Chicken Piccata With Spinach
This is a very tasty dish with the warmth and lusciousness of butter and chicken thighs as well as the bright flavour of fresh lemon and capers. I prefer chicken thighs for a number of reasons mostly they just taste better but also, they can suffer over cooking more because they have more fat and because they have more fat, they are better for Keto all the way around. You can serve this dish with some keto approved Cauliflower rice (as in the pic) or Zucchini Zoodles or if you’re not keto Mashed potatoes or simple pasta will also work very well. If you don’t like spinach you can just skip it, I just like greens in my diet as much as possible…
OK! Let’s do this!
Ingredients:
6-8 chicken thighs bone and skin on (I like to salt mine and leave them in the fridge overnight or a few hours at least uncovered.)
2 tablespoons olive oil
A handful of capers (depending how much brine you like in your picatta)
Half a red pepper diced
Half a green pepper diced
Half an onion diced
4 pats of butter (about a quarter of a stick)
2 garlic cloves
A cup of chicken stock
The juice of one whole lemon
A dash or dollop of hot sauce to taste
A bag or bunch of spinach
Salt and pepper to taste…
I use an enamel roasting/braising pan for this but any pan big enough to hold everything is fine
Directions…
1. Set stove top to medium-high heat and place chicken in cold pan skin side down and brown both sides as aggressively as you can while adding a little pepper as you go.
2. While the chicken is browning chop your vegetables (I like to grate the garlic instead of chop it)
3. When chicken is browned remove from pan. (I usually put them on the lid of the pot I’m using)
4. Add all your vegetables to the hot pan and cook them until they are starting to caramelize and brown…
5. Add half the chicken stock and let it simmer down with the vegetables until the stock is almost gone… (you may want to lower the heat a little)
6. Add the other half of the stock plus half the lemon juice and let it simmer down a little.
7. Add the butter in small dots all over as well as capers and the chicken and the spinach…Lightly salt and pepper the spinach then cover the whole dish and turn off the heat but leave the pot on the stove element for 15-20 minutes
8. Uncover stir to combine all the flavours and tase for seasoning and add as required… (This is when I put hot sauce in but not before I take out two pieces for my eight-year-old)
9. Serve!
This dish will only get better and better the longer you let it sit so you can make it earlier and just reheat gently when its dinner time. Do let me know if you make tis how it goes and holler always anytime if you have questions…
