Chicken Francese

Eggy and elegantly lavished with lemony beurre blanc, Francese has long been one of the great Italian American cutlet traditions. Et voilà, my modern update. To make chicken Francese, cooks dip cutlets in flour and then beaten egg; shallow-fry them; and sauce them with a lemony, beurre blanc–like reduction that saturates the plush coating. Cutting and pounding each boneless, skinless breast into three ¼-inch cutlets ensured that they cooked through evenly in minutes. Briefly salting the meat seasoned it and helped it retain moisture during cooking. For a tender coating, we diluted the eggs with 2 tablespoons of water to prevent their proteins from coagulating tightly and cooking up tough and rubbery. It was important to fry the chicken in enough oil (⅔ cup for a 12-inch skillet) that it crested just above the sides of the cutlets, which prevented the coating from slipping off before it had time to set. Using a combination of vegetable and olive oils reduced cost while adding just enough of the olive oil's grassy bitterness. We captured complex fruit flavor in the lemony butter sauce by combining juice, zest, and browned lemon slices; the latter also made for a visually striking garnish. Thickening the sauce with flour-dredged cubed butter was simpler than making a proper beurre manié (butter-flour paste), and the dredged fat added lush, silky body.

Unbalanced

% Daily Values based on a 2,000 calorie diet