It is, and here you go. I will try to get a picture of a finished plate before my son inhales the leftovers!
Mind you, outside of baking or new recipes I haven’t measured an ingredient in a long time, and improvisation on the fly is allowed (like if the if the chicken and mushrooms seems a little dry before adding lemon and wine....throw in more butter, that kind of thing.) I’ll estimate ingredients for two pounds of chicken breast, pounded into cutlets.
Two sticks butter.
3-4 decent sized cloves of garlic, sliced thin.
Rosemary, fresh preferred (3-4 sprigs, pull and chop leaves)...dried will work (a quarter sized pile in palm of hand, crushed in fingers a little). We like rosemary, you can adjust to your taste.
Two pounds chicken cutlets, dredged in flour.
16 oz sliced mushrooms.
6 or 8 hot cherry peppers, seeds removed, break into halves or quarters.
Juice of two lemons.
Two cups (give or take) of white wine. Any will do, I prefer a Chardonnay. You know what they say, if you wouldn’t drink it, don’t cook with it!
So, into the pan goes the butter, garlic, and rosemary. Your first hint of magic comes as you let that sauté for a few minutes to soften (but not brown) the garlic. The aroma is intoxicating.
Into the pan goes the chicken, pinch of salt and fresh cracked pepper, or pinch of white pepper if you have it. Cook chicken on that side for maybe two minutes. Turn, salt and pepper again. Another two minutes. At this point I suppose you could remove the chicken (to prevent over cooking) but I never do.
Into the pan go the mushrooms. Sauté until the mushrooms (turning chicken a couple times if it’s still in there) begin to soften a little, but not too much. If it’s looking a little dry, throw in some more butter! That’s hardly ever a wrong thing to do!!
Here comes magic point number two. Add the hot cherry peppers and then squeeze in the juice of two lemons. Don’t have fresh...a couple good splashes of bottled lemon juice will do. As the lemon hits the hot peppers and it combines with the rosemary....I’m convinced that’s where the real magic happens in this dish!
Ok, so after that all cooks together for a several minutes, allowing the mushrooms and cherry peppers to soften, in goes the white wine. If you happen to have taken the chicken out now would be the time to throw it back in. At this point everything should just be covered in liquid. Let that simmer and bubble until the wine cooks off and the sauce thickens and glistens.
This is best served over al dente farfalle, although any pasta would do, I suppose. Farfalle and Penne Rigate hold the sauce better than something else. You should have enough sauce in the pan for several good spoonfuls of sauce for each serving, to coat (but not drown) the chicken and the pasta. You can always add more wine if you don’t think there’s enough sauce, just make sure you give enough time for the wine to cook off
Serve with some nice bread (using bread is more dignified than licking sauce remains off your plate!) and a glass of that nice white wine you opened to cook with.
In my house this recipe, with a pound of pasta, will serve three hungry men. Reasonable eaters it should serve 4-5.
I hope you enjoy!
