Dinner Tonight: Lemon Basil Chicken with Fettuccine

Last Wednesday night was an exciting night in our kitchen--between baking a strawberry rhubarb pie and a fabulous good luck dinner for A, I made quite a mess!  I'm a big chicken eater for 2 reasons: 1) because it's super easy to cook and 2) you can do so many variations and create such an array of tastes with chicken.  Although today is the first day of fall, North Carolina has decided to be in absolute refusal of the season change and is still about 10 degrees above normal (aka 89+ degrees).  It definitely still feels like summer here so I like to cook as if it's still summer.  The heat makes me shy away from heavy meals (steaks, chowders, mashed potatoes, etc.), meaning I love cooking light, fresh-tasting meals in the dog-days of summer/fall.  And one of my absolute favorite summer ingredients is fresh basil; it smells amazing (I secretly wish there was a basil perfume or air freshener or something), adds the feeling of freshness to any meal, and brings a pop of color!  We have basil plants in the garden at my parents house in New York and A and I have wanted to have some herbs growing on our porch all summer, that is if we didn't think we'd kill them!      

Rooted basil at a grocery
store will look something
like this

The best way to enjoy basil is fresh - think just cut from a plant and chopped right before adding to the recipe.  Dried basil (like the kind that you'd have in your spice rack) is good for seasoning some recipes, but fresh basil is the way to go 99.99% of the time.  Since most of us don't have a fresh basil plant growing in our backyard at our disposal, you'd think it might be hard to get the freshest tasting basil.  WRONG!  Grocery stores (or at least Harris Teeter, Fresh Market, Target groceries, and Trader Joe's) have started carrying tiny-little fresh basil plants, still rooted in soil, in a small plastic bag.  The kind I get is grown in Georgia and will last up to 5 days as long as you add a little water to the bag each day to keep the soil covered.

Fresh basil leaves in
a plastic container

And if you can't find rooted basil, they often have basil clippings in a plastic container that are fresh as well, they just don't last as long.
If I had my way, I'd put basil on just about anything I could, and this is one of my new favorite basil-based recipes.  I've adapted it from Cooking Light and kicked it up a notch to A & K's likings.  It combines the tart taste of lemon, the fresh flavor of basil, and a little bit of white wine vinegar for a perfectly tangy summer chicken.  I chose to serve it with fettuccine on the side and saved some of the extra lemon juice and juices from the skillet to lightly pour over the fettuccine , plus a few basil leaves, and you have a beautiful and guest-worthy meal!

LEMON-BASIL CHICKEN

Ingredients:
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil (I used almost a cup because I like it that much)
1/3 cup chopped green onions (aka scallions)
2 tbsp fresh-squeezed lemon juice (I used just over 3 tbsp)
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
1/2 tsp lemon pepper (also really good on popcorn; don't ask me why)
1/4 tsp ground black pepper (preferably fresh)
4 6-oz skinless, boneless chicken breast halves*
*The recipe calls for chicken breast halves, which are chicken breasts sliced to be half as thick (see below).  I like to buy the already-cut-thin chicken breasts because I find them easier to work with (and you're less likely to cut yourself).*

Chicken breasts

Cutting chicken breast into halves

Preparation: 

Started with basil, green onions,
& lemon juice 

Combine first 6 ingredients (basil, green onions, lemon juice, white wine vinegar, lemon pepper, black pepper) in a large bowl.

Tip: to make lemons easier to
squeeze, roll on counter-top
to soften the lemon.

Marinade (through first 6 ingredients)

Add chicken to mixture, turning to coat.  (I let each piece marinate in the juices for about 1-minute to soak up as much lemon juice and basil flavor as they can).

Your skillet should look something
like this

Heat a large, non-stick skillet over medium-high heat; coat pan with cooking spray (Pam).  

Tip: I also add a "plop," (as A & I like to call it) of olive oil to the pan as well.  It helps the chicken be a little bit juicier and added to the leftover juices to pour onto the fettuccine if you want to.

Cook chicken on each side for about 8-min

Add chicken to hot skillet.

Flip chicken when edges start to whiten

Cook about 8-minutes on each side or until cooked through.

Fettuccine

Boil water in a large pot for fettuccine.  Fettuccine only takes about 8-10 minutes to cook, so if you time it so that the water boils right around when you flip the chicken, the fettuccine should be ready just about the same time as the chicken.  

Thin chicken breasts & fettuccine

Serve the fettuccine on the side and drizzle with lemon juice.  Additionally, I add juices from the chicken skillet.  To do this, add 1/2 cup of water to the skillet after the chicken in cooked and removed.  Let the water heat up and stir gently to mix the flavors from the chicken with the water.  Then carefully spoon some of the new "juice" onto the pasta and top with a few pieces of basil, green onion, and Parmigiana cheese.   
        And if you're like A & I, you'll soon enjoy a lovely meal while sitting on the floor in front of the television.  Yes we have a coffee table and 2 TV trays (currently used as end tables) and a really nice dining room table, yet we still eat on the floor.  I have the right side and A has the left.  Each with our own areas and bread, wine, cheese, or what-have-you in between us, we are 2 happy campers with a plate full of chicken and fettuccine!

Ta-dah!