I have had this recipe for Chicken Piccata up on my site for some time, but I’ve never specifically written about it. And it’s actually one of my favorites, so I thought I’d finally mention it. I don’t have much to say except this recipe is easy and delicious. Even I was able to cook this up last night, despite the fact I would have much rather been lying in bed feeling sorry for my sick and tired pregnant self. 😉

So, if you’re looking for a simple, fairly quick and delicious chicken recipe, look no further!

Chicken Piccata

 

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From Jane Maynard, This Week for Dinner

Author: Jane Maynard

Ingredients

• 4 chicken breasts
• 2 C flour, with salt and pepper
• ¼ C olive oil
• ¼ C lemon juice
• 2 C chicken stock
• 1 T capers
• ⅓ C butter (optional)

Instructions

1. Cut up chicken into pieces – either bite sized or cut the breasts into halves or thirds. Regardless, if you do anything larger than bitesized pieces, pound them a bit, too! You could definitely cook the chicken breasts whole, but I would definitely recommend pounding the breast in that case.
2. Place flour, salt and pepper in a plastic bag. Dust chicken pieces with flour then brown over medium to medium-high heat in the olive oil. Add lemon juice, chicken stock and capers and simmer on medium low until chicken is done. (Total cook time is probably around 20 minutes or so.)
3. Remove from heat and add butter. I actually almost always forget to add the butter”¦and it still tastes great. I think the sauce is just a little sharper in flavor when I forget the butter, but a bit more mellow when the butter is added.
4. Serve with pasta or mashed potatoes.
5. One more note – last night I only cooked up two chicken breasts, but I kept the sauce proportions the same. Because of that, there was a bit less flour going into the dish, so I had to thicken the sauce up just a tad with some flour while the chicken was simmering. But usually the flour on the chicken thickens up the sauce perfectly on its own.

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Today I’m sharing my recipe for lemon bars. Or are they lemon squares? Whatever they’re called, they are lemonicious!

I have no clue where I found this recipe. It was in my recipe box without any attribution. When that happens, it normally means I merged a few recipes together. If I have, in fact, stolen this recipe from someone, well, my sincerest apologies! Just let me know and I’ll throw your name on there lickity split!

I made lemon bars for St. Patrick’s Day with lemon juice from the little squeezie lemon juice thingy in my fridge. No fresh lemons that day – so no fresh lemon juice or zest. When I made them again for this post, I used Meyer lemons and zest. I’ve gotta be honest…the St. Patrick’s Day version was better! The lemon taste was stronger and more tart, which added depth of flavor. Meyer lemons are great because they seem to sweeten up nicely, but for lemon bars I think they ended up being a little too sweet and mild/flat tasting. Take your pick…I’m sure it’s a matter of personal preference!

Why is my recipe so good? I don’t know, it just is.  The shortbread and lemon layers meld together nicely and the texture is just right. This is a non-chocolate dessert I can get behind!

Lemon Bars

 

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From Jane Maynard at This Week for Dinner”¦maybe!

Author: Jane Maynard

Ingredients

• Crust:
• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup butter
• ½ cup powdered sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• Top:
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon rind (if you don’t have fresh lemons, you can leave this out)
• ¼ cup lemon juice
• 2 cups sugar
• 6 tablespoon flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 4 eggs

Instructions

1. Preheat to 350 degrees F.
2. Mix crust together and press into bottom of 9X13 pan. Bake for 10 mins. Mix top ingredients and pour over baked crust. Bake for 25 mins more. Remove from oven and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Let set and cut into squares. Makes about a million squares.

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