White Wine Lemon Chicken

For my bridal shower my girlfriends and I went to a cooking class.  The theme was Italian food and I came away with some really good tips and great recipes.  Since then I have made it our tradition to cook the entrée that I learned in that class on our anniversary.  This week was Year 3.  I can’t believe time has gone by so fast, because we are still having fun.  One piece of advice that the instructor gave me was to always make sure my husband was satisfied at dinner because meals really are an important bonding experience and I have taken that to heart.  Other needs wax and wane but he’s always gotta eat.

When I’m cooking a big meal like this, especially on a weeknight, J always helps me, and that makes it even more fun.  So I pulled my last bit of fresh pasta out of the freezer for him to roll and cut, nothing too complicated ;-).

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded to about ¼”
½ cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
2 eggs, whisked
1/8 tsp oregano
1/8 tsp garlic powder
½ cup dry white wine
Juice from 1 lemon
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tbs olive oil
4 oz fresh linguini

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.

Season the egg wash with salt, pepper, garlic powder and oregano.  After pounding the chicken breasts to about ¼”, dredge them through the egg wash and bread crumbs, coating the chicken well.  Once the oil is hot add the chicken to the skillet one at a time.  Cook on each side 2-3 minutes to fry the bread crumbs.  When all of the breading is  a golden brown, remove the chicken to a plate lined with paper towels.  Repeat with the second chicken breast.

Place the chicken in a baking dish and pour the white wine and lemon juice over them.    Cook in the preheated oven for 20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.  The chicken will of course take longer if you don’t pound it much so adjust accordingly.

If you are making fresh pasta, which I highly recommend you do, and you are making a new batch today, you should have done so prior to making the chicken so you can roll it out while the chicken is cooking and boil it just before the chicken comes out of the oven.

After your chicken is cooked through, remove it from the oven and allow to rest for ~5 minutes.  Serve it atop a bed of pasta and pour the sauce that is remaining in the baking dish over each piece of chicken.

Serves 2, 685 calories per serving

This dish is not too complicated but always impresses.  The calories in this really isn’t too bad but you can always hold back on the amount of pasta you serve and of course the size of the chicken breast to fit your needs.  I had a small breakfast and lunch and skipped one of my snacks so I could eat all the pasta I wanted, I haven’t made fresh pasta in a while so it was extra good this time.