Chicken Scampi Twist: Creamy & Spicy!
I made shrimp scampi last weekend and it was A. May. Zing. This is not that recipe, but I will add that soon.
Since the shrimp, however, I’ve been craving scampi again, but my boyfriend isn’t much of a seafood guy. So, I relent: I get to make scampi and he gets to eat it with chicken.
The thing about Shrimp scampi is that it’s lighter to accentuate the natural flavor of the shell fish. Chicken is versatile because it’s natural flavor is next to nil. The simplicity of the basic shrimp scampi sauce is too delicate and and dry for chicken, so I decided to make a bit of a creamy base and a dash of red pepper to give the chicken a bit of an oomph.
My first pet peeve of standard chicken scampi: ghostly chicken. I like my chicken browned. On top of being more visually appetizing, browning the chicken will leave delicious brown bits in the pan that I can add to flavor sauce. This doesn’t cook the chicken through!I I’m just browning it. As I’ve mentioned in other recipes, I also don’t like when things are needlessly oily or fatty. Yes, butter is totally marvelous, but that doesn’t mean we have to drown in it. I’m not even referring to this in a healthy way; too much is just not appetizing. With this recipe I reduced the oil and butter significantly: Your average scampi calls for 2 cups of butter or 1 cup butter with a 1/4 olive oil. This recipe uses a mere 4 TBSPs of butter and 1 TBSP of olive oil. And it was freakin’ awesome.
I took…
8oz chicken tenderloins, rinsed and dried
2/3 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 TBSP olive oil
I mixed together the salt, pepper, and flour, and dredged the chicken tenders in it, shaking off an excess. I then browned the chicken over medium high heat in oil, about 2 minutes per side.
After my chicken was golden and piled high, it was time to start on the sauce!
1/3 cups milk
4 TBSP butter, tossing two TBSPs in the left over flour dredge
3 cloves crushed garlic
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp parsley
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 lemon
salt
black pepper
I Then deglazed the pan in a way I’ve never done before: Turning off the heat I poured 1/3 milk into the pan, whisking constantly – I wanted to deglaze, not cook my milk. Once the bubbling subsided, about 30 seconds, I whisked in the butter coated in flour. This was the start of my sauce. Turning the heat back on to medium I added the rest of the butter. Immediately followed the wine, stock, garlic, red pepper, and parsley. Then I reincorporated the chicken to continue cooking through while in the the tweaked scampi.
After 7 minutes, I removed the chicken, now cooked through, and reduced the sauce. I whisked in the Parmesan cheese, squeezed in the juice of 1/2 lemon, and added salt and pepper to taste. Served with 8oz pasta, garlic bread, and steamed asparagus, this was an exciting, flavorful, and filling twist on basic scampi. It was so delicious, I’m not sure I’ll have scampi with with shrimp again.
*Side note: Seriously, this was fantastic. It came out so good that even 24 hours later I can’t stop thinking about it.
*T-Rex also enjoyed the scampi
The Nerdy Foodie 