A Recipe You Should Make More Than Once

I actually made this recipe for my birthday a few years back (and posted it at that time...you can find the original post here).

However, this recipe is just so good, that it deserves to be highlighted again.

Macaroni Grill Chicken Scaloppine (My version)

Ingredients:

Lemon Butter Sauce (my version):

1 cup whole milk or 1 can evaporated whole milk
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 stick butter
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon capers, drained

Chicken and Pasta:

8 (3 ounce) chicken breasts, pounded thin
Oil and butter for sauteing chicken
3/4 cup flour, seasoned with salt and pepper, for dredging
6 ounces pancetta (I used prosciutto instead of pancetta because that's what Macaroni Grill uses)
12 ounces mushrooms, sliced
12 ounces artichoke hearts, sliced
1 tablespoon capers
1 pound cappellini pasta, cooked
Chopped parsley, for garnish, if desired

Directions:

To make the sauce:

Melt butter in a saucepan. Remove from heat, and allow to cool slightly. Using a wire whisk, very slowly add whole milk or evaporated milk and lemon juice. Then simmer over low heat until completely heated. Season with salt and pepper. Add capers. Remove from heat and keep warm.

To make the chicken and pasta:

Heat a small amount of oil and two tablespoons butter in a large skillet. Dredge chicken in flour and saute in pan, turning once, until browned and cooked through. Remove chicken from pan and add pancetta or prosciutto, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, and capers. Heat until mushrooms soften and are cooked; add chicken back to pan.

Cook pasta according to package directions.

To serve:

In a large serving bowl or platter, toss pasta, chicken mixture, and sauce all together. Forget the parsley because you almost always forget to add the parsley garnish anyway! Serve!

Notes: My only warning with using milk instead of the traditional cream in the sauce is that you can't add the milk while the butter is super hot, otherwise the milk will curdle. If this happens, I suggest adding a little cornstarch, and then bringing the sauce to a low boil to thicken the mixture. The cornstarch thickening the sauce will help the sauce look smoother, and it will coat the pasta better. However, if you use evaporated milk, you won't have to worry about it curdling.

I pounded the chicken thin and cut it into medallion-sized pieces. In the future, I might actually slice the chicken into strips before tossing it with the pasta.

I would suggest sprinkling the prosciutto into the mixture rather than throwing it in all at once. I put mine in all at once the first time I made this and the prosciutto kind of stuck together.

Above: So many wonderful flavors in this pasta.