Normally, I trust pretty much everything The Pioneer Woman has to say. I thought her recipe for chicken piccata looked divine, and I am a HUGE fan of anything containing the lemon/garlic combination, and on top of that, add white wine into the sauce? Sold.
Well, I made her recipe. Here it is: Pioneer Woman's chicken piccata. And here's a pic:
DELISH, right?
We thought it was ok. I mean, I'd never had chicken piccata before, so I had nothing to base it on, but... I don't know... something was lacking. Maybe the sauce was too strong? Too tangy? Too rich? Maybe a combo of all three?
So anyways, that was a couple months ago. Last night, I figured I'd give another version of chicken piccata a whirl, and here's the recipe I tried: Eating Well's version of chicken piccata. And here's a pic:
Looks pretty good, but to be honest, Pioneer Woman's looked a lot better. Well, surprise, surprise! Based on a unanimous decision by the husband, the second version was the winner.
Why was it better, you ask?
1. Not as overwhelming. The flavors were far more subtle, and rightly so. Especially the lemon.
2. Not as rich. About halfway into PW's version, both of us had to push our plates away. It was good, but too rich. Perhaps due to the heavy whipping cream on the list of ingredients.
3. Healthier. The second recipe calls for no cream at all (okay, I did pour a little half n' half in, but we're talking like 1/8 of a cup... not 3/4 of heavy cream), and it calls for about half the cooking fat (3 tsp. olive oil & 2 tsp. butter, vs. 4 tbsp. olive oil and 5 tbsp. butter).
4. Garlic-y. The second version called for several cloves of garlic. I always double it. Or triple it.
5. Mushroom-y. We looove mushrooms, but if you don't, leave em out.
I did add extra lemon juice to the sauce because I couldn't really taste it at first, and I thickened the sauce a bit more as well. It was rather thin as is.
If you try either one, let me know what you think!
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