Chicken Piccata with Artichoke Hearts and Tomatoes

I've been making this dish for years. It's extremely tasty and very easy to make!

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon Italian Seasoning
• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, pounded thin and cut into bite sized pieces
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, use more as needed for frying
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 onion, minced
• 3/4 cup white wine
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 (13.75 ounce) jars artichoke hearts, drained and chopped, liquid reserved
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 can (14.5 ounce) stewed tomatoes, chop tomatoes into thirds
• 1/4 cup capers, with liquid

Directions

1. Mix together the flour, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning on a plate. One by one, dredge the chicken pieces in the prepared flour mixture.
2. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the chicken pieces until nicely browned. Remove from the skillet and set aside on dish lined with paper towels to absorb excess oil.
3. Using the same skillet, cook and stir the garlic and onion until translucent, about 5 minutes.
4. Pour the white wine into the skillet, turn the heat to high, and cook until the wine reduces by half, 4 to 5 minutes.
5. Add the chicken broth, lemon juice, artichoke hearts, reserved artichoke liquid, and browned chicken to the skillet. Reduce the heat to medium and cook until the sauce thickens, about 20 minutes.
6. Stir in butter, and simmer additional 5 minutes. 
7. Turn off heat. Add tomatoes and capers.
8. Serve with cooked pasta or rice.

Pictures (with comments)

Lay out all of your ingredients. The chicken is not pictured.


Here is my precooked chicken.  I cut up skinless cutlets into bite-sized pieces, dredged them with flour garlic powder, salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning & and fried them with olive oil.


I decided to mix it up a bit and serve my piccata with mini farfalle. They are so cute!


Sautéing the onions.


Add the white wine and boil it off until it reduces by half. This takes about 5 minutes.


Add chicken broth & lemon juice and bring to a boil.



Add artichokes.


Add the chicken and let everything simmer for 20 minutes, further reducing the sauce.


My mini farfalle are cooked! Cute little buggers!


Here's where I added the tomatoes and butter.


And finally I added the capers. You don't need a lot; they are packed with flavor.



I tossed my cooked pasta with everything.  You can also serve this over white rice (which is what I normally do, but I wasn't in the mood for rice tonight).


Plating.


Close-up. Oh yeah. Very delicious!

Chicken Fried Rice (雞肉炒飯)

We were craving some Chinese food but didn't want to order take-out.  I saw a few different Pinterest "pins" for different ways to make chicken fried rice so we gave it a go! We put our own spin on few different posts we had seen.  Wok oil is honestly one of the best things to use in stir fry.  It has a unique blend of garlic, ginger, onion & cilantro. Our finished product was better than we could have hoped. It was extremely tasty and so much healthier than take-out. I used a total of 3 teaspoons Wok oil (which is under the serving size of 1 tablespoon).

Here's some math with equal serving sizes.

Our Dish	Typical Take-Out Dish
162.7 Calories 3.008 g Fat 42.2 mg Cholesterol 246 mg Sodium 18.572 g Carbohydrates 13.15 g Protein	329 Calories 11.96 g Fat 105 mg Cholesterol 598 mg Sodium 41.82 g Carbohydrates 12.45 g Protein

Ingredients

• 2 cups cooked rice
• 1 lb. chicken breast, cut up into bite-sized pieces (or left-over cooked chicken)
• Salt & Pepper (to season chicken breast)
• 2 cups frozen mixed vegetables (carrots, peas, corn, green beans & lima beans)
• 1/2 cup chopped green onions (I buy a bunch, chop them up, and freeze them in an emptied water bottle in my freezer)
• 3-4 minced garlic cloves
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon wok oil + additional for frying
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce

Directions

1. Whisk eggs with 1 teaspoon wok oil. Set aside.
2. Season chicken breast pieces with salt & pepper. Set aside.
3. Heat about 1 teaspoon wok oil in a large wok over medium-high heat.
4. Add chicken to wok and stir fry until cooked thoroughly. After it is cooked, move the chicken to a plate.
5. Heat 1 teaspoon wok oil again in wok over medium-high heat.
6. Add frozen vegetables & green onions. Stir fry until tender, about 2 minutes. Then add minced garlic and cook additional 30 seconds.
7. Move vegetables to side of wok and pour in egg/oil mixture.  Scramble egg until soft-set.
8. Add chicken, rice & soy sauce to wok.  Toss everything to combine and heat through.
9. Eat and enjoy!
10. This yields about 10 servings (1 cup = 1 serving)

Pictures (with comments)

It's always a good idea to lay out all of your ingredients. Then you're not scrambling around the kitchen looking for everything!


Bite-sized chicken pieces seasoned with salt & pepper.


My awesome wok.  Every household should have one.


Chicken: Drop, stir, done. (It only took about 5 minutes)


Close-up of cooked chicken.


Let's stir fry those vegetables!


Time for the garlic!


Add the egg!


Scramble away!


Add chicken back to the wok!


Dumped the rice in - sorry the picture is blurry.


Drizzle soy sauce over rice.


Toss everything to incorporate all the good flavor.


Dinner is served.


Close-up.



A trio of the final serving.