut all the way through to have two pieces rather than one large butterflied piece. Once it is thinner it cooks very quickly.
Cut it in medallions if you like, that is halves, for smaller pieces. It looks very pretty when serving it that way, and can stretch the servings if someone only wants one more slice.
I think it adds to the flavor too, since the coating and the sauce then surround more of the meat. Either way, it is delicious.
How to Butterfly a Chicken Breast
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