Healthy Chicken Paillard (Flattened Chicken) Recipe
Ingredients
• 4 small (~ 2 lb) chicken breasts
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 large lemon, zested first and then juiced
• ½ lemon, wedged for garnish
• 10 sprigs thyme leaves, leaves only – no stem
• ¼ cup parsley, finely chopped
• salt
• black pepper
Healthy Chicken Paillard (Flattened Chicken) Recipe
method of making
This is a healthy chicken paillard recipe. Basically, paillard is just a fancy French word for a flattened piece of boneless meat. You can make it with chicken, veal (cow), pork – whatever. I’m gonna start just by making a quick salad, because i like to just put it on top of the paillard. It looks really pretty, and it it’s a little special “wow factor”.
This salad has cucumbers, tomato, shallots, and that’s it. You can do whatever your favorite salad ingredients that you want though. So, I’m going to make a marinade for the chicken. This could also be the salad dressing. If you’re smart you’ll do both at the same time, and put half of it aside. I’m working with just a pound of chicken today, so I’m just doing half the marinade. Then combining thyme, parsley, lemon juice, lemon zest and olive oil – it’s a very simple marinade. Like i said this is a pound of chicken. I’m taking out any ugly parts, any chewy parts, and some of that tough connective tissue. Take out whatever you like. You’re going to cut the chicken in half, kind of like a book. You don’t go all the way through. This helps make it flat and easier.
Healthy Chicken Paillard (Flattened Chicken) Recipe
It just gives you a head start. Take a mallet – it could be a wood mallet or a mallet like this metal one. The tenderizer part works really fast and well, but you got to be careful to not destroy chicken in the process. The saran wrap over the top makes it so you don’t splash chicken juice everywhere. I’m doing plastic on the bottom here too. That’s your choice. When you put the saran wrap on the bottom it’s a little bit harder. It also makes it easier to move from plates to pans and stuff like that because the chicken doesn’t stick together. So do saran wrap between each piece of chicken definitely if nothing else. Pound it out. And then you’ve got this nice piece of chicken that’s going to go in a pan. I’m going to put the marinade on it pretty evenly.
Healthy Chicken Paillard (Flattened Chicken) Recipe
Even though the marinade has some salt and pepper – I’m still going to add some more salt and pepper, because it’s not that much salt. And that way it’s also evenly distributed on the chicken breast.
So i’m putting the marinade and the salt and pepper on both sides. I’ve got the saran wrap between each one, and i’m getting ready to go to the stove top. Bring a big skillet – this is 12 inches – might be overkill – you can probably get away with a 10 inch depending on what size the chicken is. Bring the skillet to medium high heat and add a light light layer of olive oil or vegetable oil on the bottom. And then, you cook this for two minutes. You can see that it’s shrinking over time. You just want it browned and not blackened. If it’s too hot then add some more olive oil or to turn down the heat. Then about one and a half minutes on the other side. So in between cooking the breasts – I put some water in the pan and just carefully drain the water and then wipe it out with a paper towel pretty carefully.
And that’s because burnt oil sucks. i mean – it doesn’t taste good. And it makes the chicken, like dirty, and you want it brown not black. So again two minutes first side. Second side is usually about a minute and a half. You want it seared and cooked through. That’s generally just enough.
Healthy Chicken Paillard (Flattened Chicken) Recipe
And that’s it. It cooks really fast. You could serve this as is, but I’m going to do a little salad. In the winter i might do like a kale salad. I had to make the dressing again, because i didn’t make it when i first started – which I should have. But if you don’t want to make your own salad dressing just use a pre-made Italian dressing or whatever. It’s just a nice marinade. I like to toss the greens first, and then the ingredients. And then I top it all off.
Then you’ve got this beautiful, healthy chicken paillard. And your family gonna love you!
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