Chicken Lyonnaise

Chicken Lyonnaise

For this past weekend's Titanic themed dinner, we served a wonderful entree; Chicken Lyonnaise. Both the kids and the adults loved this chicken dish from the first class dinner menu. The book, Last Dinner On The Titanic, says the following about the dish:

This is one of the most delicious items on the first-class dinner menu. The sauce is from Lyons, considered by many to be the gastronomic capital of France, and employs two foods for which the area is renowned - onions from the Rhone Valley and poultry from Bresse.

I was worried that the chicken would come out dry but, I remained faithful the ingredients and the preparation in the book. I was wrong, the chicken turned out moist and delicious. We served this chicken with creamed baby carrots. Enjoy!

Serves: 6

Ingredients:
1/3 cup flour
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
6 boneless chicken breasts
1 egg, beaten
3 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 small onions, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/3 cup white wine
1 cup chicken stock
2 teaspoons tomato paste
Pinch granulated sugar

Directions:

1. In sturdy plastic bag, shake together flour, 1 tablespoon of the thyme, salt and pepper. One at a time, dip chicken breasts into egg, and then shake in flour mixture.

2. In large deep skillet, heat 2 tablespoons vegetable oil over medium-high heat. Place chicken in pan, skin side down. Cook, turning once, for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from skillet and place in 225-degree oven.

3. Reduce heat to medium, add remaining oil to skillet. Stir in onions, garlic and remaining thyme; cook, stirring often, for five minutes or until onions are translucent. Increase heat to medium-high and continue to cook onions, stirring often, for five minutes or until golden brown.

4. Add wine to pan; cook, stirring, to scrape up any brown bits, for about a minute or until reduced by half. Stir in stock, tomato paste and sugar. Boil for two minutes or until beginning to thicken.

5. Return chicken to pan, turning to coat, and cook for five minutes or until juices from chicken run clear.

37 comments:

Sara said...

Oooh, this looks amazing! :) Yum.

Hyperion said...

The Chicken looks fantastic.

Christie @ Fig & Cherry said...

I had to double take when looking at that picture! I thought 'What's Dragon doing serving baby frankfuters with chicken breast, she's lost it!'

But alas, creamed carrots is a beautiful side dish. I should never have doubted you :)

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

A delicious dish! Yummy!

Cheers,

Rosa

Pearl said...

wow! that definitely looks like a first class dish :)

Priya Suresh said...

Delicious chicken dish!

Donna-FFW said...

This chicken looks delicious, what a fantastic sauce that goes with it. So quick and easy too!

Justin said...

this looks so good, just like a tuna dish I made last week (weird, but true). I should write something about that. yum.

Deeba PAB said...

I feel grand just reading it P...positively uplifting! YUM!PS Tried very hard to send u to bed; looks like you sleepin' in late love!

NĂºria said...

I love the idea of reproducing the Titanic's menu!!! Could I be on board? I smell your lovely chicken from here ;D

JodieMo said...

Mmmm...I'm drooling

Liesl said...

I really love the whole "recreate the Titantic dinner" thing you have done! That cookbook sounds really neat, and it would make for a great dinner party! I enjoy reading these posts, thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

Wonderful preparation for the chicken! Delicious!

Finla said...

I love chicken prepared like this and this looks so yumm.
I am looking forward to know what they wercved for dessert , well what you served for the dinner for this titanic theme.
I didn' teven know there was a book about the last meal in titanic.
One learns every day something new isn't it.

Shelley Kubitz Mahannah said...

Can't wait to try this!

Jeff said...

Way to keep your faith in the recipe. If it was me I would have made changes out of fear of dryage and ended up with a wet mess.

Sounds like the book is going great for you and I am going to have to check it out.

Anonymous said...

Sounds delicious!

Creative Classroom Core said...

What a tasty sounding chicken dish! I am always looking for new ways to prepare chicken, as we eat a lot of it in our house. I will have to bookmark this to try soon!
:)

Lo said...

This really does look lovely... of course I'm also peering over the top of the chicken and eyeing up those creamed baby carrots. *slurp*

Amanda said...

