Flat Belly Diet Chicken Piccata #secretrecipeclub

This month’s Secret Recipe Club comes from The Pretend Chef. In her post about her Chicken Piccata recipe, she shares a sweet story about when her son, “Itty Bitty” was little and she and her husband, “Mr. Sideline Chef” were living at a motel in Washington where he worked. After discovering the recipe in the Flat Belly Diet Cookbook by Cynthia Sass and Liz Vaccariello, she started making it at home. It’s a very easy dish to make and takes about 20 minutes to prepare.

The Flat Belly Diet

The Flat Belly Diet is an eating plan based incorporating monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) into every meal to target belly fat. The Pretend Chef features 32 Flat Belly Diet recipes. You can also check out eight Flat Belly Diet recipes here at This Mama Cooks!

In my opinion, Cynthia and Liz use way too much olive oil in their recipes, so I’ve reduced it by half in this dish. Yes, you want to “fry up” the chicken breasts, but there was so much olive oil in the pan (1/4 cup originally) that it splattered everywhere. Using a bit less would be just as effective – and less messy I would hope. (I probably spend 10 minutes cleaning up the oil off the stovetop, counters and microwave hood.) Using less olive oil also reduces the calorie and fat gram count.

Also, I used two huge chicken breasts instead of chicken tenders, since that’s what I had in the freezer. This increased the amount of chicken used. (The Pretend Chef used 12 ounces of chicken tenders.) While you’ll be tempted to eat it all, a proper portion size would be half of the half chicken breast – about 4 ounces of chicken.

Since I’m gluten free, I dredged the chicken in brown rice flour. You can use whatever flour you like – white, whole wheat, oatmeal, rice, etc. I also doubled the lemon juice, parsley and capers. They’re really the best part of the dish!

Finally, serve this with a side dish. Some ideas would be whole wheat pasta, steamed or roasted veggies, brown rice, couscous or quinoa.

Chicken Piccata

Based on the recipe from the Flat Belly Diet Cookbook

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (approximately 16 ounces)
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley
• 1/4 cup capers
• ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Lay the chicken breasts on a cutting board. Cover with a sheet of plastic wrap and use a meat tenderizer mallet to flatten to 1/4" thickness.
2. Sprinkle 1/2 tablespoon of the flour on each side of the chicken breast halves. Make sure to coast the chicken as evenly as possible.
3. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the oil to the skillet and heat until sizzling.
4. Place the chicken in the skillet and cook for 2 minutes per side or until lightly browned and cooked through.
5. Remove chicken breasts from skillet and place on an oven safe plate. Keep warm in the oven until you’re ready to serve.
6. Add the lemon juice, parsley, and capers to the pan juices in the skillet.
7. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 2 minutes to allow the flavors to blend.
8. Season to taste with the black pepper.
9. Serve the chicken with the pan juices and a side dish.

Nutritional Information

• Calories 291
• Calories from Fat 103
• Total Fat 11.4g
• Saturated Fat 2.2g
• Cholesterol 108mg
• Sodium 350mg
• Total Carbohydrates 4.8g
• Protein 40.3g

Nutrition Grade B- from CalorieCount

Weight Watchers POINTS = 7

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Posted on July 18, 2011 in Featured,Recipes,Weight Watchers and tagged as chicken, Flat Belly Diet, healthy recipes, Secret Recipe Club

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