Chicken Piccata Salad

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A salad hearty enough for dinner.  Chicken Piccata Salad has the traditional bright lemon flavor and briny capers.

Smashed Yukon gold potatoes, thinly sliced shallots, and artichoke hearts are tossed in a piccata dressing.  Served atop a bed of greens and garnished with shaved parmesan cheese and roasted pine nuts.

Leftovers

This recipe is the result of a few circumstances.

One - I was hungry and didn't feel like making a big production of dinner.

Two - It had been a few days since I had gone grocery shopping so it was slim pickings in the refrigerator.

Three - I had eaten at a neighborhood Italian restaurant the night before and had some leftover chicken piccata.

It is what I call kitchen serendipity.  Without the confusion of too many choices,  I was able to pull off this salad.  It is filling, in a good way.  The lettuces, green leaf, butterhead, and radicchio, provide the vegetal component which brings freshness and crunch.  The jarred ingredients, artichoke hearts and capers, give their briny zing to the composed salad.   But the potatoes, smashed and cooked until crunchy on the outside and creamy on the inside, give the salad structure.  Now it is a filling meal, not just an afterthought.  The chicken piccata now has the accoutrements to let it shine, to give it support.  A piccata dressing made with the bracing juice of a lemon and its zest, garlic, and olive oil, pulls it all together.

Crispy Potatoes

I start with the potatoes.  This is a two-part preparation.  Start with mini Yukon gold potatoes to ensure the all-important creamy interiors.  Place them in a skillet along with butter, olive oil, smashed garlic cloves, and sprigs of thyme.  Add ½ cup of water and place the skillet over medium heat.  Once the water is steaming, place a lid on the skillet.  The object is to steam the potatoes until they are soft.  Check after 12 minutes.  If the potatoes are still a little hard, add an additional ¼ cup of water.  Place the lid back on, letting the potatoes continue to steam.  Check with a paring knife.  If the potatoes are soft, the knife will slide easily into the center of the potato.

Now they can be smashed, but gently.  The potatoes are great when there are craggy parts and edges.  Just don't smash them until they are pancaked.  With the heat on medium, brown and crisp the potatoes for about 4 minutes.  Add additional olive oil if needed.  Once one side is brown and crunchy, flip and continue cooking for another 3-4 minutes.

Simultaneously

After the potatoes are in the pan steaming, the chicken can be prepared.  Cutlets are prepared by slicing the chicken breast in two, laterally.  The meat is then pounded lightly with a mallet, basically to ensure that the cutlet is the same thickness throughout.

Prepare a dredge by combining flour with salt and pepper.  Get the pan hot, adding a tablespoon of butter and olive oil.  Place the chicken in the flour dredge, flipping to cover both sides.  Brush off any excess.  Add the chicken to the hot pan, lowering it carefully so that the butter and olive oil don't splatter.  Continue with each piece of chicken, adding more oil and butter if needed.

Make sure you don't have too much flour on the chicken.  The fond that forms on the bottom of the pan will be a part of the vinaigrette.

Piccata Vinaigrette

Before arranging the Chicken Piccata Salad, prepare the vinaigrette.  Remove the chicken from the pan.  With the heat on medium-high, add white wine to the pan.  Scrap any bits stuck to the pan with a wooden spoon,  Once the wine cooks out, add the lemon juice, zest of one lemon,  chicken stock, capers, minced garlic, and chopped parsley.  As soon as the vinaigrette is warm in the pan, whisk in 2 tablespoons of olive oil.  Season with salt and pepper.  Pour some of the warm vinaigrette over the chicken and potatoes.

Compose

Now all the components are ready to be combined.

Make sure to have a decent sized bowl, maybe a rimmed plate, for the salad.  I use lettuces with various textures and colors. Use a vegetable peeler to shave shards of parmesan cheese off a block.  Some sliced shallots and roasted pine nuts provide more flavor and crunch.

I like to make layers - first a bed of lettuce.  Cut the chicken breast on the bias across the grain.  Fan it out across the lettuce.  Tuck the potatoes and artichoke hearts in, like little surprises nestled in the lettuce.  Spread a few slices of shallot over the top.  Sprinkle the roasted pine nuts over the salad for a little crunch.  The last garnishes are the shards of parmesan cheese.  Drizzle some reserved vinaigrette here and there.

The idea is to have bites with a little bit of everything.  A variety of textures is part of the enjoyment of this salad.  The chicken and potatoes can be slightly warm.  However, if too hot, the lettuces will wilt.

Dinner Salad

In restaurants, a dinner salad is often a sad affair of iceberg lettuce with a few shreds of carrot, thin slices of red cabbage, and a cherry tomato coated in a weak dressing.  But a dinner salad in my mind can be eaten as a meal.  It could even be a brunch entree.

The flavor of bright citrus and brine are a perfect combination for this Chicken Piccata Salad.  Not bad for something that started out as leftovers!

Another hearty salad to try - https://tenpoundcakecompany.com/fall-harvest-salad