Looks delicious. Also, I love the theme!

Bunny said...

I think I might have everything to make this, it looks fantastic Paula!!

Shelly said...

Looks great, Paula! I'm down with the creamed baby carrots too :)

Jacque said...

That sounds perfect!

What an interesting cookbook too :)

Elin Chia said...

I wish I could have a share of those yummiliciousness! :)

Jamie said...

Ah, another great chicken recipe to bookmark! I love chicken cooked like this, ending up with an amazing, flavorful sauce. Wow, gotta make this!

Maria said...

Looking good!

Emily said...

YUM! This chicken looks incredible!

Jeanine - The Baking Beauties said...

Sounds like such a fun meal! The chicken looks delicious!

Nic said...

That looks good, I'm so hungry now!!

Amanda @ Mrs.W's Kitchen said...

Yum, yum, this looks great! When I read 'chicken lyonnaise' I immediately thought it sounded like a very heavy dish--but it doesn't sound heavy at all.

Lisa said...

Near, Far, wherever you are..I'll take that chicken! :)

Kerstin said...

What a great chicken dish - love the fresh thyme in it! We are always looking for new chicken dishes, so I'm going to add this one to our pile to try :)

veggievixen said...

what a great theme idea!

Sam Hoffer / My Carolina Kitchen said...

What a great looking dish. Sounds like a fun dinner. The Bresse chicken is highly thought of in France. I'll have to try this recipe for sure.
Sam

Hanya said...

I picked an item from each course and cooked it for my husband and I on April 14th for the 100th anniversary of the Titanic's sinking. We both loved the Chicken Lyonnaise; simple preparation, moist, tasty but satisfying. It felt like a richer dish than it really was. Highly recommend it!

Anonymous said...

Yes, the Chicken Lyonnaise does look fantastic. Unfortunately, we found it to be only so-so and not really worth the effort. Problem areas: The chicken is indeed moist but it's also very bland. It needs more seasoning. The flour/spice mixture is insufficient for six chicken breasts, and using a plastic bag doesn't work very well because you end up with a gooey mess very early on. Using a piece of wax paper and lightly sprinkling the flour on each piece might work better. The sauce is tasty and would help flavor the chicken, but there isn't nearly enough of it. I would recommend doubling it.

I have no doubt this is the recipe from the book, "Last Dinner on the Titanic" because this same recipe is on a number of websites. Whether it's the same recipe that was actually served on the ship might be debatable. Either way, it needs a lot of tweaking. If I were to make it again, I would look for a recipe for Chicken Lyonnaise in a good French cookbook instead of using the book's version.

Hanya said...

Anonymous-
I should have been more specific when describing what I did. The dish is great for me now but initially I had doubts as to the proportions so I changed them on the fly and I should have specified that.

I have nice low breading pans, which I used to bread the chicken, so I was spared the gooey mess of plastic bags (pie plates work well too). I used about 4 tbsp of flour and about 2 tbsp of thyme and about 3 generous pinches of salt and pepper each in the flour to bread two medium sized boneless and skinless breasts. (I have a lovely lemon thyme plant that I plucked the leaves from). I whipped the egg with a little milk to make it more agreeable.

For the sauce, I used about 1/3 c vermouth, about 2/3 c home made chicken stock and about 2/3 c. Swanson's low sodium along with 2 tsp tomato paste and two pinches of sugar. I used 1 small onion sliced into 1/2 circles and about 1/3 tsp fresh garlic (plus a pinch more pepper and salt to taste).

These are the proportions I used, but otherwise I followed the mechanics of the recipe (although I did allow the sauce to simmer and reduce slightly before re-adding the chicken.)

It's a good idea to taste sample early and often to judge the composition of new recipes. I was concerned just from looking at the proportions that the chicken might be a bit bland, hence the adjustments I made. It's now one of the staples of my kitchen, and when served with sauteed green beans & almonds and some rice pilaf (even from a box will do!), it's a very satisfying and nice combination.

 
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