chicken francese

[nyfirepatrolchef]

What, you need an explanation?

Recipes please, recipes!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

[Jason Perlow]

Its a very basic recipe. Essentialy dip the chicken breasts (pounded) in flour, then in an eggwash with grated romano or parmesan and parsley, then dip in flour again. Cook in olive oil and add butter. Deglaze with a lot of lemon juice and some chicken stock. Optionally slice up some lemons and cook with the chicken. Dust with chopped parsely. Serve over cooked pasta.

[Suzanne F]

What, YOU need a recipe?!?!? Awright:

• Take some skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
  
• Lay them flat between sheets of plastic wrap (or better yet, in the largest possible ziploc freezer bags)
  
• Whack them with something heavy and flat -- the bottom of a sauté pan or pot -- until they are of even thickness
  
• In a sauté pan, heat some decent oil and/or clarified butter until it's hot -- how hot depends on the next step
  
• If you want to, dip the chicken pieces in seasoned flour, shake/pat off the excess, and lay gently in the hot pan -- the pan shouldn't be so hot that the flour burns; OR
  
• Lay the pieces into the pan au naturel (or with a little salt/pepper first); in this case your pan can be almost smoking
  
• After a VERY short time, look at the bottom of a piece of chicken; when it's nicely golden, turn it over
  
• When the chicken is all cooked, remove it to a platter and keep it warm
  
• If there are any burnt bits in the sauté pan, dump them. Wipe out the pan and return to the heat
  
• Add some fresh butter to the pan -- this time you can use whole butter; let it melt and get bubbly
  
• Add a healthy slug white wine; let it reduce until almost dry
  
• Add a healthy slug of lemon juice, and some chicken stock; let it reduce, but not as much
  
• When the sauce is almost done, add some drained, rinsed capers and chopped parsley; you can also swirl in a little more whole butter if you like
  
• Pour sauce over chicken and serve
  

Anyway, that's how I would do it. (I hate eggy versions, but that's my taste.)

[nyfirepatrolchef]

well its been ages since Ive been able to have it...butter and all...I was flying by the seat of my bunker pants last night when I made it at work. Ive had it several ways...was wondering if there was a *classic* form. I didnt think to add the cheese to the coating....so they did afterwards on the plates...and I didnt use chicken stock...just butter lemon and (I know Iknow but I was at WORK) cooking wine. Still, they cleaned up platter off and no complaints. It was like a super lemony scampi kinda sorta.

Thanks guys.

[Jason Perlow]

There is no classic. Its an Italian-American dish and I am pretty sure it was invented in Jersey.

[Suzanne F]

What Jason said. As long as you don't burn it or reduce the lemon juice too much , you can't go wrong. It's one of those crowd-pleaser dishes that almost makes skinless boneless chicken breasts into something edible. Listen, fella, you know darn well what you're doing; don't try to fool us with that "help me, help me" stuff.

[Jason Perlow]

Arthur Schwartz has a bit to say on this dish as well:

http://www.thefoodmaven.com/radiorecipes/c...chick_fran.html

He believes it is from Brooklyn or Bronx NY but I have heard that it may actually be from Hoboken or Newark.

[nyfirepatrolchef]

 Listen, fella, you know darn well what you're doing; don't try to fool us with that "help me, help me" stuff.    

yeah yeah okay so Im busted....

truth is...

my Domme didnt like the way I polished her thigh highs last night...so as punishment she made me get up here and humble myself in front of people who'd see through me.

Like that one better??

[ludja]

A friend of mine recently traveled to Rochester for business and described a dish that he kept seeing on the menu: "Chicken French" Some restaurants also had a "Fish Filet French" and a "Veal French".

I was scratching my head to figure out what this Rochester delicacy was and after he described the dish order by someone else I guessed it might be "Chicken Francese" a northeastern Italian-American dish that is seen on many menus--and described above in previous posts. I've also heard of Shrimp Francese.

The article is only available if you click on the "cache" version but here is a story on some of the history and tradition of Chicken French in Rochester...

click

(I think this link will take you to the cached article.)

On this side of the Atlantic, early versions of this dish appeared on upscale menus as vitello francese or vitello alla francese, which translates as veal prepared in the French style. More casual restaurants might refer to it as veal francese.

...

Rochester's French

Not surprisingly, the vitello francese eventually found its way to Rochester. Retired chef James Cianciola of Henrietta recalls seeing it on the menu at Infantino's on Lake Avenue in the late 1950s. He then learned how to make it at the downtown Italian Village, preparing it for famous performers headlining at the Eastman Theatre next door.

"(Liberace) told me this was the best veal he'd ever had. That particular recipe stuck with me," recalls Cianciola.

In 1967, Cianciola and his brother Nate opened the Brown Derby in Brighton, where the dish soon took on its Rochester moniker, veal French.

When consumers began boycotting veal in the 1970s, the Cianciolas decided to use the same technique with chicken.

"We'd embellish it with artichokes, and soon customers would ask, 'Can we have a few more artichokes?' So we made artichokes French as an appetizer," says Nate Cianciola.

Soon enough, the Brown Derby and other restaurants started Frenching anything they could: haddock, sole, broccoli, and cauliflower. Some restaurants, including Agatina's, offer French medleys.

But by and large, chicken remains the French of choice. And it appears Rochester is one of the few places outside of New York City where the dish has taken on iconic status, though in other pockets where it pops up it still is known as chicken francese.

The variations mentioned in the article are as to what alcohol to use (vermouth, dry white wine, sherry...) and how to incorporate the lemon--just in the sauce or also as zest in the eggs or flour. Most of the recipes seems to have a flour-egg-flour dip and sometimes parmigiano is added to the batter.

I haven't had this in years but now feel a yearning to make it at home.

Has anyone else seen this dish in Italian restaurants outside of the Northeast? I don't think I've seen it out here in California.

Any other comments on your favorite prep or recipe variants?