This Italian themed fried chicken goes well on a bed of Angelhair pasta. While you can use breast meat, I always choose thigh meat for its taste and texture. I leave up to you to adjust the lemon juice, just so long as you use fresh lemons and not that chemical concentrated stuff. I also recommend fresh spinach, but if you use frozen spinach make sure it’s completely thawed and drained.
Ingredients
- 1.5 lbs Chicken thighs – boneless and skinless, cut into 1/2″ thick slices through thickness
- 1 cup Artichoke hearts – quartered with juice
- 1 cup Fresh spinach – chopped (or baby spinach unchopped)
- 4 oz Chicken broth – or water
- 3 oz Olive oil
- 4 Garlic cloves – sliced
- 2 TBL Butter
- 2 TBL Cappers, drained
- 2 TBL Kosher salt
- 2 Lemons – juiced
- 0.25 cup Flour
- 0.25 cup parsley or cilantro – chopped
- 1 box Angle Hair pasta
Process
- Mise en Place: Measure and prepare your ingredients prior to starting.
- Prepare Pasta
- Put 4 qts water in large bowl and heat to a boil.
- Add salt and let dissolve.
- Cook pasta in pot until tender.
- Drain and let rest until chicken and sauce are ready.
- Cook Chicken (while pasta is cooking)
- Slice thigh meat (or breasts) to thin thickness in half.
- Put flour in bowl
- Heat large skillet at Med, and once hot, add oil.
- Generously salt and pepper both sides of meat and roll in flour until coated.
- Fry chicken ~4 mins on each side or until golden brown.
- Place on plated lined with paper towels to rest.
- Make sauce
- Reduce skillet heat to Low.
- Cook garlic with spinach for 1 min.
- Add artichokes and cappers and cook 1 min.
- Increase heat to Med and add lemon juice and broth
- Work fond off of skillet bottom (has lots of flavor)
- Let simmer ~5 mins., until sauce has thickened.
- Add parsley and butter.
- Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Remove skillet from heat and add chicken into sauce to heat.
- Serve chicken and sauce over a bead of pasta
Hack: Put a wooden spoon across the top of your pasta pot to keep water from overflowing.
