Cooking With Catherine Katz: Pistachio Lemon Chicken
Welcome to Cooking With Catherine Katz, a frequent feature here at A Better Bag of Groceries. Catherine is married to Dr. David Katz, the founder of the ONQI algorithm which fuels NuVal scores.
David and Catherine teaching a cooking class at a Wellness Spa in Vermont
Mom to five children, Catherine is a phenomenal cook with lots of tricks up her sleeve. She is always suggesting delicious, healthy recipes to me. I’m always amazed at how easy Catherine’s recipes are to prepare and yet how they are the kind of thing you could make for a dinner party. And that’s exactly what happened with this recipe!
Since Catherine’s husband David gets super-busy when we at NuVal get going at full-tilt (just as new retailers are launching, such as King Kullen last week and another New York-based retailer coming up in March!), Catherine seems to have a sixth sense that I am getting into my “boring cook” mode. You know – those times when you rely on old stand-bys just to make it through. That’s pretty much where I was when I got an email from Catherine suggesting that I try making this Pistachio Lemon Chicken. “If you have all your ingredients laid out on the kitchen counter before you start, you can make this dish in 15 minutes from beginning to end, ” Catherine told me. She was right – she always is!
So, on a busy week night during School Vacation (when let’s face it, the world is turned upside down for many of us!), after picking the kids up from “Winter Camp”, I made this. And it was incredible. It was so incredible that I scrapped my plans for a boring old pork roast for an upcoming diner party that I was hosting that weekend and decided to make Pistachio Lemon Chicken instead. I could do this for 10 people – with 10 people present. It’s that easy. And soooooo worth it.
Pistachio Lemon Chicken
Serves 4
Ingredients
4 chicken cutlets, no skin (NuVal score: 39)
¼ cup whole wheat pastry flour (NuVal score of 91 for Bob’s Red Mill Whole Wheat Pastry Flour)
1/3 cup roasted salted pistachio nuts, chopped* (I actually had unsalted pistachio nuts on hand, so that’s what I used. They get a NuVal score of 67
2 tsp olive oil (NuVal score of 11)
¼ cup vermouth cooking wine
1 garlic clove, minced (NuVal score of 91)
½ cup fat free chicken broth (NuVal score of 2)
juice of 1 lemon (My husband We forgot to buy the lemon while grocery shopping, so I just used bottled lemon juice instead.)
lemon zest to taste
*You can chop the nuts coarsely in a mini food processor of coffee grinder or leave them whole if you prefer.
So, I chopped the pistachios with my Pampered Chef Chopper.
Yum…
1. Rinse and dry chicken cutlets and lightly salt with no more than 1/8 tsp salt and fresh pepper to taste and dredge in the flour, shaking off the excess.
2. Place olive oil in a large non-stick pan and saute the cutlets for 2-3 minutes on each side until browned but not completely cooked through and transfer to a plate and set aside.
Here they are after the flip!
3. Add wine and garlic to the hot pan (it will sizzle) and continue to cook for 1 minute
4. Add the chicken broth and lemon juice and bring to a quick boil.
5. Reduce the heat and return the chicken cutlets to the pan and add the pistachio nuts and lemon zest and cook for an additional 3-4 minutes until the juices thicken and the pistachios coat the chicken.
Pistachio Chicken Makes the Dinner Party Menu
After road-testing this recipe for the blog and discovering how delicious it was, I immediately scrapped my plans for a boring been-there, done-that pork roast for a dinner party I was hosting on the weekend. After seeing how easy this recipe was (and of course, having tried it out – always a good idea), I felt confident that I could make this for our upcoming party – even though it’s the kind of dish you make just before serving.
To make it as easy as possible once guest arrived, we measured out all the ingredients and dredged the chicken in flour before-hand. So I could focus on hor d’ouerves, chatting and wine-pouring…
Getting dinner on the buffet table was stress-free. It helps when everyone brings something!
Menu
Pistachio Chicken
Scalloped Potatoes (the lighter version from Cook’s Illustrated)
Spinach Salad with Almonds and Goat Cheese
Rosemary Bread with Olive Oil for dipping
Chocolate Caramel Walnut Torte for dessert
The best part? After dinner, the guys cleaned up while the girls hit our rec room for Michael Jackson The Experience on Wii – just what we needed to work off that Walnut Torte!
I’m so glad I took the time to break away from the same old, same ole and try this recipe, because now I have a new favorite. Thanks Catherine!
Posted by: Melissa 8 comments
Posted in: Cooking with Catherine Katz
Tags: Cooking With Catherine
on Feb 28th, 2011 at 9:01 am
Looks like a fun time. Love the chix recipe, sounds very easy and love it with pistachios!
Also I’m a big fan of my pampered chef chopper too. Use it for everything especially for chopping garlic.
on Feb 28th, 2011 at 9:52 am
It was delicious…… now let’s see if I can recreate it! Awesome dinner – awesome friends!
on Feb 28th, 2011 at 10:01 am
It looked like a wonderful party! What a menu and what fun! I love the pictures!
on Feb 28th, 2011 at 12:40 pm
It looks and sounds absolutely fabulous! I am going forward it along right now!
on Feb 28th, 2011 at 12:50 pm
Saturday (2/26) was National Pistachio Day too!
on Feb 28th, 2011 at 5:32 pm
You really do look stress-free in your beautiful apron.
on Mar 1st, 2011 at 9:17 pm
It does sound easy, and very delish. Thanks for this, I always try and find no fuss recipes, and as much as possible no bake recipes. It’s a fear and a mission, to one day actually use our oven.ha
on Mar 16th, 2011 at 9:19 am
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