Rachel Ray's Lemon Poppy Chicken with Mint and Green Pea Couscous
Serves 4
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil (4 times around the pan)
1.5 pounds thin chicken breast cutlets, cut into bite-size dice (I use my regular Costco chicken breasts)
Flour, for dredging
Salt and black pepper
Zest of 2 lemons
2 T poppy seeds (this always seems a little much to me, so I do about 1 to 1.5 T)
3 cups chicken stock
Juice of 1 lemon
2 T butter
1.5 cups couscous
1 (10-ounce) package frozen petite peas
1/2 cup fresh basil, 10 to 12 leaves, chopped or torn
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves, a generous handful, chopped
Heat the olive oil in large shallow skillet over medium-high heat until the oil ripples. Dredge the chicken lightly in the flour, add to the skillet, and season liberally with salt and pepper. Brown for a couple of minutes on one side, then turn the chicken pieces and add the lemon zest to the skillet and sprinkle in the poppy seeds. Continue to cook until the chicken is evenly golden brown in color, 6 to 7 minutes. In the last minute or two of cooking, stir in 1.5 cups of the chicken stock, the lemon juice, and 1 T of the butter.
While the chicken cooks, bring the remaining 1.5 cups of chicken stock and 1 T of butter to a boil in a saucepot. Add the couscous and peas, stir, cover the pot, and turn off the heat. Let stand for 5 minutes, then fluff with a fork and mix in the basil and mint. Serve the lemon poppy chicken on a bed of the couscous.
(My notes: sometimes the frozen peas don't warm up all the way in the couscous, causing it all to be cold. I think it works best to let the peas thaw a bit first. This meal also makes great leftovers.)
(This meal can be made GFCF by making the following changes: use rice flour or another GF flour instead of regular flour; use CF butter substitute instead of butter--at least for the chicken portion; cook a separate portion of rice and peas to be eaten in place of the couscous mixture.)
3 comments:
This is my favorite meal you've ever made also ;) LOVED the cous-cous
Katie, over the past few days I've been coming to terms with just how expansive gluten is in the world (no more soy sauce = no more sushi = sad Nell). You may already know this, but I noticed you didn't mention it in your GFCF note: chicken stock from the store may have gluten in it. (http://www.glutenfreeforum.com/lofiversion/index.php/t14693.html) I figured out I was allergic to it a few months ago and cut out all obvious wheat products but was injesting a whole lot more gluten than I realized and couldn't quite figure out why I was still feeling slightly ill. (Even the cold-cut turkey I'd been buying has hidden gluten!) I'm a little obsessive at the moment since I've been reading a book and several websites and have been Google-ing every last unknown ingredient. ;)
Thanks for the note, Nell! I forgot to add in there that the chicken stock should be GFCF too. :)
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