Chicken Paillard, a Must Try Dish!

A few weeks ago my husband and I had lots of family in town.  Translation, going out to dinners almost every night since we all have jolly bellies!  Fast forward to last week and meal planning at home, I decided to try to recreate a few of my favorite dishes from my prior weeks AMAZING restaurant experience.  One of our favorite restaurants serves Chicken Paillard, Abigals on the North Shore.  Who knows what they put in it, but below is my "healthier" version of what I thought might be in it.



The bottom layer of this dish is a Sauce Gribiche (ingredients pictured left).  I first want to start out by saying the way I made this sauce is NOT the traditional way its prepared.  I'm a "cook", not a chef so technically speaking, it might not even be a sauce gribiche after I got through with it.  If you want to stick to an original I am sure you can look it up on the internet.  I am not a fan of cooking with raw egg which is needed for the base of the sauce.  In a traditional recipe you basically make a mayonnaise and then add all the other ingredients to that base.  I decided to substitute a similar texture and much healthier fat--what I used, Avocado!  It actually tasted similar to the traditional but it didn't have that extra zing that mayo gives you--but again, HEALTHY!

After the Sauce is made, its an easy dish to prepare!  The entire recipe... 

Ingredients :

For Chicken:

1 LB pounded 1/4 inch (or butterflied) chicken

1/4 cup of parmesan sprinkles

2 tablespoons breadcrumbs

(optional: egg and flower to drudge chicken so parma mixture sticks, I choose not to for healthier version)

For Salad:

2 handfuls of arugula

1/4 cup thinly shaved fennel

1 apple thinly sliced
Fresh shaved parmesan cheese 

For Sauce:

1 cornichons (or pickle) finely diced

2 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1/2 medium shallot finely diced

1 1/2 tablespoons fresh minced taragon

4 capers

1 garlic clove finely diced

sprinkle of salt and pepper

1/2 avocado cubed

1 tbs olive oil

up to 4 tbs water

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Meanwhile make sauce, throw all sauce ingredients up to avocado into a food processor and mix until thoroughly blended.  If sauce is to thick, add 1 tablespoon of water at a time or olive oil until it thin outs.  I added about 2 tablespoons of water to mine.  It should be about the consistency of hummus or mayo, not as thin as dressing (see picture above).  Chill in fridge until you are ready for assembly.

Mix parmesan and bread crumbs together.  Next, grab the chicken and toss in the parma/bread mixture. If you want a heavier based breaded chicken you will need to drudge with egg and flower before you toss in mixture.  Spray oven safe dish with olive oil cooking spray to eliminate sticking.  Bake the chicken for about 40-55 min (we like everything extra well done, 55 min for us).

Meanwhile while your chicken is baking, prep the salad. Make sure to slice the fennel as thin as you can as it just gives it a much better taste.  Slice the apple thin but not as paper thin as the fennel.  Chill the salad ingredients till your chicken is finished baking.

Next you are ready for assembly, first spread a layer of the sauce on each plate.  Then place the chicken on the sauce, top with Arugula, apple and fennel.  Last, add your parmesan cheese and you are ready to ENJOY!