Chicken with Basil Cream Sauce

Chicken with Basil Cream Sauce

This is one of those recipes that makes it easy to please everybody in your house.  For the little ones, you have chicken strips for dipping.  For the bigger ones, an elegant, fresh and flavorful sauce gives the chicken extra flavor and does double duty as a pasta sauce.  Most of these items are staples of the kitchen, so this comes together pretty quickly.

Ingredients

• 1 pound, skinless, boneless chicken breast strips
• Montreal steak seasoning
• 1 cup flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup panko bread crumbs
• 3 Tbsp butter
• 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 medium garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 - 1/3 cups thinly sliced red bell peppers
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
• a little salt

Directions

Prep veggies.   

 Grate the cheese.

Season chicken with the Montreal seasoning.

Bread the chicken:  flour, egg wash, bread crumbs.

 This is what they will look like.

 Chop the basil.

In skillet, heat butter and olive oil over medium to medium high heat.

 Mince the garlic..

This is how the pan needs to look before you add the chicken.  HOT!  If it's not really hot, the chicken will absorb all the grease and be...well... greasy. 

Cook the chicken strips in butter/oil on both sides, until golden brown and juices run clear.  This doesn't take very long because we used the chicken tenders.  If you used the whole boneless breasts, it may take 10 minutes or so.  Using the tenders is one way to shave off some time from the recipe.

 Get your sauce "stuff" ready...

Remove the chicken when golden brown and keep warm.

Deglaze the skillet by adding broth to skillet.  Bring to a boil over medium heat, and stir to loosen browned bits from pan.  All this smoke is what it looks like during this "deglazing."  Don't be frightened of it.  It's supposed to happen.  *You could also use white wine to deglaze the pan if you prefer.

Add the minced garlic and red pepper strips.  Allow this to cook down a bit.

Stir in cream; boil and stir for 1 minute. Reduce heat.  You could use half and half for this, just expect that it may take a little longer for the sauce to thicken. 

Add freshly grated Parmesan cheese, basil, salt and pepper.  Careful - the cheese has a lot of salt already in it. Stir sauce and cook until heated through.

 

 Admit it... it looks yummy, huh?

Pour mixture over chicken and serve! 

Even my oldest, who is super picky, came in from baseball... took over my plate, and remarked that "This basil cream sauce is REALLY good, Mom!"  From him, I'd definitely consider that a stamp of approval!

I garnished with a chopped roma tomato and some fresh basil ribbons.  I served this with some penne pasta and roasted asparagus.

Directions

Prep veggies.   

 Grate the cheese.

Season chicken with the Montreal seasoning.

Bread the chicken:  flour, egg wash, bread crumbs.

 This is what they will look like.

 Chop the basil.

In skillet, heat butter and olive oil over medium to medium high heat.

 Mince the garlic..

This is how the pan needs to look before you add the chicken.  HOT!  If it's not really hot, the chicken will absorb all the grease and be...well... greasy. 

Cook the chicken strips in butter/oil on both sides, until golden brown and juices run clear.  This doesn't take very long because we used the chicken tenders.  If you used the whole boneless breasts, it may take 10 minutes or so.  Using the tenders is one way to shave off some time from the recipe.

 Get your sauce "stuff" ready...

Remove the chicken when golden brown and keep warm.

Deglaze the skillet by adding broth to skillet.  Bring to a boil over medium heat, and stir to loosen browned bits from pan.  All this smoke is what it looks like during this "deglazing."  Don't be frightened of it.  It's supposed to happen.  *You could also use white wine to deglaze the pan if you prefer.

Add the minced garlic and red pepper strips.  Allow this to cook down a bit.

Stir in cream; boil and stir for 1 minute. Reduce heat.  You could use half and half for this, just expect that it may take a little longer for the sauce to thicken. 

Add freshly grated Parmesan cheese, basil, salt and pepper.  Careful - the cheese has a lot of salt already in it. Stir sauce and cook until heated through.

 Admit it... it looks yummy, huh?

Pour mixture over chicken and serve! 

Even my oldest, who is super picky, came in from baseball... took over my plate, and remarked that "This basil cream sauce is REALLY good, Mom!"  From him, I'd definitely consider that a stamp of approval!

I garnished with a chopped roma tomato and some fresh basil ribbons.  I served this with some penne pasta and roasted asparagus.