Chicken Scampi

Yeah, I didn’t know that it was a dish. I love shrimp scampi, it’s delicious, the butter, wine and garlic sauce smothered shrimp sitting on a bed of linguini. I could cook it every night. However, on this particular night, there was none in the fridge. There was, however, some chicken breast. Always looking to change up the menu a little, I decided to cook it the same way as shrimp scampi. It came out really delicious, so I thought I’d share. I’d call it Pan Seared Chicken Breast in Garlic White Wine Sauce, sounds pretty good. Till the next day, doing some research for my new dish, I found Chicken Scampi, same thing, different name! And I thought I’d come up with something new. Oh well, Chicken Scampi it is, and, that’s what this post is about.

Chicken is a very versatile protein. The legs and thighs are flavorful and can handle all day cooking in the slow cooker. The breast meat is light, quick to cook and easily absorbs the flavors around it. In other words it’s like a blank canvas to be painted with flavor as you wish. Cut into thin filets, they’ll cook pretty quickly. I’ve come to enjoy cooking with wine. Adding red wine to a beef stew not only adds an earthy note to the flavor, but it is also a tenderizer that helps the meat for cook. Adding white wine to fish and fowl adds a light note to the dish. The alcohol cooks off, but the flavor still remains. When cooking with wine, you don’t need to buy an expensive bottle, the cheap stuff works fine, I mean, it’s going to get cooked.

But, the sauce is not just wine, there’s more. Staring with butter. It adds a rich flavor base, and is ideal to sauté the garlic in. I have a post on cooking fats and oils feel free to read it. Speaking of garlic, it has to be chopped fine. I used to grate my garlic till I realized the garlic oil, and therefore, the garlic flavor was being left on the grater. Look up a video on how to finely dice garlic, this way all the flavor gets kept. Ground red pepper flakes round out the ingredients list. You can certainly use pepper flakes if you prefer, however I’ve found that the ground variety spread their flavor better in the dish. I’ve also found that ground red pepper flakes are not as brutally hot as cayenne.

Now we know what’s in it, let’s move on to procedure. Start by browning off the chicken filets, and, there’s a couple of reasons why. Chicken tastes a little better with some caramelization, and, the bits stuck to the pan will add flavor to the sauce. The idea is to just brown them off, not completely cook them, they will be finished later.

Once browned, remove from the pan and set aside. So, the pan has the olive oil from the cooking, and caramelized chicken stuck to the bottom. Add the butter, allow to melt, add the garlic and sauté on low till the garlic is soft. Now add the wine and spices, as the wine heats up scrape anything off the pan and allow to mix. Let the mixture cook for 5 mins to reduce a bit. Now return the chicken to the pan, cover, and simmer till cooked. Monitor the sauce, if too much has cooked off, add a splash or two of wine.

The pasta should be cooked too. Drain, dress with olive oil and parsley, pour the chicken and sauce over the pasta and sprinkle generously with fresh grated parmesan. Serve and enjoy dinner