Chicken Breast Sauté in Chive Cream Sauce

The cream in this sauce is sour cream and it makes for one incredible sauce. While it tastes rich beyond belief, this is actually a very healthy meal. If you so desire, you can make it a little less healthy by including some crusty bread to dip in the sauce.

For those of you that have made my grilled chicken breast recipe, we are going to follow a lot of the same protocol here. The key thing is we are going to pound the kitchen breasts with a mallet to make them the uniform thickness. That makes the sautéing part a whole lot easier...each breast is uniform and requires the identical cooking time.

I found this recipe in Eating Well Magazine back in January of 2006. I often serve it with sautéed asparagus spears or  "Mock Garlic Mashed Potatoes" (http://terrygruggen.blogspot.com/2011/02/mock-garlic-mashed-potatoes.html). This recipe serves four and takes about 35 minutes from start of prep to finish.

Ingredients
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/4 cup flour plus 1 tablespoon
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 large shallots, minced
1/2 cup dry white wine
14 ounces chicken broth
1/3 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 cup chopped chives

Directions

1. Place chicken between sheets of plastic wrap and pound with a meat mallet or heavy skillet until flattened to an even thickness, about 1/2 inch. Season both sides of the chicken with 1/2 teaspoon salt. Place 1/4 cup flour in a shallow glass baking dish and dredge the chicken in it. Discard the excess flour.
2. Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook until golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate, cover and keep warm.
3. Heat the remaining 1 teaspoon oil in the pan over medium-high heat. Add shallots and cook, stirring constantly and scraping up any browned bits, until golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes. Sprinkle with the remaining 1 tablespoon flour; stir to coat. Add wine, broth and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt; bring to a boil, stirring often.
4. Return the chicken and any accumulated juices to the pan, reduce heat to a simmer, and cook until heated through and no longer pink in the center, about 6 minutes. Stir in sour cream and mustard until smooth; turn the chicken to coat with the sauce. Stir in chives and serve immediately.

Wine pairing: I would recommend an "unoaked" chardonnay. Try Toad Hollow "Francine's Selection".